Exporting EDLs from Adobe Premiere Pro

This is another requested tutorial on how to export an EDL (Edit Decision List) out of any Premiere Pro Timeline. With EDLs only supporting a single video track and four audio tracks, you have to plan how your edit will be setup to export correctly.
This tutorial includes exporting to DaVinci Resolve and Filmlight Baselight systems.
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[@pablorivas3963]

Still valuable in 2024. Thanks a lot

[@MiniTheVinx]

Thanks, mate. Yeah, it will take a few exports to do 5 or 6 video tracks and 5-6 audio tracks, but I now know how to do it thanks to you. Respect. Btw, really nice to hear a Yank with a British style of humour.

[@markhudson5825]

Unbeatable. I watch this every time before I finish a project. Thanks!

[@VideoRevealed]

And thanks to my daughter Simone for her knowledge in creating this.

[@Alex-OZ-1]

Thank you Mr.Collin. Your way of explaining and teaching are very nice.

[@VideoRevealed]

You are very welcome

[@MrBigbangbuzz]

use these every week .. every editor needs to know this

[@cloremipsum1057]

Thanks a lot! Really compact and useful tutorial! Keep on the good work!

[@storiesnotforgottenllc8065]

Thanks for the info as always. Great information. Wonder why Adobe doesn't make it easier to do EDL.

[@BrianMarcWhittaker]

I'm working with a colorist who prefers EDLs over XML or AAF to DaVinci Resolve. He exports a ProRes 422HQ and the EDL. He brings in both to Resolve.

[@VideoRevealed]

Great.

[@andrelarc4456]

Thanks again for sharing the knowledge. You're the man!

[@VideoRevealed]

Thanks so much.

[@slickbungus2633]

eat ass@@VideoRevealed

[@MatthewPalanca]

thanks so much for this. this is incredibly helpful.

[@VideoRevealed]

Well it's my daughter Simone who is the smart one on this tutorial.

[@omobolajiopakunbi5707]

This is enlightening. Thank you. Could you please do one on exporting XML files also? I have been having difficulties exporting without errors. Thank you.

[@VideoRevealed]

There was a bug in the 2017.1 version of Premiere Pro when exporting XMLs, that was fixed in 2017.2 which just released last week. I won't be doing a tutorial on XML as few people use it and I have a long list of tutorials that are on the top of the list. If you have specific issues, let me know and I'll get some answers.

[@omobolajiopakunbi5707]

Ok. Thank you. I have some spaces in my edits and I used some dissolve transition like dip to black and then an adjustment layer above my edit and these come out as errors making the XML file unreadable in either a higher version of Premiere pro or Davinci resolve. Do I have to close the gaps in the sequence and lose the dissolve and adjustment layer to make it work or is there a way to get round this problem? Thank you.

[@binli3217]

Thank you, great video. 4 Audio at a time.

[@VideoRevealed]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@RidvanMaloku]

Amazing work. Thanks for all the information that you're sharing.

[@VideoRevealed]

It's my pleasure Ridvan.

[@CTSCAPER]

"That can't be translated to an EDL because EDL's are old and dumb." - Love it! You mentioned the timecode has to sync in the EDL. Can the time code of the track be used to sync or is there more to do with the individual clips? I'd love a video that shows what's going on in a complex timeline like that. I don't get the footage floating like that. It seems weird that there isn't a consistent main video and audio with overlay videos, titles and adjustment layers. Keep up the great Videos!

[@VideoRevealed]

You and I, and most people on KZbin, will never use synced timecode. Typically on set, the audio guy will have an audio recorder that is also outputting timecode. That signal is fed into all the cameras and the exact same timecode is on all devices. Sound Devices is what you'll see on set and they are crazy expensive. This one is over $6k! There is a new cheap alternative but I haven't tried them: www.tentaclesync.com/

[@MatthewPalanca]

this was extremely helpful

[@VideoRevealed]

Thanks.

[@FrontmanVideo]

This video has helped me export an EDL and I thank you for making this video. But there is one thing I was confused about. You mention how you have to flatten all the clips down to one track (which is what I did and it worked great). But then when you go to your sample at 3:00 , there are multiple tracks. You go from flattening the first sample to the complicated multiple track sequence without clearly stating that it's possible to export a multitrack sequence. So it's a little confusing. Confusing enough to where I just decided to flatten everything to one track just to be safe. But it would've been nice to just export the multitrack sequence if I was sure it would work. Anyway, I'm still appreciative of your video, but just wanted to let you know it threw me off when your sample at 3:00 was a multitrack project.

