Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Advanced Panel - Manual (Page 124)

CONFORM 124
Creating a Blank Session
Once the Master Session has been created, you also have the option of creating new, blank sessions.
This can be useful for assembling your own subset of media for grading for example, to sort the Media
Pool by Reel No and add all clips from a particular reel, It can also be useful for manually editing together
your own sequences of clips.
To create a blank session:
1. Open the Conform page, and click the New button, at the bottom of the Timeline
Management list.
2. When the New Session Options window opens, change the Start Timecode if
necessary, enter a name into the Session Name field, turn on the Empty Session
checkbox, and click OK.
A new, empty session is created, ready for you to edit clips into. For more information
on editing in the Conform page, see”Editing in Source/Timeline Mode,” later in
this chapter.
Importing EDL Files
DaVinci Resolve supports the CMX 3600 format for EDL import. The EDL (edit decision list) is the
lowest common denominator project exchange format there is, and most professional postproduction
applications are capable of exporting and importing projects in this format.
Their universality is due, in part, to their longevity; different EDL formats have been in use for decades.
It’s also due to their simplicity. At least as used by DaVinci Resolve, EDLs describe a very narrow range of
editorial information, including clip arrangement, clip name (via embedded comments), video transitions
(dissolves only), and linear speed settings (percentage of fast forward or slow motion) for a sequence
of shots on a single video track.
Note: While the EDL format supports a variety of SMPTE-defined video transition codes, all EDL
transitions are turned into cross dissolves of the same duration in Resolve.
DaVinci Resolve provides several methods of importing projects using EDLs. In all cases, you must first
add the media referenced by that EDL to the Media Pool before you can import its EDL.
The two primary workflows are:
Importing an EDL that references a collection of discrete media files.
Importing an EDL that references a “flattened” master media file. Flattened master
media files are created when an entire program is exported from an NLE as a single
self-contained media file.