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 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 systems, or can be paper documents constructed by hand such as

shot logging In filmmaking and video production, shot logging is the process by which shoot metadata is captured during a film or video shoot. During the shoot, the camera assistant typically logs the start and end timecodes of shots, and the data generated is ...

. 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 in ...

systems have been superseded by

non-linear 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 s ...

(NLE) systems which can output EDLs electronically to allow

autoconform Autoconform is the video editing post-production process where an online editing system combines a timecode based edit decision list (EDL) created from an offline editing system with the original video and audio source material to produce a vers ...

on an online editing system – the recreation of an edited programme from the original sources (usually

video tap A video tap is an accessory for a motion picture camera used in filmmaking to provide a video signal from the camera lens. Video taps are used to allow the film crew to see what is in the camera's frame without having to look through the viewfinder ...

es) and the editing decisions in the EDL. They are also often used in the digital video editing 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. ...

, 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 AviSynth is a frameserver program for Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS initially developed by Ben Rudiak-Gould, Edwin van Eggelen, Klaus Post, Richard Berg and Ian Brabham in May 2000 and later picked up and maintained by the open source commu ...

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 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. Film and video production Films and ...

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 succe ...

* Avid

Media Composer Avid Media Composer is a film and video editing software application or non-linear editing system (NLE) developed by Avid Technology. Initially released in 1989 on Macintosh II as an offline editing system, the application has since evolved to ...

DaVinci Resolve DaVinci Resolve (originally known as da Vinci Resolve) is a color grading, color correction, visual effects, and audio post-production video editing application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, originally developed by da Vinci Systems, and now d ...

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 editing, non-linear video editing software programs first developed by Macromedia, Macromedia Inc. and later Apple Inc. The most recent version, Final Cut Pro 10.6.4, runs on Macintosh, Mac computers power ...

* 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 diff ...

Shotcut Shotcut is a free and open-source, cross-platform video, audio, and image editing program for FreeBSD, Linux, macOS and Windows. Started in 2011 by Dan Dennedy, Shotcut is developed on the MLT Multimedia Framework, in development since 200 ...

* The Foundry HIERO * Rally Access

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, AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS Research Operating System are also available. A port for ...

(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 VLC media player (previously the VideoLAN Client and commonly known as simply VLC) is a free and open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. VLC is available for d ...

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