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Turn 60i Into 60p For 24p Slow Motion With One Click In FCP X – Essential For C100 & Any Other Camera Lacking Slow Mo

One of the most important features that many of us look for when buying a camera is undoubtably variable frame rates, specifically 60p. We want to be able to capture slow motion and the only way to properly get it is to over crank – which means shooting more frames than you need so that you can slow it down in post without skipping frames. Unfortunately, many great cameras today such as the Blackmagic Cinema Camera or Canon C100 don’t have a 60p option, and make our lives difficult as we are forced to rent specialty gear whenever we need slow motion. The good news is that many cameras lacking in 60p do have a 60i option available, and while you may have avoided it like the plague in the past, this post will show you how 60i can become your new best friend.

For those of you that haven’t shot in 60i or 60p before, let me briefly explain the difference. 60i represents 60 interlaced FIELDS (not frames) – well actually 59.94 to be exact. 60p on the other hand, represents 60 individual FRAMES which are complete images in themselves. They may sound similar, but they are very different. If you’ve ever shot something on tape and ingested it into your computer, you probably know what fields look like. You might have seen an image that looks like this when paused:

interlaced footage

When working with true 60p footage, you can slow it down to 40% on a 24p timeline, and it will play back in perfect slow motion, giving you beautiful results. 60i on the other hand, can’t just be dropped into a 24p timeline and slowed down because it takes two fields to create one frame, meaning you really only have 30 frames to start with, not 60. If you were to attempt slowing down a 60i image to 40% it would look as bad as slowing down a 30p image to 40%. There just wouldn’t be enough frames to cover the reduction in speed and you would get very jumpy footage.

With all that said, there is a way around this and in FCP X it is ridiculously simple.

All you need to do is select your clip in the event, click on the inspector, and change the view to ‘Settings’. From there, simply click ‘De-interlace’ and voila, your clip can now be treated as a 60p clip. In fact the inspector will automatically update to see the clip as a 59.94p file, rather than a 29.97i file.

FCP X De-Interlace 60i

You can now drop your newly converted 60i/60p clip into your 24p timeline, slow it down to 40% and you will have really nice slow motion.

The principle behind this, is that FCP X is de-interlacing your footage, and effectively converting it to a 60p clip before you slow it down in your timeline. You can do this manually with just about any software out there, but FCP X makes it really easy.

Is this as good as using a true 60p clip? Not really, but it’s not as far off as you might think. The image has less information in it than a 60p clip would have (since it’s using fields, not frames), but the motion should be nearly as smooth because each field is different, so FCP X is able to interpret those fields really well, effectively making new frames from them.

It’s important to remember though that when shooting 60i material, have your shutter set to at least 1/120, just as you would if you were shooting 60p. If you don’t do this then you won’t be able to slow down your footage effectively.

I’ll be releasing a commercial next week that was primarily shot in 60i on the C100 and will be sure to update this post with the final product so you can see how this works in action.

For you editors out there, be sure to check out my recent post on Achieving The Blockbuster Look When Color Grading.

About Author

Noam Kroll is an award-winning Los Angeles based filmmaker, and the founder of the boutique production house, Creative Rebellion. His work can be seen at international film festivals, on network television, and in various publications across the globe. Follow Noam on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for more content like this!

53 Comments

  • […] Turn 60i Into 60p For 24p Slow Motion With One Click In FCP X – Essential For C100 & Any… […]

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  • Fred Kirby
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    Noam,
    I shoot a lot of action video, adventure, hunting and fishing. I have been using a Canon XA20.
    The ability to shoot with good autofocus is a priority. But I want to start getting into creating
    more cinematic type footage. Storytelling. Documentaries… have the ability to change lens. 4k
    is not a high priority. So I’ve fallen down this rabbit hole regarding the C-100. I never considered
    buying what i thought was an old outdated camera. But there is just something about the video
    quality so warm and inviting to the eye. Money is always a huge factor for me when I make an
    equipment purchase. So it’s important that i get the best bang for my buck. I digress, I guess i just need to hear for someone i cant go wrong purchasing this camera from B & H right now for $1300 new. On sale till the end of the yr. A timely response would
    be greatly appreciated.
    Regards,
    Fred

    Reply
    • Sorry for the late response, Fred. I’m not sure if you’ve already made a decision, but from the sounds of it the C100 is a great camera for your needs. As long as you don’t need 4K, you really can’t go wrong for the price!

