Editorial Turnover for Digital Intermediates
Before grading, the conform editor rebuilds the locked timeline from camera originals and final VFX. A clean editorial turnover reduces relinking, interpretation, and billable conform time, regardless of the NLE.1
Timeline Preparation
Working in Reels
Studio features are still completed in reels averaging around 20 minutes each. The number of reels is determined by the total run time of the film. This practice dates back to negative assembly and film prints. A 2,000-foot projection reel holds roughly 22 minutes at 24 fps. It is a projection reel, the spool a print was mounted on for exhibition, not the length of a roll of raw print stock. That is the constraint that set the length, and it is why "reel" means about twenty minutes rather than some other number.
Use reels for theatrical features when picture, sound, DCP composition, or archival benefits from parallel work and shared reel boundaries. Use a continuous longplay for streaming delivery or a single-operator finish. Episodic projects normally remain one sequence. Confirm the structure with picture and sound vendors before turnover.
In the case of episodic television or web content, an individual episode is not typically subdivided and is instead treated as a single sequence.
Leaders and Tail-Pop
Start each reel on its numbered hour, for example, Reel 1 at 01:00:00:00, and provide common
picture and sound sync references.
The standard eight-second Academy leader starts each reel or sequence and counts down to a two-pop which will visually correspond with an audio pop in the temp and final mixes. The two-pop gets its name because it is followed by two seconds of black before the first frame of picture (FFOA, also written FFOP).
At the end of the reel or sequence, two seconds after the last frame of action (LFOA, also written LFOP) is a tail-pop. This is a way of visually confirming that the picture was intended to end there and did not end prematurely, and that the audio is indeed still in sync.
Do not use dialogue, foley, or effects as the primary sync reference. They may be intentionally or accidentally offset by one or more frames.
Simplifying Timelines
After lock, flatten the timeline to the fewest tracks that preserve the edit. Remove redundant clips and tracks, and join through-edits.
Decompose all nested sequences and multicam clips. Many conform systems do not handle nested clip metadata correctly, and this can be cause for a conform editor to reject the turnover and request revisions from the production editorial team.
Creative resize and reposition effects should be completed using the native tools within the editing software whenever possible, as those can often be translated accurately across XMLs or AAFs, saving the conform editor time in recreating optical effects.
Creative timelines often contain overlapping layers. Remove any clip that is completely obscured by a higher track.
An edit list may still request obscured clips, forcing the DI to restore, copy, or transcode media that never appears on screen.
Organize Timeline Layers by Type
Depending on the preferences of the conform editor and the particular characteristics of the project, the way you organize the timeline layers in the turnover can vary. It is good to collaborate with the conform editor and come to an agreement on an organizational strategy that benefits you both the most.
A common, simple example for timeline layout is as follows:
| Track | Contents |
|---|---|
| V5 | Titles and graphics |
| V4 | Visual effects provided by external vendors |
| V3 | Additional optical plates if necessary (B-sides for split comps) |
| V2 | Opticals (to be completed by the conform editor) |
| V1 | Scans (Original Camera Negative [ONEG], drama, unaltered camera footage) |
If multiple plates are necessary to complete a complex optical, and it is intended to be handled in conform editorial rather than with an external VFX vendor, layering those necessary plates on top of each other makes sense. In this example you would have two or more layers dedicated to opticals before the visual effects and title layers.
Edit List Generation
Ask the conform editor which interchange format and export settings they require.
Regardless of the edit list flavor you choose, an important universal requirement is that the clips in your project and timeline correlate to the camera original media through a tape name and timecode relationship. In the case of major digital cinema cameras, this is relatively straightforward and has been planned for by the manufacturers. Each take is named using a unique identifier based on its camera roll, clip number, and sometimes the date and specific camera serial number it was recorded with. The specifics vary between manufacturers, but nevertheless, these systems were built with post-production in mind. The tape name and timecode can often be derived from the source file's metadata as well.
Whichever source you use for the tape name metadata, it is important to make sure that information is available to the conform editor in the original media they are given so that they can match to those files quickly and accurately.
