Yes, cameras are definitely at 24.000 fps. They are pulling down to 23.98 for editing. I don’t think the length of the takes is showing a trend since they say the time code is randomly off, or even on at times, but I will check on that.
Most of my jobs in the last year and a half have been with Alexas at 24fps. These include a series, a feature, and second unit on 2 other series, and all used this same workflow of cameras and sound at 24fps, sample 48048 f-mode with pulldown, and these all went through Technicolor in Toronto. Another feature was shot at 24fps, 48kHz, no pulldown and edited at 24fps, and post was done in Spain.
The only things that I can tell are different on this job are that I upgraded the Deva firmware from 7.41 to 7.56 before the shoot began, and that Technicolor is not involved, although the synching is being done by the same techs who were on the last series.
On that last series there was an occasion when I got reports of weird time code offsets after returning from hiatus. It was eventually determined that the Avid had got a firmware upgrade from 5.5 to 6.5 during the break and was handling the 24 fps audio differently, and that got sorted out in a couple of days. A few years ago when I had similar reports of random time code offsets I switched recorders and the problem went away. It turned out that the Deva had issues and eventually got a new DSP board.
I will have further discussions with post, and will try Rich's suggestion of eliminating f-mode. I am still planning to try a different recorder later this week to see if makes a difference.
Herwig