EDL

What this is about

The format predates the software everybody uses today, and that is its strength: any system can read it, and a human can open it in a text editor and understand what happened. It records one video track with source and record timecodes, plus simple transitions. Everything modern editing adds — multiple layers, effects, speed ramps, audio detail — is outside its vocabulary. Colourists still like receiving one because it is unambiguous, and it is often exported alongside a richer format as a readable cross-check.

A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.

What runs differently here

In planning terms, that means:

• One video track, source and record timecode, simple transitions — that is the whole vocabulary
• Readable in any text editor, which makes it the best format for checking what was handed over
• Effects, layers and audio detail are lost; export a richer format alongside it

With TillyGen

TillyGen keeps the handover to grading as a step in the plan, so the export leaves the edit at an agreed date instead of on request.

Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.