In cases where there is no reliable tape name, such as GoPro or specialty cameras not designed with offline/online post-production workflows in mind, it is important that the DIT or editorial team produce a unique reference that will translate to the conform. This can be done by manually producing unique file names for each clip during DIT ingest and dailies processing. This is particularly important in instances where camera timecode is regenerated at the start of each clip (e.g. each clip starts at 00:00:00:00). It will be difficult to conform a sequence if a timeline clip matches dozens of source clips, all without unique tape names and all starting with the same timecode.
It is also critical to maintain a common time base between footage and editing timelines. For example, mixing 24.000 fps footage with 23.976 fps footage on a 23.976 fps timeline can produce timecode errors that increase the complexity of the conform, and sound that drifts progressively against picture. The majority of American independent features are shot and edited at 23.976 fps, but that is a convention rather than a rule: see Frame Rate: 23.976 or 24.000 for the decision and the sync arithmetic behind it.
EDL
CMX-style EDLs, or Edit Decision Lists, are the oldest and simplest edit list, dating back to tape-to-tape linear online editing systems. They are incredibly universal and all digital intermediate systems can accept them. They are, however, limited in a number of ways. In practice EDLs carry only static timewarps, where speed does not change over time, though the limit is tooling rather than the format: SMPTE 258M does define a syntax for variable-rate moves, but essentially nothing in a modern post chain writes or reads it, so treat variable speed ramps as unavailable in an EDL and hand the DI the ramp some other way. EDLs cannot describe resize/reposition effects, flips, or flops. Support for multi-layered EDLs varies from platform to platform, but in general they are not recommended. Typically, each layer in the offline edit must be exported as an individual EDL file.
The advantages of EDLs are that they are universally accepted and easily human readable. This
makes procedural corrections and adjustments to troublesome conforms rather easy in most
cases. EDLs can also contain ASC CDL (Color Decision List) data in convenient EDL comments,
both *ASC_SOP and *ASC_SAT, so unlike FCPXML an EDL carries the full ten values.
Reel names and the 8-character limit
A strict CMX 3600 EDL allows only 8 characters for the reel (tape) name, and this is the single
most common source of tape-name mismatch in a conform. When a source name is longer, the EDL
writer truncates it, and if several clips share the first eight characters, they collapse into
identical reel names that no longer identify anything. Most EDL writers add the full name back as a
* FROM CLIP NAME: comment, so the information is usually recoverable, but the machine-readable
field is not the one you want to be relying on.
In practice almost every modern EDL parser accepts far longer reel names, and most of the time long names round-trip without complaint. The risk is not a lack of support. It is that the one tool in the chain that doesn't is often the one you discover last. Agree the reel-naming scheme with the DI up front, keep source names unique within their first eight characters where you reasonably can, and test a round trip rather than assuming.
A strict CMX 3600 EDL is also capped at 999 events, which a feature reel can exceed on a cut-heavy sequence. If it does, split the list.
XML
In the context of digital intermediate finishing, "XML" typically refers to the Final Cut Pro 7 XML Interchange Format, adhering to the interchange specifications defined by Apple. These are the standard XMLs produced by both FCP 7 and Adobe Premiere. XMLs support a variety of image effects, including, but not limited to, resize and reposition. They also support speed ramps, although these may be interpolated differently by the DI system and require finessing by the conform editor. XMLs support multi-layer timelines.
XMLs are human readable text, but are not always easy to edit quickly.
AAF
An open interchange specification published by the AMWA (Advanced Media Workflow Association, formerly the AAF Association), primarily utilized by Avid for picture and audio turnovers, and also used by other editing systems for audio turnover to Pro Tools. It is frequently mistaken for a SMPTE standard. MXF is the SMPTE one (ST 377-1), and its structural metadata derives from a subset of AAF's class model. AAFs contain much of the same metadata as an XML. In practice, AAFs out of current Avid Media Composer carry baked keyframe data for speed ramps, which is particularly helpful in producing accurate time ramps in the conform process without interpolation discrepancies between keyframes. Avid writes these as private parameters that no published specification documents, so the behaviour is something you confirm by testing your own round trip rather than by reading a spec: Resolve reconstructs them per-frame on import. AAFs support multi-layer timelines. AAFs are stored as binary data and are not human readable or editable.2
FCPXML
A newer flavor of XML used by Final Cut Pro. Compatible with Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, but not with all other conform systems. It improves on FCP 7 XML in most respects and supports multi-layer timelines.
