An edit decision list or EDL is used in the

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. Th ...

process of

film editing Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology. The film edit ...

and

video editing Video editing is the manipulation and arrangement of video shots. Video editing is used to structure and present all video information, including films and television shows, video advertisements and video essays. Video editing has been dramatical ...

. The list contains an ordered list of

reel A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...

and timecode data representing where each video clip can be obtained in order to conform the final cut. EDLs are created by offline editing systems, or can be paper documents constructed by hand such as shot logging. These days, linear video editing systems have been superseded by non-linear editing (NLE) systems which can output EDLs electronically to allow autoconform on an online editing system – the recreation of an edited programme from the original sources (usually video tapes) and the editing decisions in the EDL. They are also often used in the

digital video editing Non-linear editing is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by specialized soft ...

world, so rather than referring to reels they can refer to sequences of images stored on disk. Some formats, such as CMX3600, can represent simple editing decisions only. Final Cut Pro

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

, the

Advanced Authoring Format The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) is a file format for professional cross-platform data interchange, designed for the video post-production and authoring environment. It was created by the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), and is now ...

(AAF), and AviSynth scripts are relatively advanced file formats that can contain sophisticated EDLs.

B-Roll

Linear editing systems cannot dissolve between clips on the same

video tape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...

. Hence, one of these clips will need to be dubbed onto a new video tape. EDLs designate these occurrences by marking such dissolves' source reels as B-roll of "b-reels". For example, the EDL will change the 8th character of the reel name to the letter B. However, sometimes editors will (confusingly) use the letter B to designate time code breaks on a video tape. If there is broken time code on a video tape, there will be two (or more) instances of a particular time code on the video tape. When re-capturing, it can be ambiguous as to which timecode is the right one. The letter B may indicate that the right time code is from the second set of timecode on the video tape.

Incompatibilities and potential problems

EDL formats such as CMX, GVG, Sony, Final Cut Pro, and Avid are similar but can differ in small (but important) ways. Particular attention should be paid to reel naming convention. On the Avid, reel names can be up to 32 characters, but user should be aware that these EDLs don't adhere to online editing machine control specifications. These are used by systems that have modified the import/export code to handle file-based workflows as tape acquisition formats wane. On FCP, in CMX3600 format, only eight characters are allowed. Particular attention should be paid towards b-reels. If the EDL handles dissolves to the same reel, reel names should be limited to 7 characters since the 8th character may be replaced. EDLs can use either drop-frame (DF) or non drop-frame timecode (NDF), running at 24fps (non drop-frame only), 25fps (non drop-frame only), and 30fps (drop-frame and non drop-frame). Overall, EDLs are still commonly used as some systems do not support other more robust formats such as AAF and XML.

Systems known to support EDL to some extent

Almost any professional editing system and many others support some form of XML/EDL saving/processing. Some that make the list: *

Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Premiere Pro is a timeline-based and non-linear video editing software application (NLE) developed by Adobe Inc. and published as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing program. First launched in 2003, Adobe Premiere Pro is a successo ...

* Avid Media Composer * DaVinci Resolve *

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary blender consists of a blender container with a rotating me ...

supports EDL in version
2.4x
an
versions from 2.66
* Cinelerra * Digital Vision Nucoda and Phoenix * Thydrjs Dream II and Xynergi systems *

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro is a series of non-linear video editing software programs first developed by Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro 10.6.4, runs on Mac computers powered by macOS Big Sur 11.5.1 or later. The ...

* Lightworks *

MediaCoder __NOTOC__ MediaCoder is a proprietary transcoding program for Microsoft Windows, developed by Stanley Huang since 2005. Features MediaCoder uses various open-source (and several proprietary) audio and video codecs to transcode media files to dif ...

* Shotcut * The Foundry HIERO *

Rally Access Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sports ...

Systems supporting EDL playback, not just EDL cutting

Probably most of the above, plus any professional editing system, plus * Avidemux project files. * Bs.playerbr>
* MPlayer (EDL specifies what to skip or mute; only one source file per EDL; see also http://linuxgazette.net/178/brownss.html) * MPlayer2 (EDL specifies what to show from which file) * mpv (EDL specifies what to show from which file; different from MPlayer and MPlayer2) * MythTV cut list * SageTV * SMPlayer automatically loads and applies a matching EDL file to the current movie being played * VLC media player with xspf files that specify start and end times, or wit
movie content editor
* Kodi/ XBMC * Zoom Player Max * mrViewer with reels files, which are plain ASCII files.

External links

The CMX 3600 EDL specification
Guide to EDL Management
- Brooks Harris
OpenTimelineIO
- An open-source data model, file format, and API implementing reading and writing of many EDLs types.
Sensible cinema
A "universal" EDL player.
edledit
A Python-based GUI program to create MPlayer EDL v1 files.
EDL Ease
A program that parses EDL files, converts to Excel and CSV formats and summarizes durations of all sources and filenames used in a project sequence.

References