Export EDL with no black events

[Paul Carlin]

Yes, of course that would work and that is a legitimate answer to my question. However, I was looking for a way to have the gaps remain as gaps in the EDL. For some reason Adobe took the time to have the “Include Key Track” option (which is mostly useless unless you are using a CMX or GVG linear system) but has to “Include black events” option checkbox.

[Dave LaRonde] “Make sure there’s video throughout the timeline.”

[John Pale]

Problem here is that an EDL was, and is, essentially a bare bones way of getting edit information into the “dumb” linear tape-based edit controllers of yesteryear. When editing tape machine to tape machine what the heck is a gap? Blank tape on the record machine? Of course not. You need to have black. Of course you can do way more in an NLE, but that’s why XMLs and AAFs were invented. EDLs never evolved with the times.

Probably a way to edit out the references to Black in Excel. Worth a try. It’s basically a tab delimited spreadsheet.

[Paul Carlin]

I can assure you that the EDL is not a thing of the past. While you may not be using them, they are very useful to this day in conveying information from editorial to finishing (including, most recently, color decision information). They are simple text files that can be easily read and modified by humans to get the job done.

I was simply asking if there was some hack that would allow Premiere Pro to not include black events in the EDLs (dare I say, like an Avid would).

– Paul

[Jon Berry]

Having the same issue on my end. Paul did you ever figure out a solution?

[Paul Carlin]

Through my connections I was able to speak directly with the people at Adobe. While they were interested in my laundry list of issues dealing with exporting EDLs, I got the distinct impression that these issues were way down on the list of things-to-do. I also got the distinct impression that they, along with the people who write the software for DaVinci Resolve, put little importance on the EDL. They don’t understand why people are still using them. They stress the “Everyone is using XML/AAF/whatever now” and can’t comprehend why the 1970’s EDL is still around.

In an age where You Tube will soon dominate the delivery of entertainment, I can’t really blame them. Not many people still follow the off-line on-line finishing model anymore.

All I can say is that you should be looking for other solutions. I wrote a Python script that I use in Text Wrangler to remove the black events. If you don’t know Text Wrangler and the support for Text Filters, I would highly suggest you look into that, especially if post production is your chosen career.