      Reply
  • Josh Shimasaki
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    Hi Norm,

    I think you should update the post. Newer version of FCPX make 60i footage automatically treat as 60p when you drop the footage in 24p time line and slow down to 40%. If you check deinterlace in setting, it will be treated as 30p so turn to 40% makes it shaggy. ( you can see it if you see frame by frame)

    Best result for me is import deinterlace effect from Motion and chose method as Duplicate. It still works without it but bit better with it.

    Reply
    • Great to know, thanks Josh. I’ll aim to update this in the near future.

      Reply
  • Hi Noam, I’m trying to figure out the C100 50i compatibility with Ninja 2. I have the C100 set to 50i, the Ninja shows 50i in the screen but the recorded footage in the FCPX shows 25i. However with deinterlacing and slowed down to 50% it does look like it’s a 50i footage. Definitely not like a glitchy 25 slowed down to 50%. Any experience with that? Thanks

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    • Hi Stanislav – great question. It’s hard to say for sure without seeing the footage, but it seems like FCP X might just be using a different terminology for the fps/interlaced metadata than your ninja is using. If it looks good to your eye, chances are you should be okay to edit and deliver as usual using your typical workflow.

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  • Walter
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    Thanks a lot Noah. I use that method with my XF 100 which has he same lack of 50p. Cool to know how easy it is to do it in FCP X

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  • javier
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    i worked before for some reason stop working i do the same shoot 60i i press in fcpx interlase and stay in 30p not 60p 🙁 but worked before

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    • Strange! I’d have to know more about the details of what’s happening on FCP X to give you advice on how to fix it…

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      • Steven
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        This is also happening to me right now. At least in the latest FCPX release. Do you know what might have changed?

        Reply
        • I’m not sure, but I will certainly look into it and let you know if I have any suggestions.

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      • Travis
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        Problem:

        Doing this same process in in FCP 10.4 failed to work. After I would click on “deinterlace” the footage would result in 29.9p, and when I would slow down 40% resulted in, what looks like, 40% of a 29.9p clip!

        Fix:

        Decided to try to slow down clip before deinterlace. Result is smooth 40% slow motion again! The clip still says 29.9i in info. Not sure what is going on here but it works for me so I am happy. Let me know if you have the same result.

        Reply
  • Luap123
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    Great post. Can we have a look at the final product please?

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    • I will try to do a follow up on this in the future some time with footage! Thanks for the suggestion.

      Reply
  • henrique
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    hi

    can i do it at Premiere?

    thanks!

    Reply
  • Thanks a lot.You are the reason I chose c100 and believe so much happy with it.It was a wise decision not to go with blackmagic camera.Really thanks again. 🙂

    Reply
  • Hi Noam,

    You have been extremely instrumental in my changing of shooting protocol in the past, namely my blind 96 fps-shooting ways… a very deep and heart-felt thank you to you sir!

    This information here is like a goldmine, and I am very excited (and desperate) to implement and see if it saves me from the serious predicament I found myself in. Very long story short, I shot some 60i footage on my A7S, and FCP X and APP CC both recognize the footage as 30 fps, while VLC sees the files as I shot them, in 60 fps. (full lengthy trial and error of my attempts to get FCP to recognize the files as 60 fps is at the Apple discussion board here https://discussions.apple.com/message/28254112#28254112)

    Thanks again for this brother! Going to try this out but just wanted to reach out and tell you how much the stuff you’ve written has helped and inspired!!

    Anthony

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    • Thanks a lot Anthony – I appreciate the kind words.

      In terms of your 60i question, the answer is actually pretty simple. 60i and 30fps are the same thing. You see, 60i is interlaced, and interlaced footage uses fields instead of frames. It takes two fields to make up one frame, which is why the number is doubled. So both VLC and FCP X are correct, they are just using different language. Ideally on your A7S you want to shoot in 60p (progressive) not 60i, so you can get 60 full frames per second instead of 60 fields, which is equivalent to only 30 frames.

      Reply
  • Hey there. I know this post is a bit old but I was wondering if there is any way to do this in FCP 7?

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    • Hi Catherine. Yes, you can do this in FCP 7 or any other NLE really, but FCP X just makes it so easy. Before X, I would use either cinema tools or compressor to convert 60i to 60p and then slow it down in the 24p timeline. Hope this helps…

      Reply
  • David
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    Huge help, thanks!

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  • Amazing post Noah. I’ll be sure to recommended your website to my students and colleagues!

