An edit decision list or EDL is used in the

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, 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 indivi ...

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 stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...

and

video editing Video editing is the post-production and arrangement of video shots. To showcase excellent video editing to the public, video editors must be reasonable and ensure they have a thorough understanding of film, television, and other sorts of videog ...

. The list contains an ordered list of

reel A reel is a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

and

timecode A timecode (alternatively, time code) is a sequence of numeric codes generated at regular intervals by a timing synchronization system. Timecode is used in video production, show control and other applications which require temporal coordinatio ...

data representing where each video clip can be obtained in order to conform the final cut. EDLs are created by

offline editing Offline editing is the creative storytelling stage of film and television production where the structure, mood, pacing and story of the final show are defined. Many versions and revisions are presented and considered at this stage until the edit g ...

systems, or can be paper documents constructed by hand such as shot logging. These days,

linear video editing Linear video editing is a video editing post-production process of selecting, arranging, and modifying images and sound in a predetermined, ordered sequence. Regardless of whether it was captured by a video camera, tapeless camcorder, or recorded i ...

systems have been superseded by

non-linear editing Non-linear editing (NLE) 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 speciali ...

(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 (NLE) 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 specialize ...

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 data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

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

Simple EDL Format

simple time EDL
format used by MCEBuddy, MPlayer, XBMC, Kodi and other linear time software looks like: egin second nd second ctionWhere the seconds are floating-point numbers and the action is either 0 for cut, 1 for mute, 2 for scene marker and 3 for skip. For example, the following .edl file content will be cut from second 5.3 to second 7.1, mute at 15 seconds, unmute at 16.7 seconds, and commercial skip from 420 seconds to 822 seconds. There will be two scene markers. The first at 255.3 seconds and the next at 720.1 seconds. 5.3 7.1 0 15 16.7 1 420 822 3 1 255.3 2 720.1 2
simple frame EDL
format looks like: # egin frame# nd frame ctionWhere the frames are integer numbers and the action is either 0 for cut, 1 for mute, 2 for scene marker and 3 for skip. The following .edl file content will cut from frame 127 to frame 170, mute at frame 360, unmute at frame 400, and commercial skip from frame 10080 to frame 19728. There will be two scene markers. The first at frame 6127 and the next at frame 17282. #127 #170 0 #360 #400 1 #10080 #19728 3 #1 #6127 2 #17282 2

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, videocasset ...

. 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 In film and television production, B-roll, B roll, B-reel or B reel is supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot. The term ''A-roll'', referring to main footage, has fallen out of use to some degree. Film and video produc ...

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 video editing application developed by Adobe Inc. and is distributed as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. It is primarily used for producing high-quality videos across various industries. History Original A ...

* Avid Media Composer *

Blender A blender (sometimes called a mixer (from Latin ''mixus, the PPP of miscere eng. to Mix)'' or liquidiser in British English) is a kitchen and laboratory appliance used to mix, crush, purée or emulsify food and other substances. A stationary ...

supports EDL in version
2.4x
an
versions from 2.66
* Cinelerra *

DaVinci Resolve DaVinci Resolve is a proprietary color grading, color correction, visual effects, and audio post-production video editing application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, developed by Australian company Blackmagic Design. It was originally deve ...

* Digital Vision Nucoda and Phoenix *

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...

Lightworks Lightworks is a freemium non-linear editing system, non-linear editing system (NLE) for editing and mastering digital video. It was an early developer of computer-based non-linear editing systems, and has been in development since 1998. The dev ...

MCEBuddy
* MediaCoder * Shotcut * The Foundry HIERO * Thydrjs Dream II and Xynergi systems * Vegas Pro

Systems supporting EDL playback, not just EDL cutting

Probably most of the above, plus any professional editing system, plus *

Avidemux Avidemux is a free and open-source software application for non-linear video editing and transcoding multimedia files. The developers intend it as "a simple tool for simple video processing tasks" and to allow users "to do elementary things in ...

project files. * Bs.playerbr>
*

MPlayer MPlayer is a free and open-source media player software application. It is available for Linux, OS X and Microsoft Windows. Versions for OS/2, Syllable Desktop, Syllable, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS Research Operating System are also available. A ...

(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 MythTV is a free and open-source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living room TV. It turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital ...

cut list * SageTV * SMPlayer automatically loads and applies a matching EDL file to the current movie being played *

VLC media player VLC media player (previously the VideoLAN Client) is a free and open-source software, free and open-source, software portability, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media Server (computing), server developed by the Vide ...

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.

References

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Edit Decision List Film and video technology Film editing Film post-production Television terminology Film and video terminology