Do not rely on it to carry colour, though. FCPXML's ASC CDL support is weaker than it sounds:
it carries slope, offset and power but never saturation: nine of the CDL's ten numbers, and
since FCPXML 1.5 the values are not a real element at all, only an XML comment inside
filter-video. Apple's own documentation for the version where it was a proper element noted
that it "is not processed during import." Nothing has changed through FCPXML 1.14 (Final Cut
Pro 12). If colour decisions have to travel with the cut, send an EDL, ALE, CC or CCC
alongside it. Those are the formats CDL round-trips in practice, and they carry saturation.
OTIO
OpenTimelineIO (OTIO) is an open-source interchange format and API for editorial timelines,
originated at Pixar and now an Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) project. Unlike the formats above,
each tied to a particular NLE lineage, OTIO is designed as a vendor-neutral interchange and a
programmable data model: a JSON-based timeline (.otio) plus a set of adapters that read and write
EDL, FCP7 XML, AAF, FCPXML, and more, so it can act as a hub that translates between them.
Adoption is strongest on the pipeline and engineering side rather than the artist-facing one. It is widely used inside studio and VFX pipelines (it ships with or is supported by Nuke Studio/Hiero, RV, Autodesk Flow/ShotGrid, and many in-house tools) and has broad library support, but native save-as-OTIO from mainstream NLEs is still limited. DaVinci Resolve has added OTIO import/export, while Avid Media Composer and Premiere still lean on their traditional formats. In practice, for an independent conform in 2026 you will still most often hand the DI an EDL, XML, or AAF. OTIO's real value today is as the programmatic glue for translating, comparing, and validating those lists, and its role is growing.
Choosing a format: what each can carry
Every one of these formats carries the same non-negotiable core: the clip list with a source tape name and timecode, which is what a conform cannot do without. Beyond that shared core they diverge:
| Capability | EDL | FCP7 XML | AAF | FCPXML | OTIO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human-readable | ✓ text | ✓ verbose | ✗ binary | ✓ verbose | ✓ JSON |
| Tape name + timecode | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-layer timelines | ✗ one/file | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Resize / reposition | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Variable speed ramps | ✗ in practice³ | ✓ interpolated | ✓ baked keyframes¹ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ASC CDL color | ✓ SOP + SAT, in comments | ✗ | ~ | ~ SOP only, as a comment² | ✓ |
| Origin / lineage | CMX tape online | FCP7 · Premiere | Avid · Pro Tools | Final Cut Pro X · Resolve | ASWF (Pixar), cross-NLE |
| DI acceptance | ✓ universal | ✓ common | ✓ common | ~ Resolve+ | ~ via adapters |
¹ Baked speed-ramp keyframes in AAFs from recent Avid Media Composer versions.
² Slope, offset and power only: no saturation, and carried as an XML comment rather than a real
element since FCPXML 1.5. Unchanged through FCPXML 1.14 (Final Cut Pro 12).
³ SMPTE 258M defines a variable-rate syntax, but tooling support is effectively absent.
In short, EDL is the lowest common denominator. It supports one layer and no effects, but is universal and editable. XML and FCPXML add layers and effects. AAF adds baked speed ramps (at the cost of being binary). And OTIO spans all of them as a translating hub rather than a native turnover format.
List-management tooling
Wrangling, comparing, and repairing edit lists by hand is error-prone. Video Village's DI tools include EDL and list-management utilities for exactly this: inspecting, cleaning, and reconciling lists before they reach the conform.
Conform Checks
Critical to the conform process is a visual comparison between the offline cut and the final conform. This is how the conform editor visually verifies that the conform is accurate. During the "conform check" or "confidence check" process, they can identify any incongruities between the conform and the intended edit, including temporal discrepancies and missing opticals or transitions that may not have translated from the edit list correctly.
The offline reference is a same-as-source QuickTime export from the offline editing application, typically Avid DNx LB or Apple ProRes 422 Proxy / LT. (DNxHD 36 remains in circulation on HD-raster shows and in older studio specs, but its compression IDs were reclassified as the legacy "HD Profile" in SMPTE ST 2019-1:2016 and cannot carry a UHD raster.) Occasionally H.264s are used. However, they are discouraged because MPEG motion artifacts can produce visual incongruities that would be flagged as potential temporal discrepancies, making it difficult to use as an accurate reference.