[@kmmuhammedbasheer1317]

hi, your tutorial is best teaching like you

[@VideoRevealed]

Thanks.

[@maureenoconnell8244]

Yes, thank you! Very helpful!!!

[@VideoRevealed]

You're very welcome.

[@ericberman_]

Does the colorist need the EDL AND the source footage, or would a flat uncompressed picture locked cut suffice?

[@VideoRevealed]

The colorist needs all the media and the EDL. Although the XML would be preferred in most cases.

[@workingTchr]

Given the AAF allows for many tracks to be exported, I wonder why EDL's would still be used today.

[@KevinHarrisonArtist]

HELLO Mr. Smith. Your tutorials are very helpful. My question is this: How can I export an EDL file in Premiere Pro 2018 that has more than 4 audio channels. Right now it only gives me the option for 4 audio layers. (and I have 6). Can you help me? Thank you so much.

[@VideoRevealed]

You'll need to export out twice; once with 4 channels and another with 2 channels then combine them on the other end. That's the EDL limitation and not Premiere Pro's limitation.

[@Vikesh_khare]

@@VideoRevealed If I have 6 audio tracks with 2 channels each & 4 video tracks, will it be okay if I export V1 3 times (i.e, V1 with A1 & A2, V1 with A3 & A4 & V1 with A5 & A6) and then V2, V3 & V4 only with A1 & A2? Can the person on the other end sync them together with A1 & A2 being common in all the video tracks?

[@simonhay9562]

Great vid, thanks!

[@agudal8503]

Nice info, thanks

[@StevenRayWarren]

Great stuff thank you

[@VideoRevealed]

You're welcome.

[@mohit96mb]

Very helpful...

[@VideoRevealed]

I have to give my daughter all the credit on this one.

[@mlynna3]

This is fantastic thanks! I am at a finishing house and am not familiar with Premiere, so I'm trying to get more familiar for when clients send us things - what settings to tell them to use, etc. Can you answer a few questions for me? 1 - I didn't see where there was an option to only do video - did I miss it? Do you have to create an edl with both video and audio? 2 - the 32 character name box can you explain a bit more? Unselected does it do more than 32? So selecting limits it to 32? Or unselected it's less than 32 and selecting that option it goes up to 32? 3 - The edl you use as reference doesn't have Tape names and that seemed to be the case with an edl the client gave me. Is that due to the Use Source File Name box not being selected? Or due to how material was brought into Premiere? Thanks again!

[@VideoRevealed]

Sorry for the delay, I'm waiting for the answer from my daughter who is a feature film editor and deals with this stuff better than me.

[@VideoRevealed]

Okay, just got the answers from my (very busy) daughter the film editor: 1 - Turn off all 4 audio tracks in the drop down menus to get just a Video EDL 2 - Selected does max 32 characters, unselected does max 8 characters (which is standard for a CMX 3600 EDL) 3 - This would be how the material was either brought into Premiere, or how the media was generated in the first place. For example, in Resolve you can apply reel name metadata to your proxies, which will still be present in the reel name column once brought into Premiere

[@akshaychalke9608]

thanks you soo much it help me lot.

[@VideoRevealed]

You're welcome!

[@Tayylormayy]

If I create a EDL for a multicam sequence will they be able to view all my picture cuts? I know this sometimes counts as a nested sequence.

[@MiniTheVinx]

PS - if I want to export a PP project so I can use it in a different video editing app in future, will a FCP XML export work? I have brought 2 projects from FCP7 into PP some years ago using XML files I exported from FCP7. Would I be able to import an FCP XML export of a current PP timeline into DaVinci etc? Again, many thanks.

[@claraelia]

Genius! thanks!!!

[@VideoRevealed]

You're welcome and It's my daughter that is the smart one!

[@tintwotin]

Could you share an EDL file so we could have look at how all those extra functions enabled would be written into the EDL file? It would be a good reference for the open source NLEs like ShotCut, Flowblade and KdenLIve how to write those for their export EDL functions.

[@VideoRevealed]

Adobe Premiere Pro uses a format compatible with the CMX 3600 so there isn't anything special to deal with. Here is a site with some info: www.scottsimmons.tv/blog/2006/10/12/how-to-read-an-edl/

[@tintwotin]

I helped ShotCut and Flowblade out implementing Edl export, but I couldn't find any documentation or reference for those extra functions you can enable in the Premiere EDL export. I would simply like to see how ex cdl(color desitions) are written into the EDL. Some NLEs also can include a "* SOURCE FILE:" followed by a full path. Can Premiere do this? It would be nice to include as much information in the foss NLES EDL exported files as possible for later import into ex. Premiere. forum.shotcut.org/t/mlt2edl-script-error-fix/55 github.com/jliljebl/flowblade/issues/252

[@robinlefebvre3339]

First of all, english is not my first langage so sorry for my bad english I have a problem and I can't figure out. I recorded a video and audio with my camera, and I recorded separate audio with a micro. When I try to export in EDL and delete the audio track from the camera to replace it with the separate audio, there's always the audio track from the camera exported and not the separate audio track from the micro when the timeline in Davinci. I really hope you understand what I mean because I'm stuck on this since so much time...