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  • Zach Wolfe
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    Is there a way to do this in Premiere CC 2014? I edit in premiere and really want to get this slow motion effect with the c100 without having to use FCX just do slow down my clips. I have searched all over and cannot find one clear explanation. Thank you!

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    • You can definitely achieve this in Premiere Pro as well. Try right clicking on your video file (in the bin), go to MODIFY > INTERPRET FOOTAGE, and then under FIELD ORDER change to progressive.

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      • Tom Miller
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        Noam, When I record on my C100 in 60i and import into Premiere Pro CC 2014, PP sees the file as 29.97 progressive already. Can you give some more detailed insight into the workflow with PP? I tried to interpret to 29.97 with progressive fields anyway, then stretch the speed to 50% on the timeline but get horrible interlacing artifacts even with frame blending on. Any help would be appreciated.

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        • Hi Tom, I can look into this for you – but in the mean time, maybe try conforming the footage first (in media encoder or compressor) and then bringing it into Premiere.

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      • Erik
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        Unfortunately Premiere interprets 60i footage as 29.97. So simply changing the field order just creates 30p footage. Not 60p.
        Ideally, it would be great to seperate the 2 fields used to create a single frame of 29.97 interlaced into 2 DIFFERENT full frame progressive frames.
        I know this requires some interpolation on the part of the software, and inevitably some vertical resolution loss, but that’s acceptable.

        Is there a way to do this in Premiere and/or After Effects?

        Thanks in advance!

        (we should have shot 60p instead of 60i, acknowledged.)

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      • Dave
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        I know I’m late to the game on this…has anyone figured out Erik’s question of how to properly accomplish this in Premiere Pro CC 2015 or AE?

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      • David
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        If anyone’s still looking at this, just go to modify –> interpret footage and interpret as 23.98, then slow the clip down to 50%. That’s been successful for me.

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  • Teresa Ramsey
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    Hi did you ever post the converted footage in slow mo? Thanks for the article

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  • Jean-Jacques
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    Cool to know how easy it is to do it in FCP X
    Been doing for year in AE but it is so much faster and easier in FCP X
    Thamks for sharing

    Reply
  • that’s embarrassing… found it (the settings bar underneath).

    thanks!!

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    • No problem! Glad it worked out and sorry for the late reply.

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  • weird I’m in fcpx 10.1.1 and there is no de-interlace check box? argh… so eager to try this. any idea if they changed this recently? thank you for the great blog entry.

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  • Hi Noam, thanks for the post! I shot a fun video of my dad, son and my car in 60i jus tot try this out on the C100, I’m very happy with the results! Much cleaner than 60P at 720 on my 5D MK3. Still no excuse for Canon not including 60P, and I feel like they’re making a big mistake by not adding it! Here’s the vid:

    https://vimeo.com/90816743

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  • Charles
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    Hey is there anyway we could see the final result. Would love to see the results this produced. Getting the BMPC 4k and only has 60i at 1080 this might make the purchase feel that much better haha. Thanks for this btw!

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    • Hi Charles,

      I will definitely try to post some test footage showing this in the near future. Thanks for checking out the site!

      Reply
  • Gilles
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    Hey Noam,

    interesting post,
    I have very strange feelings about FCPX cause I hate it ahah (which I use at work, but I prefer to use Premiere for personnal project) , but I find some features really nice (multicam window, sound management, metadata..)

    Why should we use 1/125 shutter speed for 60i (rather than 1/50 for 25p as usual) to get satysfing result for 60i slow mo?
    Thanx 🙂

    Reply
    • Hi Gilles! You want to shoot at 1/125 because you are eventually going to treat the footage like it was shot in 60p, so essentially all of your settings should be the same as you would have set them if you shot 60 fps to begin with. Make sense?

      Reply
  • krishna
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    Is there any solution for improved results using the ninja with the c100?

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    • Yes the ninja will give cleaner results because of the better codec (prores), but you are still recording interlaced. That said, I’ve had some great results with the 60i setting already!

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  • RUSTY EARL
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    Excellent post Noam. I’ve been asked about this at least a dozen times and have not approached it yet in FCPX. Thank you!

    Reply
  • Andrew
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    Hey Noam,
    Would this be possible out of the 1DC when recording externally? I noticed in the menu there is a setting for the HDMi frame rate which can be 50i/60i for PAL or NTSC.
    Cheers

    Reply
    • Yes this would work with just about any camera that shoots 60i. Some will give better results than others though based on a number of variables…

      Reply

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