Listen up, PAL - I shoot in NTSC

If you're a one-man-band reporter/videographer for a local affiliate or have just domestic U.S. clients, whether they be news outlets or corporate customers, you probably shoot only in NTSC. Similarly, if you're based outside the United States and shoot for only local clients, you probably shoot only in PAL, unless you are in one of a very small number of countries that use NTSC also. In that case, you wont face the challenges of conversion that many of us face when we have clients in multiple countries.

My work means I need to create final projects in both NTSC and PAL. There are ways to ensure you get smooth results without having to spend endless amounts of time converting:

1) Shoot for PAL clients in PAL, and NTSC clients in NTSC.
It may sound obvious, but this is my least favorite option. It has some upside though. For example, if I shoot a story in PAL for a TV station that broadcasts in PAL, I have no conversion to worry about at the end of the editing process. I can simply set the project and sequence properties in my editing software to PAL - 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio. But the biggest problem comes when I want to archive the material for use at a later time. I keep all my material archived on harddrives, and then pull library footage whenever I need it. If you're working on a project in NTSC and you have a lot of library footage in PAL, then you have to spend a significant amount of time converting and rendering PAL footage into an NTSC timeline. That's just a waste of time. Ideally, all your archive should be in the standard you primarily use.

2) Shoot it all in your native standard and then convert the final project only.
This is generally what I do. Because I'm in North America, I shoot and then edit everything in NTSC HDV 1080i (16:9). This means that all my library archive is in NTSC. It also means I have all my footage in high definition widescreen so I can convert that to any quality, rather than shooting in SD and having to up-convert for a future HD client. Simply converting one file (your final NTSC project) into a PAL movie will save significant time. It sure beats converting bunches of archive b-roll into PAL as you go along.

3) Avoid moves, or at least make them slow.
Nothing looks worse than a pan, pull or some other kind of move, when it has been through a process to change its frame rate. As experienced videographers will know, NTSC video runs 29.97 frames per second, essentially 30 still shots pass in front of your eyes every second. PAL video has a frame rate of 25 fps. Converting from 29.97 fps to just 25 means you will get a shuddering effect because there are not enough frames every second to maintain the original smoothness of the move. Interlaced digital video is hardly the smoothest at the best of times. Using still shots, or very slow moves, is a way to avoid shuddering when converting standards. You have to get creative with the way you shoot things in order not to make the sequence of still shots look dull. Also try to avoid shots of objects, such as cars, moving quickly across the screen. Even if your camera is still, their movement will be shuddery. Shooting compression shots of cars moving away or coming towards you is a good method of capturing moving vehicles without worrying too much about problems during conversion.

4) Use a good piece of conversion software.
I have had different amounts of luck with different pieces of software used for conversions. In the news business, the Apple Compressor is not going to deliver for you. The conversion is smooth, but it takes a very long time. It took 24 hours to convert a 3 minute news package for me. That is not deadline friendly. I used JES Deinterlacer for a while, but I was unhappy with the quality of the final product. I didn't like its compression, and I felt the NTSC to PAL conversion was not smooth enough. I finally settled on MPEG Streamclip. It's free and, as long as your moves aren't too quick, it handles the frame rate conversion well. It has a frame blending function which seems to create sort of mini dissolves between frames. This significantly diminishes the shuddering. If you don't do news and have time to do more than a down-and-dirty NTSC to PAL conversion, go for it.

But the bottom line is, the less conversion you have to do, the better!