3:2 pull-down

Method used to map the 24 fps of film onto the 30 fps (60 fields) of 525-line TV, so that one film frame occupies three TV fields, the next two, etc. It means the two fields of every other TV frame come from different film frames making operations such as rotoscoping impossible, and requiring care in editing. Some sophisticated equipment can unravel the 3:2 sequence to allow frame-by-frame treatment and subsequently re-compose 3:2. The 3:2 sequence repeats every five TV frames and four film frames, the latter identified as A-D. Only film frame A is fully on a TV frame and so exists at one time code only, making it the editable point of the video sequence.