Offline QuickTime Reference
The provided offline QuickTime reference is essential in the initial conform process. As the edit changes, and few edits are truly locked, production editorial will provide additional check QuickTimes to production editorial to the DI to verify picture changes.
At some point during the DI, either following a significant milestone or cut change, it is advisable for the conform editor or colorist to render a DNxHD or ProRes QuickTime of the edit, with or without temp color grading, optionally including source clip name and timecode burn-in, and send it to the production editorial team. They will then perform their own visual inspection and verify that the DI conform matches their offline edit as expected.
It is also useful to export an EDL of the DI timeline for the production editorial team to verify.
Opticals List
Many basic effects are easily reproduced during the conform process. These effects are usually resize, reposition, stabilization, flips, flops, simple timewarps, dissolves, effect transitions, and locked-off split-screen composites. These effects are commonly referred to as "opticals" because they required the use of optical printing in the days of negative assembly conforms. Depending on the complexity and volume of shots, they may be delegated to a dedicated VFX artist or vendor.
It is important to identify these shots for the conform editor and provide notes on what the desired effect is and whether you want them to precisely match your offline reference or make improvements upon it.
These lists can be produced and communicated a number of different ways, including timeline markers, locators, or other comments in an edit list, or even a simple spreadsheet listing event timecode and descriptions.
Media Consolidation and Delivery
Major studio features utilize LTO tape archives containing their camera original media. These are usually managed and stored in their digital intermediate vendor's vault during production and throughout the DI. This facilitates easy clip pulls for dailies transcoding, visual effects, and ultimately the onlining and conform of the final edit for color grading. This is common as most production companies do not have the infrastructure to store and pull shots as quickly or efficiently as large facilities.
However, independent productions typically assume responsibility for the storage and archival of their production assets: usually on redundant external hard drives. Even small productions shooting with multiple cameras and recording Camera RAW often span multiple archival drives by the end of production. When it comes time to turn media over to a digital intermediate facility or independent colorist, it is important to consolidate the original media necessary for the conform to as few drives as possible. Trimming media with handles, or simply isolating only the necessary source clips, can massively reduce the amount of data I/O time required to ingest the media at the facility. These are tasks that can sometimes be completed by assistant editors at production editorial. Delivering disorganized media spanning across multiple drives will only increase the amount of time a facility or independent operator needs to conform the project and ultimately the cost associated with it.
Delivering VFX to DI
It is common for editorial to follow the initial DI conform turnover with subsequent change notes and visual effects updates. Those subsequent list turnovers may or may not include a new offline reference QuickTime if there are no timing changes and the visual effects shots have a usable temporal sync reference. If timing can still be visually confirmed using the original offline reference, a new one is not necessary unless requested.
Edit lists delivered containing visual effects shots must exactly match the complete VFX shot name, including version as delivered from the VFX vendor, in order to facilitate an accurate conform. It is important that the timecode of the VFX clips in the offline NLE matches the timecode of the files presented to the DI, using header timecode, or more commonly the frame number, as agreed upon by the DI. It is a common problem that QuickTimes from the VFX vendor may not reflect the accurate timecode, or the NLE interprets it incorrectly. This can be troublesome for a DI and should be tested early on before many shots are delivered.
Common Issues and Solutions
It is not uncommon for details to be lost in translation during a conform. Specific effects produced in the offline NLE often cannot translate across XMLs or AAFs and rarely translate across EDLs at all. Additionally, tape names or clip names may be close matches to the original media, but may require a little tailoring by the conform editor to make it work with their individual workflow. It is recommended to provide EDLs in addition to XMLs or AAFs so that there is a redundant supply of metadata in case something doesn't work correctly with the XMLs or AAFs. This reduces the amount of downtime and troubleshooting between the DI and production editorial.
Supplying the conform editor with a copy of the NLE project containing the turnover timeline can be of help if the conform editor has access to and is familiar with the same NLE production editorial uses. This project does not necessarily need to include media files and is helpful as a reference in cases where metadata in the EDLs, XMLs, or AAFs is not linking back to original media correctly.