Thanks in advance to all who provide feedback on this issue.

I started working as a film/tv composer in the mid-90's and cut my teeth on traditional sync methods with SMPTE striped to one channel of the video tape. Back then, it was common for everyone in post to make sure we were all working with the same timecode (for example 29.97 ND), whatever it may be. I'm not as active as I used to be, but I still do a couple of projects each year and of course, for the past 15 years or more, those projects have usually been delivered as an mp4 file. My questions below may sound like odd questions given that I have already been working with digital video files for some time, but I've never received an adequate answer from folks I work with (which is a bit odd in itself), so I am hoping that someone on here can clarify.

My questions are:

1) is frame rate essentially a contrivance when used with a digital video file since it is free of the physical attributes of film and video that spawned the SMPTE protocol in the first place?

2) to the extent that frame rate becomes necessary when working with a digital file in order to communicate and work with others in post, does it matter which frame rate is used or is it simply a matter of ascribing a frame rate to which everyone in post mutually agrees?

3) Does either the camera itself or the editing software (for example, Premier Pro) typically have a default frame rate that is ascribed to a project unless otherwise changed?

Thanks for any help with these questions!

1) Shouldn't be; the dig camera should be genlocked to ensure sync across all takes, and all elements

2) It shouldn't matter, as long as everyone is on the same page technically

3) Can't answer this, but I would tend to think yes.... tho it might depend on the camera, as I am thinking the cheaper ones might not have a genlock option

Cheers.

My take on it;

1) Digital video still uses frames played back in sequence to create the illusion of movement, so the rate makes a difference. If you record 24 frames / second but play that back at twice the rate of course movement appears twice as fast.

2) Yes it matters. If you record at 60fps instead of 24fps then playing back at those respective rates will make it look different even though objects move at the correct rate. If I remember correctly Peter Jackson shot "The Hobbit" at 60fps and some people hated it. I've also worked on a TV show where everything was shot at 29.97fps but pulled down to 24fps in post just because the producers preferred that look.

In audio we then have to / should be 'in sync' with those decisions in post.

3) I've only used DaVinci Resolve, and only very little, but as far as I recall there is indeed a default frame rate when you create a new project. The project can then be changed. The software also gives you a warning if you try to place a piece of video on the timeline and the two have different frame rates, and you'll get appropriate options according to what you then choose to do.

??? Technically speaking, the former is video speed: the latter film speed, meaning the latter is faster. 29.97 is the equivalent of 23.98.

Is there a setting in the camera that allows you to shoot at 29.97, and then *somewhat drastically* slow the rate of the video from 29.97 to 24?

I actually didn't mean "pull down" in the technical sense, I just meant they shot at video speed and then converted to film speed. 29.97 fps recording and online 24fps.

Makes sense now?

Gotcha. But that's a pull up, in the technical sense.