Cutting list

A cutting list , engl. Edit Decision List ( EDL ) is the description of an edited version of a film or video . It contains a list of frame numbers or timecodes that describe how excerpts from source film rolls or video tapes are put together to form a finished film. The EDL contains the timecodes of the In and Out points of both the source and target tape, information about video and audio tracks, and cross-fades .

EDLs can be created by hand or exported from linear editing systems (video only) or (non-linear) editing programs. The EDLs of current editing programs (e.g. from Avid or Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere ) can be used to e.g. B. to automatically reproduce edited versions with material from the original tapes on other systems or in other software; for example, when editing a negative from a film cut on video, or when only scanning the frames used on a roll of film for digital effects.

The robust standard format for EDLs is CMX3600 , which is limited to the description of cuts and simple transitions with only a few image and sound tracks and requires care when preparing the cut (e.g. when naming the video tapes or film rolls). In order to remedy these restrictions, exchange formats such as AAF were developed, which are currently (as of 2007) not yet widespread enough and implemented robustly enough to handle the data exchange reliably.