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Beak ƒ(x) qEDL v 1.0

 

 

 Welcome to the "Quick EDL Maker", or qEDL, readme and information page. qEDL is a web tool for creating a cuts only Edit Decision List and saving it as a file on your computer. The file generated is a CMX 3600 formatted, EDL readable in any on/off line editing system that supports CMX formatted Edit Decision Lists.

Usage

Before yopu start entering stuff, you have to initialize the list, by doing steps on, two and three, as marked on the top row.

  1. Give you list a title.
  2. Select a timebase.
  3. Press START to initialize the list.
You have to do these steps first or else the math gets lost without a timebase.
Now, TAB through the boxes, enter in point, enter out point, hit send line. Do that till your done. Click save file, save to disk. Voila.
You can select the audio cuts and/or frame counts radio boxes on a per-shot basis.

(You will find things go much faster using the <TAB> key in lieu of the mouse)

Features

Overview

The main idea was to save typing in expensive suites when setting up to capture material. It is also, with a little practice, much faster than typing in expensive suites; after a few goes you can really fly with this thing.

This can be handy if you are not near and editing program and need to record timecode values quickly. It's an easy way to get a paper list into magnetic form. An EDL in magnetic form can easily be printed out, whereas a paper list cannot easily be emailed. It is generally assumed that an EDL made this way is for purposes of capturing material, rather than something that will be conformed into a finished program, but if want to edit an entire show this way...go right ahead. You can retype or debug stubborn or unreadable lists. Sometimes software will output an EDL that isn't really readable in an on-line suite. Sometimes you spill coffee on a perfectly good capture list.

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Known limitations (bugs)

Other off campus uses


Notes

qEDL works much better with a num pad. Shame really, since laptops are a big part of the user base, but it's just physically harder to enter numbers on a laptop keyboard.

You must use leading zeros in the in and out point boxes, e.g. "011512" as opposed to "11512". This is not only required for qEDL to work properly, but is is a good habit to be in. Thinking timecode without leading zeros is just bad form.

Your browser should open a save as dialog when you go to save your EDL, if it does not, then there is some kind of MIME type setting on your side. At the very least, the cgi should send back plain text, so whatever appears in your browser can be saved as plain text easily.

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History, etc.

Well, qEDL started life as a perl script, back in '99. I wrote it at the behest of myself, as I found in New York during the Web Boom Years I was getting a lot of crap lists sent to my Flame suite. Turns out everyone capable of being an avid assist, or even editor, was making bank down the street at stockbubble.com, and all they had to do there was show up. I found myself on the phone with editors around town scrawling time code onto bits of paper, so that conforms would work... I first distributed the script by email and posting on flame-news. It was later added to the fxguide.com tips and tricks section, where, as of Dec. 2005, it still lives along with a link to this page. The logical extension was to "web-ify" it so it would become more accessible and easier to use. I would like to thank those that contributed their suggestions along the way.

More feedback is always welcome, and judging by the number of hits on the page vs. the number of people I've heard from, I'd say people are being quite shy. That's fine but you needn't be too shy, especially if something doesn't work. If you're having trouble please don't assume it's being fixed. I do not know about it! (or I would have fixed it). If you're reading this far, you might be a good candidate(!). The easiest way is to use the Contact link on the home page, or just click that word.


Some legal stuff:
This is qEDL v 1.0
qEDL and all pages about or containing it are © Copyright 2000-2014 Beak FX Inc. All rights, unless explicitly granted otherwise, are hereby reserved. You do not have permission to copy, reproduce or redistribute the source code (javaScript or HTML) or interface without permission...That being said, by all means link to this page to your heart's content, and feel free to pass on qEDL's location.

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