[@VideoRevealed]

Try exporting as XML instead of EDL.

[@lawsontaylor4625]

Nice video! How do you save and import it back in to premiere pro?

[@VideoRevealed]

Exporting is the same as saving, so once you export, you've saved. To open an XML, in the File menu choose, Open Project.

[@stevevickers2844]

Another excellent training video thank you. I wonder if you could do another video to help me out? I have one long video clip of a street walk and want to make this into a pseudo time lapse by converting the video to an mage sequence and then choosing every 10th or 20th frame say. I can do this in Photoshop but boy does it take some time and I have a fast computer. Can this be done easier directly in premier pro?

[@VideoRevealed]

Have you tried the effect Posterize Time? Just set it to a lower frame rate like 11 fps.

[@VideoRevealed]

I just tried it with a setting of 3 and it worked well. Not exactly the same as time lapse but similar.

[@stevevickers2844]

The posterize time effect works quite well thanks.

[@VideoRevealed]

Yay!

[@SICKSIDEFILMZ]

I was able to import a AAF export file from Avid MC but if I export a AAF file from Premiere, Premiere cannot import that AAF file, why? what's the difference between the Avid AAF and the Premiere AAF file?

[@VideoRevealed]

That's odd, I'm not sure why. Sorry.

[@simongentry]

thank you very much! question - pulling raw or xavc edited clips from premiere to da vinci for colour correction only - da vinci requires original clips to be imported into its media bin - do you suggest using edl for the export from premiere or xml omf or aaf? many thanks

[@VideoRevealed]

I have zero experience with Resolve workflows so I'm not much help. Sorry.

[@hackzide]

Hi there! Thnx For this video. Im wondering if you can help me with one situation i have. Im currently working on a Animated Film and we are in the process of making the final " Conform " Is there a way were we can comunicae with the color correction Guys and still Edit the movie. Maybe using Xml , but we have and issue with the meta data when it comes to the time code" day and hr " mode. Is there an alternative for this work flow? Edit en Final Cut and be conected with the Color Correction guys. Thnx for your time.

[@VideoRevealed]

EDLs assume that you've achieved picture lock so there is no opportunity for updates, only a completely new export. You have to communicate with the finishing house to see if they can update from a new EDL.

[@browngirl2212]

Hi there, is there any way this EDL will work on Media Composer?

[@VideoRevealed]

EDLs are compatible with Media Composer.

[@thathorrorshow4126]

Is there anyone here who's having problems with Premiere? It's acting up lately by crashing and just now I uploaded a video which I had to delete because it uploaded with no audio. Plus the fact that now after it renders the audio I have to press the export button again. This used to be automatically.

[@VideoRevealed]

Please have a look at this tutorial on troubleshooting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/anuzfoyYjthjiK8

[@matsungwasheng5530]

how do you read the information on an edl?

[@VideoRevealed]

I'm not sure I understand your question. EDLs are basic text files that editing programs import. It's just a universal editing format, nothing more.

[@MatthewWenzel31]

"EDLs are old and dumb" - All you need to know.

[@VideoRevealed]

Actually, they are a staple of professional production today.

[@MatthewWenzel31]

VideoRevealed Oh I know, I have to make them for work all the time. Mostly for music cue sheets though. Doesn't make them any less old or dumb! :D

[@VideoRevealed]

Okay, got it.

[@MatthewWenzel31]

VideoRevealed thank you, by the way! I work primarily with the NLE that spells DIVA backwards, and your videos are super helpful. Keep up the great work!

[@MarkEuphonix]

I've been using EDL's in my workflow on almost every show for the last 20 years, and still am.

[@abhishekmather8453]

I'm the first to watch and like this video..

[@VideoRevealed]

Woohoo! Thanks for watching.

[@zebulon75018]

Just a comment about EDL format , there's a website could be usefull for you. edl2excel.com Let me know if this is interesting , the EDL format accepted is CMX 3600.

[@VideoRevealed]

I'm not sure of the value of this site as the EDLs from Premiere Pro are already well formed and industry standard.