EDL files usually represent a timeline from editing systems such as Avid Media Composer and thus contain an ordered list of clips represented by timecode data and optional reel and clip information.
You can use an EDL in the CMX 3600 standard to consolidate clips from Silverstack’s Library in a new Bin. From there you can for example copy all required clips from the EDL to a separate hard drive.
Use Case
As an example we assume that the editor used five clips which we now need to transfer to a VFX facility. Instead of shipping several hard drives with all the source footage, or manually searching them in huge folder structures, you can automatically collect them by using the EDL import feature in Silverstack.
Silverstack matches the timecode from the EDL with the source timecode of clips in the Library and creates a new Bin with the matched clips. From there it is easy to backup the clips to a single destination via the backup function.
Step By Step
We will describe briefly a typical workflow with Avid Media Composer 6.5.
- Choose your timeline in AVID Media Composer
- Then in the MainMenu press Output > EDL . The Avid EDL Manager will open as seen in figure 1
- Press the “Get Sequence” Button to load the timeline
- Make sure that the EDL settings are CMX3600 like in figure 2
- Click in the MainMenu File > Save As… and export the file to your Desktop
Silverstack Part
- Open up Silverstack and choose the corresponding project.
- Press the “Import” Button in the Main Bar and choose the “Edit Decision List” option
- Choose the EDL file from the Desktop
- If not set automatically, make sure that you choose the same frame rate like in the metadata of your clips like in figure 3
- Silverstack will match the clips and add them to a new Bin.
Figure 1: Avid EDL Manager
Figure 2: EDL Setting in the EDL Manager
Figure 3: Import wizard for EDLs in Silverstack
This feature is available in Silverstack 3.1 and newer.