24fps Editing in Adobe Premiere 5.x, 6.x, Pro, Pro 1.5

So, you have some progressive (FILM) footage all in it's non-interlaced 23.976fps glory. You'll want to edit this in Premiere and make an nice 23.976fps amv, won't you?

Well tough.

"What?!?!" I hear you say.

"Tough", I reply.

The Harsh Reality

There is no version of Adobe Premiere that can confidently handle 23.976fps footage. Not one. Even Premiere Pro version 1.5 which claims to have proper FILM support, is PATCHY. If you feed it a 23.976fps file it may or may not detect it correctly depending on how the avi header stores the frame rate. If you use avisynth, it will detect the footage as 23.98fps in the Bin but process it correctly as 23.976. This is great until you export sections, make clips, reimport them and realise that Premiere Pro 1.5 has gone back to thinking they are 23.98 again!

A solution to fix this for Premiere Pro 1.5 is hopefully possible for avi files, but not just yet. For older versions of Premiere you're SOL. It can't be done... so you have to work around it.

But why do I want 23.976fps anyway?

Well if you are distributing online only, there's nothing wrong with 24fps at all. However if you want to make an mpeg2, you will get a much better encode if you can encode progressive 23.976fps and use the pulldown flags to make the video 29.97fps on playback. Also, conventions often require NTSC for entrys and 24fps is not compatible.

Two choices:

Option 1: Make your video at 24fps using the source audio then change the video framerate aterwards. The audio will need to be converted to 23.976fps which degrades its quality a little.

Option 2: Make a slightly faster version of your audio, edit at 24fps with this version of the audio in Premiere. When it's made, change the video to 23.976fps and reattach your original audio. This will balance everything out so you get 23.976fps video with your original unchanged audio. This is better quality but needs more preparation in advance and you can't change your audio mid project.

Complicated choices. Option 2 is better quality but much fiddlier, so unless you are confident don't use this option.

Option 1

To do this option, you need to change all your source footage to 24fps, you need to have a 24fps timebase and edit at 24fps. Export at 24fps and export the audio separately.

Changing the framerate of your exported video

There are two ways of doing this. You can either process the video with avisynth and use AssumeFPS(23.976) - which works very well. The other way is to change the framerate in the avi file using a program called AVIfrate, which comes as part of the AMVapp.

To change the framerate of an avi file, simple load Start Menu > AMVapp > Support Tools > AVIfrate, locate your avi file and change the value.

Changing your Audio to Match

Now that you have changed the video, you need to change the audio otherwise the video will become more and more out of sync as it progresses.

To change your audio, you will need BeSweet which again is part of the AMVapp. Open up Start Menu > AMVapp > Audio Apps > BeSweet GUI

By clicking the folder icon next to Input (top right) you can locate your audio file. Be sure to select the wav extension so that your audio file is detected.

Once you have the file selected, in the Profiles menu (top right) choose AbsoluteDestiny WAV 24 to 23.976fps and all the required settings will be made. These profiles are available in the AMVapp version. If you do not want to use the AMVapp you can download the profiles here.

Click WAV to WAV to get your new audio to match your 23.976fps video.

You can attach your video and audio using VirtualDubMod or you can use the audio file around for use during the audio encoding sections later on.

Option 2

First off, you've obviously read and followed the guide on IVTC'ing your footage so it's progressive.

This option requires you to edit at 24fps but with altered audio so that when you change your video to 23.976fps later it will all synchronise fine.

Changing the Framerate of Your Source Before Editing

Since you've got AVISynth files at this point which are IVTC'd to be in 23.976fps, the first thing we do is need to make them 24fps so that Premiere can deal with them. All you need to do is add this line to the end of your AVISynth script:

This will change the framerate of the file without touching the video stream at all - no frames will be lost, they are just played at a slightly different speed. Now that our files are in 24fps, you can make your avi clips or just open the AVS files up in Premiere and edit away, once you've got your Premiere settings right! Take a look at the Premiere settings guide to make sure you're all setup for 24fps editing. Remember, you need to change your audio before you edit.

Changing the length of your WAV before editing

To change your audio, you will need BeSweet which again is part of the AMVapp. Open up Start Menu > AMVapp > Audio Apps > BeSweet GUI

Now you can click WAV to WAV to create your new audio file. What this will do is make your song 0.1% faster than it was before (and, hence, a little more high pitched).

Editing with the new audio file

Once you have exported your video, you need to change its framerate.

There are two ways of doing this. You can either process the video with avisynth and use AssumeFPS(23.976) - which works very well. The other way is to change the framerate in the avi file using a program called AVIfrate, which comes as part of the AMVapp.

AbsoluteDestiny and ErMaC - September 2004