“What frame rate are we shooting?” usually gets answered with whatever the camera was set to on the last job, and most of the time that’s fine.
The trouble shows up weeks later, as a slow-motion shot that plays at normal speed, a pan that stutters in the export, a client note at frame 27 that doesn’t exist on the editor’s timeline, or a TV spot sent back because the file is 25 fps and the broadcaster asked for 29.97.
Avoiding all of that takes very little theory. It mostly comes down to picking the delivery frame rate before the shoot and keeping it all the way to the file the client approves.
In short
- Pick the delivery frame rate before the shoot and keep it all the way to the file the client approves.
- TV in 60 Hz countries like the US and Brazil works in 29.97 and 59.94, and in 50 Hz countries like Great Britain in 25 and 50.
- For slow motion, shoot at 59.94 or 119.88 and conform the clip to the timeline rate.
- Create the sequence at the delivery frame rate before the first cut, so the first clip doesn’t decide it for you.
- Export review copies at the frame rate of the file you’ll deliver.
What the frame rate changes on screen
Frame rate is the number of still images in each second of video. At 24 fps each image stays on screen for about 42 milliseconds, at 30 fps for 33 and at 60 fps for about 17.
You see the difference in motion. With the shutter set the usual way:
- 24 fps carries more motion blur in each frame and a slight cadence that most viewers read as film.
- 30 looks a bit smoother, closer to TV and live video.
- 50 and 60 look very smooth, which suits sports, games and screen recordings, and they’re also what you shoot when you plan to slow a shot down.
In an interview in a meeting room, nobody in the audience will tell 24 from 30. The choice matters with camera moves, fast action and screen recordings, and most of all with what the delivery spec asks for.
23.976, 29.97 and the 50/60 Hz split
ITU-R BT.709, the recommendation behind HD video, specifies picture rates of 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60, and for 24, 30 and 60 it also specifies those values divided by 1.001. That’s where 23.976, 29.97 and 59.94 come from.
They’re left over from color TV in the countries that used NTSC, and cameras sold in those markets still record them, with menus that may call 23.976 “24p” or “23.98”. There’s no fractional version of 25 or 50.
Which family you’re in mostly follows the mains frequency. Brazil made 60 Hz the national standard by federal law in 1964, the US also runs at 60 Hz, and TV in both works in 29.97 and 59.94.
In Brazil, the delivery specs for TV commercials ask for 1920x1080 interlaced at 29.97 fps. Great Britain’s grid runs at 50 Hz, like most of Europe, and TV there works in 25 and 50.
29.97 and 59.94 usually run with drop-frame timecode (23.976 stays non-drop), which our guide on how to read timecode explains.
And shooting 25 fps under office LED or fluorescent light in a 60 Hz country, or 30 fps in a 50 Hz one, is an easy way to get flicker. The talking-head guide has the shutter settings that avoid it.
Which frame rate for which job
| Job | Shoot at | Deliver at |
|---|---|---|
| Interview or talking head | 23.976 or 29.97 (25 in 50 Hz countries) | Same as the shoot |
| Event recap with slow-motion moments | The main rate, plus 59.94 or 119.88 for the shots you’ll slow down | The main rate |
| Screen recording or software demo | 29.97 or 59.94 | The project rate |
| TV commercial in Brazil | 29.97 | What the broadcaster’s spec says, usually 1080i at 29.97 |
| YouTube, website or LinkedIn | 23.976, 25 or 29.97 | Same as the shoot |
Google’s upload recommendations for YouTube say to encode and upload at the frame rate you recorded. They list 24, 25, 30, 48, 50 and 60 as common rates and ask for interlaced footage to be deinterlaced first, so 1080i60 goes up as 1080p30.
Converting a 24 fps edit to 60 for the upload adds no real motion, since the extra frames are copies or guesses.
Write the frame rate in the brief and on the deliverables list, next to the resolution and aspect ratio of each file. If the client hasn’t said, ask where the video will play. Social and web leave the choice to you, and TV comes with a spec.
Slow motion: shoot high, conform to the timeline
Slow motion comes from recording more frames than you’ll play. A clip shot at 59.94 and played back at 23.976 runs at 40% speed, and at 29.97 it runs at 50%. Shoot at 119.88 and you get 20% in a 23.976 timeline and 25% in a 29.97 one.
To get there cleanly, conform the clip, which tells the editing software to play its frames at the timeline rate. In Premiere that’s Interpret Footage, and in Resolve it’s Clip Attributes in the media pool. Each recorded frame then becomes one frame of the edit.
Slowing the clip with the speed setting instead gives the same result only at exactly the right percentage. At any other speed the software has to skip, repeat or blend frames, and fast movement shows it.
What goes wrong when frame rates mix
A sequence has one frame rate, and every clip that doesn’t match gets converted as it plays:
- 25 fps footage in a 29.97 timeline repeats about one frame in five, a judder you notice on pans and walking shots.
- 29.97 in a 25 timeline goes the other way and drops about one frame in six.
- 24 in a 23.976 timeline is nearly invisible. The software skips one frame every 1,000, about every 42 seconds, which can show as a small hitch on a slow pan. Conform the clip instead and it plays 0.1% slow, so separately recorded audio drifts by about 3.6 seconds an hour.
- Phone footage and screen recordings often have a variable frame rate, which drifts out of sync on long takes. Our list of editing mistakes clients notice covers it.
Most of the time this happens because the software decided. Final Cut sets the project frame rate from the first video clip you add, and Premiere’s New Sequence From Clip does the same. If that first clip is the 60 fps slow-motion shot or a phone video, the whole edit inherits its rate.
Create the sequence at the delivery frame rate before the first cut, and convert odd clips on purpose, one at a time, watching each result.
The review copy keeps the delivery frame rate
The client approves the file they review, so it should have the frame rate of the file you’ll deliver. A review copy exported at 30 from a 25 fps master adds a judder the master doesn’t have, and the client may ask you to fix something that isn’t in the final file.
The opposite case is worse, because a smooth review copy can hide a stutter that only the master has. Frame numbers in the notes also line up only when the review copy and the timeline count at the same rate.
Export review copies with the frame rate set to match the sequence (the Media Encoder watch folder post has a preset that keeps it) and check the number in the file’s properties before you send. The vertical and square cuts come from the same master and should keep its rate too.
How this works in RecReview
When you upload a version, RecReview reads the frame rate from the file. It shows up next to the length and resolution in the menu that opens when you hover over or click the video’s title, so a review copy that went out at the wrong rate is easy to spot before the client opens it.
The review player counts at that rate. The arrow keys step one frame back or forward, and the clock can show SMPTE timecode or minutes, seconds and frames, both counted at the file’s frame rate.
When you pause, the player lines the time up with the frame on screen, so a time-coded comment lands on the image the client was looking at. To judge motion on the exact file you exported, pick Original in the quality menu, which plays the uploaded file instead of the streaming copy.
In the client portal, the download window lists the frame rate with the file size, length and resolution, so whoever receives the master can check it against the spec before downloading.
