Should You Shoot At 24FPS or 30FPS?

Should You Shoot at 24fps or 30fps? What looks better for your audience?

LEARN HOW TO BE A CREATOR IN MY ONLINE COURSES

CREATOR RESOURCES

Disclosures: All opinions are my own. Sponsors are acknowledged. Some links in the description are affiliate links that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

#creatorfilmschool #24fps #framerates

[JevenDovey]

When you watch my two samples side by side can you see a difference between 24 and 30? Which one do you actually think looks better?

[thinkinginpictures]

Neither. 60FPS because I don't know what I'm doing and it's the first one on the menu.

[fredcasanova]

My brother and I had a corporate video production company for over 30 years (now retired). We got involved, once or twice a year, in local and regional film festivals and soon the question came up from many of the producers...24 or 30fps. For us, it came down to how the movie is to be projected. Most were projected at 30, so we stayed at 30. But some diehards, wanting to get that cinematic look, insisted on 24. OK, but we found that the frame rate of the cinematic look was only a part of that look. Film itself has a different visual quality and lighting plays a huge role in the look. So, to avoid jitters and questionable benefits of 24 to get cinematic looks, we concentrated on other techniques and never looked twice at 24. And that is why I think you nailed it when pointing out that you need to assess how it is to be viewed.

[brotherted]

Lots of good information here -- I just need to add one quip. The 180º shutter speed rule for motion blur matters if you're showing people moving around, which is why in your demo you were moving your hands constantly. But not so for sit-down interviews.

I shot a widely successful, feature-length doc absolutely ignoring the 180º rule for virtually all the interviews -- I chose instead to prioritize wide aperture / de-focused backgrounds, and I used higher shutter speeds to reduce the exposure (we didn't have any variable filters at our disposal). That film was later distributed by Warner Brothers and Netflix, won 12 film festival awards, and earned an 11-city national theatrical release. Not one person ever commented about the high shutter speeds in the interviews having created "jerky, " or stuttered motion effects. When only a mouth is moving with the camera on sticks -- it's just not noticeable.

But again -- I'm talking about *interviews* not sports, not dance, not workouts. Thanks for the video.

[clifftotten]

So, ...we live in a 60hz world in the US. 24p looks fine, ..."IF", ....it's actually watched in "real" 24 frames per second. 24p is JUNK when watched on a 60hz monitor. Most PC systems and monitors are displaying in 60p and the 60p timing "SHEARS" or "slices" a frame in half every second. 24p cant fit in 60 hz without tearing a frame. 30p does NOT have this problem. When playing on a 60hz monitor, 30 frame is a PERFECT and "even" 1/2 rate. No mathematic "shredding" or "tearing" of any frames. This exact 1/2 rate is a perfect cadence and even fit. This is the major problem why 24p looks so bad on YouTube when everybody is watching on a 60hz monitor. How many people send perfect 24p from a video card to your monitor? I bet ZERO. All our cards are outputting 60hz or maybe 120hz. Mystery solved!

[DoctorEyeHealth]

I no joke was debating this for the last several weeks.

[chrismonsen]

If you like nature shots, putting a 30p footage on 24p at 80% speed looks sooo good though 👍 thanks for the insightful video!

[DoctorEyeHealth]

I have heard people say that 24 is great for "films" but 30 is better for speaking/vlogging

[dkikac]

Good Video! You mentioned the screen refresh rate as one of the factors, but it is THE most important factor. This 2/3 pulldown makes the 24p very jittery on most laptops and smartphones, so 30p is much safer.

[FatMatAdventures]

Excellent video! I always shoot 30 as well. It makes it easier and more compatible to use 60 FPS shots slowed down by half for slow-mo clips.

[kthx]

Depends on WHAT you're shooting. A movie or something that you want to look like a nostalgic, classic, timeless story? 24. News, sports, vlogging, something that you want to look immediate, today, up to the minute? 30.

[TheMattJames]

PLEASE do a video on shooting in 60p and editing on a 24p vs 30p timeline. SO many people do this but there is not a SINGLE video out there highlighting

[cameronperry]

I always ask myself this question before choosing 24 vs 30fps. Is the final product just suppose to represent real life (for example, any narrative work) or is it suppose to be real life (for example, a documentary, or vlog)? That pretty quickly determines what frame rate I'll be shooting at. 30fps is closer to how we actually see in real life (though 60fps is a lot closer) where as 24fps tends to make people feel like they're almost watching something unworldly. Of course there is exceptions for me. I'm currently filming a documentary that will be delivered in 24fps. The reason I chose to do so is because I want people to almost feel as if they're watching a narrative film in terms of its overall artistic quality. 24fps almost has a strange dreamy effect to it.

[TAPPChannel]

Great question... People say 24fps looks more cinematic but I really can’t tell the big difference and 30fps is giving me that room to slow down my footage to 70-80%

[CoachBay]

Thank you Jeven! I have been waiting for this video. So many big YouTubers are married to 24 FPS. It sometimes sounds like it’s the only right thing to do. I have been using 30 FPS, and your video made me feel a lot better 👊

[SkyStudioWest]

I settled for 30 FPS. 24 FPS looks jerky on my 60 FPS monitor. And it's much less forgiving on drone footage when you move around quicker.

[AuthenTech]

Great breakdown Jeven! I vote 30fps - nice balance. (The 24fps definitely looks pretty jittery on my end)

[SWExplore]

I checked out your footage of both 24p and 30p side by side and prefer the 30p. I'm watching on a 120hz monitor. I've even been experimenting with 60p. I'm pretty new at all of this and appreciate your taking the time to teach us the many tips and tricks you share.

[invujerry]

I’ve been agonizing over my choice of using 30p lately. I started out doing 24p and wanted to go back, but it always looked jerky to me. Even when using the 180* rule, the footage never looked quite “motion blurry” enough for me. It starts to look normal at 30, so that’s just what I had decided to stick with. This video confirmed that for me.

[The_Ginge]

Long story short...when I first started this channel in Jan I was wingin' EVERYTHING, just guessing and learning as I went. One of the very first pieces of advice was "always shoot in 24" so, just did. Literally didn't know WHY just that I was "supposed" to. Learned a bit since and I'm kinda wanting to switch to 30 just to see what, it any, difference it makes. Too teeny of channel to be getting any constructive criticism from viewers yet so I'm still trying to watch my own stuff and attempt to figure out what might be working and what isn't. Info like this definitely helps by giving me something else to add to my limited, but slowly growing knowledge base. Thanks for sharing!