It used to be so simple. Motion imagery was photographed and played back at 24 frames-per- second (fps). Persistence of vision only requires 16-fps for a series of still images to trick the brain into thinking it perceives motion. Once sound movies came about, it was found that 16-fps caused the audio to warble; so the standard was bumped up to the 24 fps rate, which has been the mainstay in films ever since.

Then along came video and the 30 fps (29.97) rate. Along with that came interlace scanning, where two fields were electronically combined to make each frame. Video has its uses; it is immediate. This was invaluable, especially in news acquisition. But let’s face it; aesthetically, film has always been more pleasing. So, for about 100 years or so, film reigned supreme with its wonderful 24 fps ─ minus video’s pesky interlacing.

All of that changed in 2000, when Sony released equipment built to the 1080p/24 video standard. This equipment used the same pixel count as 1080i (the “i” stands for interlaced), but the image was not interlaced. It used progressive (the “p” in 1080p) scanning, which captured a full frame image. Voila! Film was back (well, sort of). Any cinematographer will tell you that if you want your imagery to look like film, then you must shoot on film. Still, there are many advantages to shooting digitally ─ primarily budgetary. With 24p (typically 23.976 fps), it gives videographers a means to mimic the look of film with the flip of a switch.

“Being a fan of film, I think it’s great (24p),” says Andrew Garraway, a Los Angeles-based cinematographer. “I am not a fan of video, but 24p is the most common way of capturing digital imagery in a film-like fashion.”

When George Lucas is not ruining one of his franchises by adding in special effects that no one asked for, or convincing his buddy Steven Spielberg to destroy the Indiana Jones series with the awful Crystal Skull installment, Lucas is actually quite the pioneer in advancing cinematic digital acquisition.
Lucas put the Sony CineAlta video cameras to the test, using them to film scenes from his prequel Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace. The success of that resulted in a decision to shoot the next two installments of the Star Wars series completely in the 1080p/24 HDTV format instead of film.
These days, 24p is the norm rather than the exception. Panasonic put the technology within reach of practically everyone with the AG-DVX100 in 2002 ─ the first camcorder to offer 24 fps. In the same way the DVX100 made 24p production affordable, the AG-HVX200 later made 24p high definition production affordable.

Garraway is a big proponent of the Panasonic cameras. “I try to shoot 24p all the time: music videos, shorts, [and] features. I am just a huge fan of 24p; I insist on it. These days everyone is talking about the Red One camera and I have had a lot of success with Sony cameras; but really, Panasonic has got it down: beautiful images at a great price.”