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Prepping EDL for finishing
Looking for some assistance from the experts out there regarding EDL preparation for finishing – please excuse my inexperience in this matter, it’s the reason I’m posting here.
Working on a few 30 second spots. The finishing company requires an EDL of the final cut to recapture from tapes.
I know the basics for prepping an EDL; moving everything down to v1, etc. My main question is: how do people typically account for speed changes? I have heard some horror stories of people not accounting for this and it causing expensive issues in finishing due to the missing content.
It makes sense to me to remove the effect in the timeline and extend the shot to account for all the frames needed so it can be recreated in the conform. Do people typically put this at the end of the sequence and add notes, or extend it in its original position in the sequence, and if so isn’t this an issue pushing the rest of the clips downstream to account for the new clip length? How does one maintain sequence in/out points of the shots in their original places when dealing with speed changes in an EDL?
Different places have different procedures, I’m just looking for some info on how people are typically handling this, and almost as importantly, if there are any other major “gotchas” in prepping an EDL for finishing. What are the major points that need to be addressed?
Thank you in advance for the time.
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10 Replies
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I let it go with the speed changes. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Depends on the system that is receiving the EDL. I have had speed changes work fine…and other times not. So when it didn’t work, I just gave them the in and out points of the clip with the speed change, and told them the speed percentage, and they recreated it.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Awesome, thank you Shane. If the shot was ramped, where it won’t translate in an EDL, what do you do in these cases? I guess that would be up to the finishing house, but I’m just trying to see what people are usually doing here so I can plan ahead.
Someone I worked with just ran into a big problem for providing an EDL referencing a shot with a speed change that gave the wrong in/out and the finishing house was working with the wrong shot duration for two days. Hence why I’d like to be careful.
Thank you again, much appreciated.
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RAMPED? Those don’t translate at all. Because tapes don’t ramp, and EDL’s are designed around tape…so no, that won’t translate. For that you need to give them the IN and OUT point to capture, and then timecodes for when the ramp starts.
Using advanced editing features on a NLE makes EDL’s a lot harder to produce. What are they onlining with?
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
For sure; since they won’t translate, my question was really how are people communicating these sorts of things with the finishing house (short of just emailing them), or indicating this need in an EDL or comments. I’m sure I’m overthinking it here, just want to avoid costly mistakes by not making any assumptions. Thanks for your insight.
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I email, and ask them to call me. I indicate where in the sequence the ramps are, and the timecode of the clips for those sections. and when the ramp starts and where it ends.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Yeah that’s sort of what I figured, thanks Shane!
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CMX3600 is the most standard format and it includes speed changes in notes. Most edit controllers understand this and should apply it. But never assume with any hand over and talk to the online.
If they are ingesting into an AVID, then there is the possibility of using Automatic Duck software which is now a free download and converting to an AVID project for the recapture, but most important is to ask. EDL is usually a safe haven but doesn’t get speed ramping so that is manual info as Shane says.
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Thanks for the advice!
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Also any reframing, flops etc info gets lost so that plus text overlays need to be noted and manually recreated. A quicktime reference of your final timeline would be a handy thing too.
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I would also supply a quicktime for them to check the shots against.
And check the reel numbers on the EDL, it can be confusing if the name has been curtailed. I usually include the clip name in the comments line, it can be very useful in if the reel number isn’t a very clear match.
Having said that, I can’t remember the last time I used an EDL for online (depending on the online system it’ll be a copy of the sequence, an aaf or an xml these days) but I still find them really useful for identifying the tracks/durations for archive and music clearances, i.e., print out an edl for just the music tracks and another one for just the archive clips and hand them over to someone else to do the paperwork.
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