Finally, you reached picture lock and send the project off so the sound department can start work. Which they do. Except a week or two later, there’s just “a few minor changes when the director took another pass”…

And that’s where a Change List comes in. Because “Final” is never “Final” and “Locked” is regularly “Unlocked” again.

Change List X analyses two Final Cut Pro X timelines and produces a change list comparing the Primary Storylines of the two versions of the edit.
• The report lists the changes that need to be made to the initial cut to match the new edits, step by step
• The report can be created as a PDF, tab-separated text file, or both
• Report times can be shown as either Timecode, Feet+Frames or Frame Count
• Compare two Projects or two Compound Clips
• Where necessary Change List X also creates a change pull list (for new footage added to the timeline) and a change discard list (for footage that needs to be removed from the timeline)


What is a Change List and who uses them?

A Change List lists changes made between one edit and another version of the same edit. This comes into play when you’ve handed over the “Final” version to VFX, post audio and a color pass.

Inevitably there will need to be some additional edits, for whatever reason. Another pass by the Director, Studio suggestions, feedback from a focus group: it’s inevitable.

Except those teams have already moved ahead with their jobs and have complex projects built around the timing of the first edit. They can’t take the new edit and start over. What they need are the steps to convert the version they been working on, to the latest revision: how many frames trimmed here, or added there; which shots have been added, and which deleted or replaced.

The Change List is the step-by-step instructions to convert the current project to conform to the new edit. This is frequently a manual process but there are advanced tools that use the text-based change list to automate the changes.