Producing an edit decision list

Explain the importance and historical context of the edit decision list. EDL


Start with the basic cuts.



 In editing, there are two types, there is offline and online. 

• Offline editing is part of the post-production process of film making and television production in which raw footage is copied and edited, without affecting the camera original film stock or video tape.

• Online editing is a post-production linear video editing process that is performed in the final stage of a video production. It occurs after offline editing. For the most part,online editing has been replaced by video editing software that operate on non-linear editing systems. 

What is an EDL?

An edit decision list or EDL is used in the post-production process of film editing and video editing. The list contains an ordered list of reel and time-code data representing where each video clip can be obtained in order to conform the final cut. - (google)


Why would we use an EDL? 

An edit decision list is used to allow the editor to know what footage to keep and what footage to clear out. At the same time, they keep the edit together as is passes through various parts within the post-production pipeline. EDL allows you to cut in an offline way, then export it to a better and higher quality software.










How would an EDL work? 

In the tape-based past, editors would create their edit by playing one tape and recording the shot they wanted onto another tape. So now the editor has made a copy of the master tape (source).

When the clip was recorded onto the other tape, they would have the next tape ready to record the clip they wanted. This process would repeat and repeat. Whilst this process is forming, the editor would keep a detailed log of every clip used. The log would contain information about where the tape came from and the time-code of the footage.

This process is a very long process to complete. In terms of film making, it is very important to meet deadlines and dates so this process of editing would be a tense task to get done in time. However, in the past they did not have the technology we use today so the editor would spend long amounts of time combined with vast amounts of attention in order to get it perfect.

Montage

When montage refers to techniques in film editing it has three senses. In french film practice "montage" has literal french meaning and simply identifies editing.

In soviet film making of the 1920's, "montage" was a method of switching shots to give it a whole new meaning that does exist of either of the shots alone. Also, In classical Hollywood cinema, a "montage" is a short segment in a film in which narrative information is being addressed through a variety of shots.

Hollywood montage is a montage that became a convention during the classical Hollywood era and remained a very popular technique among st the directors throughout the twentieth century.
The montage sequence is a series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense meaning. It is usually used to advance the story as a whole, which means the audience can see the passage through time.

In many cases, a song plays in the background to enhance the mood or reinforce the overall message.








Example: In the movie Up their is a scene where it shows the characters "Carl and Ellie" growing up together. This is such a powerful scene because it take you on a journey of their lives full of happiness and is ended so powerfully with the death of one of the characters. The director also includes emotional music to engage the audience further and to release emotion into the atmosphere.


In soviet montage theory, the editing creates symbolic meaning. For the director/ editing a film is like constructing a house brick by brick. He conducted an experiment to show that montage can lead to the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film. The director edited together a short film which a shot of a characters expressionless face was sequenced in a montage.

The audience believed that the actors face displayed three different expressions according to what he was looking at:

• soup = hunger 
• girl in coffin = grief 
• woman on the divan = desire

The footage of the characters face was actually the same shot each time. Montage works because viewers infer meaning based on context. 

My example of a montage represents disappointed but in different context. The first scene people will feel that i am disappointed to go to my lesson. The second clip people will think i am disappointed in the fact that people have littered. The third clip people will think i am disappointed because i am hungry and the bistro is closed.