[Matthew Sussani] "What is the best way to convert this media to 29.97?"
Compressor. And it will only look right if you convert it to 29.97 interlaced. 29.97 progressive will look bad.
[Matthew Sussani] "Should I do this conversion before bringing it into Final Cut Pro?"
Yes.
[Matthew Sussani] "What do you smart folks do in this situation?"
Yell at the camera person for screwing up. Yell at the person who hired the camera person for not telling them what frame rate we need (and then apologize to the camera person if they weren't told ahead of time what frame rate to shoot). And then convert the footage to 29.97 in Compressor BEFORE I begin editing. Bill for my hours in doing this.
Shane
Little Frog Post
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