The Editblog

The EDL, or Edit Decision List, is the most basic and simple way to translate an offline edit sequence to an online system. Most all systems generate them (maybe not iMovie), and most all systems will read them. They only transfer a limited amount of information so it would be preferable to use XML, OMF, AAF, AFE, Automatic Duck … but sometimes you don’t have a choice. Here’s a basic on how to read one.

The most important columns are the timecode columns. While it might look like a bunch of boring numbers they actually make sense. The source timecode IN column is the IN-point of the shot on the master source reels. Source timecode OUT is the OUT-point on master source reels. Edit timecode IN is the IN-point in your edit sequence followed by the OUT-point in the edit. That’s the most basic way in which an EDL works. Just transferring those numbers to another system which reads it and creates a new offline timeline. Or in the case of linear tape online suites, they rebuilt the program straight to videotape.
An EDL generated from Final Cut Pro
The first column is an ascending column that tracks the edit number … known as events. This is always fun to look at the number of edits as I’ve pulled EDLs on super-fast-cut multi-camera shows that had thousands of edits had to be broken up into different lists. The Reel Number column is the master source reel that the shot is pulled from. It is VERY IMPORTANT that when onlining that the reel numbers are kept small and unique. A maximum of six numbers is safe. You can see the problem if you have duplicated reel numbers. Then imagine if you had duplicated timecode! That is why editors scream and scream about having unique tape numbers and non-repeating timecode on tapes. The horror!

The first of the middle two columns represents the kind of edit, video or audio, and the second is the type of edit or transition; cut, dissolve or other. There are a limited type of transitions that an EDL will carry across so it is important to note that you can’t toss everything in an NLE’s effect tab in there and expect it to come across.

A speed change or motion effect will come across and look like this:

A dissolve looks like this:

And remember to always provide your online facility with a timecoded reference or “cut-in-copy” of the program that you are onlining so they will have some kind of reference to refer to in order to check the edits and make sure everything comes across properly.

Now, this is a most basic primer on what all those columns and numbers mean. There are many other things, factors, caveats, and gotchas involved in EDL generation. With that, there is no better resource to learn about all things EDL than the Guide to EDL management : Cleaning, Tracing and EDL Compatibilities. It is a great article so there is no sense trying to rewrite it. This resource is dated June 1995 so you can see that EDL technology hasn’t changed much over the years. The Guide is without a doubt the best thing I’ve ever read on understanding and working with EDLs. So give it a read and good luck generating “tight” edit decision lists. Or use one of the more modern formats and ax the ole’ EDL forever!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 5:04 am and is filed under Editing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.