well, standards conversion is one thing, but the majority of film to PAL (well, Pal is dead, 25fps) is done by speeding up to 25, and do some work on the sound to keep the pitch while changing the speed.
(some prefer different routines / settings for music and voice, but that's up to you.)
This does nothing to your video, and is free. (Cinematools can do the video, sound to your liking in any package)
I do agree to work in 24 / 23.976 (whatever it is now) and do the speed up at the very last stage. Another advantage this way is that you can crank out an NTSC version with normal pulldown if needed.
Do a bit of math before the edit so you know how long the final show will be. (that's easy math :-)
Bouke
http://www.videotoolshed.com/
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