using an EDL for other purposes... ??

I am cutting several 30 second spots that use some stock footage - our workflow is developing in a direction where this will be a common process.

I need to export a text document, preferably tab deliniated like batch export, that will list the file name of each clip used and also the CLIP LENGTH for each clip (for billing dept.). We also want to be able to add a custom field or two in the EDL for internal tracking purposes. Is this possible ?

I am trying to read the EDL's generated by FCPHD, but having a hard time making sense of the data. Is there a good online resource for making sense of EDL's ? Are they even intended for human consumption ? I know using EDL's for billing purposes sounds crazy, but that's what I'm attempting from my end (editorial). I.T. is working on an interface to actually read the data.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks much.

Ely.

g5 dual 2.5, 1 gig ddr sdram
blackmagic decklink extreme
mac os x 10.3.9
fcp HD 4.5

Welcome to my daily nightmare!

I'm an assistant editor. I generate lists all the time of archival footage and stills used in a show so archival people can track down masters and keep track of how much it's going to cost. I tried using EDLs but it seems like it took more time deciphering what I needed that just doing it manually.

I wish somebody would create a plugin or some app that would read an FCP XML and create a basic, human-readable list of the shots used. Or better yet, be able to filter for specific content by file or clip names, or browser data.



- Justin Barham -

EDLs are for machines primarily.

the layout is fairly simple: reading from left to right you have
- event #
- reel #
- code for which tracks are enabled (V, AAV, etc)
- code for type of edit, cut or disolve (C, or D)
- source time in
- source time out
- record time in
- record time out

it gets complicated around disolves, as the disolve is writen up as a separate edit.
if you include clip name and/or comment name, etc when you make the FCP EDL, they will be underneath each entry in the EDL.

as justin points out, they are pretty useless for what you want to do:
you can really sort EDLs, and there's no duration column.

-----------------------

justin,
i feel your pain!
it's a crying shame that FCP cant search a timeline for anyting other than name of clip/marker, or a specific timecode.
wouldnt it be great if you could search by reel#, or label, or other?

however, you CAN search for all those things in the browser, and sort by them, too.

FCP itself might be the best tool to do your searches.

make a new bin, and open it in itl;s own browser tab (option num-enter)
copy all in your timeline (or all video, no audio, if you dont need it) and paste into the bin.
do a preliminary sort by TYPE, to remove all the transitions,
then you can sort by reel, label, comment, anything.
or as i said, you can search by any column you want, in the dropdown menu, bottom of the find window.

you can create sub-bins into which you put your find / sort results.
you can use a timeline to determine duration.
(you could export batch lists, and open them in Excel, and if you're a wiz with that, you might be able to program macros to figure out duration feild totals??)

another thing: becuase of the lacking timeline search functionality, i would establish a naming convention that will help:
make sure all archival clips end in _ARCH, or something.
then you can do a find all _ARCH in the timeline.
copy, and paste into a new bin for further sorting by reel, or comment, to determine the source,
drag each source to a different track in a new timeline to establish durations.

as an assistant editor, you've probably figured all this out already in your tireless search for better systems :-)

cheers,
nick

and of course ther is this very ahnd looking tool from Spherico:

[www.spherico.de]

nick

I was just about to recommend them! Great stuff at spherico.

Graeme



[www.nattress.com] - Plugins for FCP-X

Guys this is some good stuff - thanks for your input. I was able to achieve my objective as per your direction:

copy all sequence, paste all into new browser, housecleaning, select all clips in browser - export batch list, open exported file w/ excel. Booyah ! Let's see how the execs like this workaround.... Also looking into SPHERICO apps to automate workflow... will search threads on that topic next.

Thanks again... props.

Ely.