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How to make “good .EDL”? for xfer to .xls
Hi,
Just looking for an .EDL that reflects master sequences adequately. This is a relatively new subject for me so apologies for my naivete. But for every .edl I make and then compare with the cuts in my sequence, it is either incorrect or missing footage. What glaring thing am I missing? I am using the EDL manager and trying different options or types (CMX, GVG). But nothing produces a comprehensive result.
All this .edl will be used for is to speed up our acquired footage deliverables at the end of the arc. I need to list our source TC, master TC, and duration for certain footage, and having a transferable document from directly from MC, will be much faster than an AE manually sifting through and typing in TC. I have found some lovely responses to questions about how to transfer the .edl into a .xls spreadsheet, so I do not have any questions there. thanks for all of those!
My question is more a very basic one. How do I create a very literal, comprehensive .EDL.
thanks for any and all help!
-Jon -
10 Replies
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I’ve been experimenting with the new List Tool in 8.x.
You can export a Columnar list of every clip in the sequence (with source and record time code) rather than an EDL. This list can easily be imported into Excel.
EDLs were created for linear tape based edit rooms back in the 1970s. They have difficulty conveying any types of edits in modern non linear edit systems. That could be the source of your issues like
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Thanks, John.
Still on 7.0.4 unfortunately.
Any other tricks you can think of?
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The TAB list is part of FilmScribe in pre-8.3 versions of Media Composer, not in EDL Manager. The new List Tool combined both EDL Manager and FilmScribe into the List Tool.
Michael
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Thanks, Michael. I’m looking into this now.
I found an article of yours that steps through this process quite nicely. The screenshot of the interface however is much different than the one I am looking at. I do not see an option to change a template to “tabbed lists”. Instead there is just “assemble list options”.
Also upon preview I am getting a message saying that my sequence must be clear of nested effects. Is there a way around this?
-Jon
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FilmScribe was designed for film based workflows where lists are created that required going back to a workprint or a film negative for cuts and effects that were supported by whatever technology was introduced over the years. One thing it did not support was the concept of nested effects as its myriad of relationships to other layers was not well defined with the nest to be laid out for a film VFX process. Limitations were put into place to ensure successful and accurate lists. For example, even though the film Se7en was not edited on Media Composer, its opening title sequence was. I was at Pacific Title (when it existed) and he showed be the multilayer optical list generated and how it only took him one pass to create on a their very high end optical printing machine.
But aside from a walk down memory lane, As digital technologies overtook film (still being used though, but in a different process), Avid’s interest in updating FilmScribe for functionality waned to other than supporting OS and major bug fixes. An example of that is if editing via linked (AMA), the entire list is an optical. Which it is not.
With 8.3, the embedded EDL Manager and FilmScribe into the application – there are advantages and disadvantages to that depending on where you are in the workflow, but one good thing is that at least both tools got some TLC as part of the process. EDL Manager got most of the love, but hopefully the “cutlist” tool will evolve to being as useful it was for film based acquisition for all digital workflows. Just because it is shot on an Alexa does not mean you don’t need a change list. 🙂
These issues have been brought up in the beta process – when and what is up to Avid. For now you got what you got as far as functionality.
Michael
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On a related note, I am working on an update to my mus.ID reporting application that currently creates these XLS files as a drag and drop operation for any flagged columns, not just those flagged with my AMA plug-in at the start of the process. If you want to see what that looks like, the reporting demo is towards the second half of the demo video: https://www.mus-id.com/
The update will let you define which metadata you want to track and create a similar list from a drag and drop operation.
Michael
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Thanks again, Michael. This has been very helpful.
I’ve been able to make a pretty readable file in excel through this method in Filmscribe.
Do you know if there is a way I can show durations as well? That’s the one missing piece of information that would be great for the spreadsheet.
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Was there not a duration defined in the TAB file itself? It may be only as feet+frames or frames which shows its legacy issues when moving to a digital world. I have seen some articles online on how to create timecode calculating fields in Excel. May be worth a Google. You could then do an END-START calculation.
Michael
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I’ll check for that. Yea already looking at TC calculations, just wondering if I can save some time.
thanks again.
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If you want to calculate timecode, convert timecode to feet & frames and such, I’d recommend Filemaker Pro. There’s a free plugin that will allow you to timecode calculations.
https://www.belle-nuit.com/timecode-for-filemaker
Richard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
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