Why is 24p King?

Why is shooting at 24 frames per second king? It is the film industry standard. It is the frame rate that gives you that film look.

This frame rate is the one thing that has kept a safe distance between amateur filmmakers and the pros until recently. The arrival of prosumer camcorders a few years ago changed all of this. Cameras that cost less than a thousand dollars that could shoot at 24p.

Once this wall had fallen it left one more to be overcome, The problem with depth of field. If you do not know what that is just picture the difference between standard video and film. On video all objects both near and far are in focus. Giving the viewer a flat field of view while with film objects in the foreground are in focus and objects in the background are out of focus.

This little tutorial will explain what 24p is and why it exist.

depth of field was a problem with these camcorders until someone came up with basic dof adapter that could be mounted on the camcorders to give you a true motion picture look and feel. Here is a look at the camcorders being used in 24p without an adapter and then with one.

That was a basic shoot with just the camcorder and no dof adapter. This is footage shot at 24p with a depth of field adapter added.

Okay now let’s put it all together and have a look at what is called a Canon rig. The camcorder with the depth of field adapter attached and mounted to a stand.