A project → Timeline.
Picture, dialogue, score and effects on separate tracks, with transitions between clips and a
runtime that updates as you cut.
### A clip points at a shot; it does not contain one
This is the difference that matters, and it follows from the Media Graph.
In a normal editor, dropping a clip on a timeline copies it. Re-render the shot and you have to find
every place the old version was used and swap it — and the cut you spent an afternoon on is built out
of stale copies.
Here a timeline clip is a reference to a shot. Re-render that shot and the timeline is already
showing the new version. Trim points, transitions and track placement survive, because none of them
were properties of the file.
That is why "change the jacket" can cascade through a finished film without destroying the edit.
### Assemble builds a first cut for you
Assemble from shots lays every rendered shot onto the picture track in scene and shot order, with
its dialogue underneath. It reports how many clips it placed and how many it repointed at newer
renders — the repointed count is usually the interesting number.
It is a starting position, not a cut. Nothing is destroyed by running it again.
### The EDL
An edit decision list is the plain-text description of a cut: which source, which in and out point,
where it lands. It is what every professional tool has agreed to exchange since tape.
Yours is available two ways. The Timeline → EDL view shows it as a table so you can read the cut
without opening anything. [NLE export](/help/nle-export) writes it as CMX3600, OTIO, FCPXML or a
Premiere project, so the cut opens in Resolve or Premiere with every clip in the right place.
### Runtime edits are proposed, not applied
Ask for a shorter cut and you get an edit decision list of specific proposed changes — this scene
trimmed by four seconds, this beat cut entirely — with the runtime each would produce. You accept
them individually.
An editor that silently restructured your film to hit a number would be one you could not use for
anything that mattered.