Re: EDL capture: short tape names

You didnt mention what type of EDL you are using, but I'll assume you are using a CMX3600 format. Tape names are only allowed to be 8 characters long, and there are certain characters that are forbidden. So, it is best to use some sort of standard naming convention though out your whole post house. Back in my offline days, we would use something like R001, where R stands for dailies reel, and the 001 tells us that it is the first one. It is also very helpful if all the assistant who loads the footage in, labels the tape with the same reel assignment.
Sadly, I've found that with the rise in popularity of FCP, I get fewer and fewer EDL that have proper and consistent, reel assignments.

*** Actually come to think of it, the Smoke will also truncate reel assignments that are over 8 characters. If the Smoke is doing the truncation of the name, you will see it in the EDL module.


moody glasgow
smoke artist / editor