Hi,
Normally in NTSC countries it's better to shoot at 23.976 in HD, because this can be up converted to 29.97 HD for broadcast, and can be down converted to 29.97 NTSC for standard definition. It's not right to shoot at 24 fps HD in an NTSC country, and you should try and get the crew to do the shoot at 23.976.
There are many problems with trying to make 24 fps work in a NTSC based HD world. This is why there is a 23.976 fps frame rate in the HD standards. These problems include problems in the HD to SD down conversion, mastering to 1080i/29.97 for broadcast etc.
There was a article in Mix magazine about the production of Star Wars Episode II that touched on this issue. There were a number of surprising revelations not the least of which was the fact that Lucas opted to shoot the entire picture in 23.976 even though it was destined to be a film/theatrical release.
http://mixonline.com/ar/audio_star_wars_episode_2/index.htm
Wood decided from the start that he wanted to do the whole show in 24-bit, including the dialog and sound effects units. (Episode I was mixed from 16-bit sources, except for the music.) This raised many issues, based mainly on the fact that Avids do not support 24-bit audio and that they would be shooting at the 23.98 frames per second rate. (The 23.98 rate allows for all of production and post-production to occur on the same "timebase") In addition, Wood investigated file formats (Broadcast .WAV, .AIFF or Sound Designer II), the handling of file metadata and how to import the data into Pro Tools.
So you can see there are real benefits to doing the shoot in a way that's compatible with all the other equipment used in post production.
Of course we don't live in a perfect world, and if the film crew that is doing the shoot insist on 24 fps, then there is not much that can be done about that.
You would know as well as I do, that in post production a lot of money is made when clients don't do things right, as you can bill time fixing it. This has made it hard to teach clients to use new workflow methods because it's not in anyones interest to help them spend less time in post.
It's a problem, but things to change over time. These guys do start to realize that with changes in workflow, things suddenly get a whole lot easer. As a company we can design features to help people do things the old way, or spend our development resources on new features like more RT etc.
As more crews get experience with HD shoot's, and the post production process, they will learn the tricks to make the whole post process a lot easer, but it takes time.
I have noticed you have post this question on a number of forums, and I am not sure why, as it must have been a question only we could answer. Also, I cannot tell what company you work for from your post. If we know what company you work for, we can ask a dealer near you to demo a system for you. This would let you try your workflow method, and discuss the job.
What company do you work for? We can arrange something. I will reply on your posts on the other forums to come over here to the cow to see the thread, as this is a lot easer than posting the same stuff on more than one forum.
Regards,
Grant Petty
Blackmagic Design
http://www.blackmagic-design.com
