Pro Moviemaker Summer 2018

ACADEMY DAVINCI RESOLVE GUIDE

TEST YOUR RESOLVE

HOWTO CRACK THE DAVINCI CODE Follow our easy guide to getting to grips with BlackMagic’s new Resolve 15 software

WORDS LAURA JEACOCKE

T he days of Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X’s total domination could be coming to an end. Most commonly known for its work on some of the biggest Hollywood productions as the go-to colour grading software, BlackMagic’s DaVinci Resolve is making a huge impact as a fully-fledged editing program too. Resolve has pro-spec tools for video editing, colour correction and audio manipulation all in one application, and the newVersion 15 has added VFX functionality too. But best of all, the standard version is completely free. You can buy the Studio version for only £229/$299, which oers additional functionality like support for multi-user collaboration and various 3D tools. But the completely 4K compatible free version really doesn’t lack anything crucial for themajority of users. But how easy is it tomake the leap fromPremiere or Final Cut to the ultimate witchcraft that is BlackMagic’s latest release? Follow our step-by-step guide to understanding DaVinci Resolve.

screen on the right and all your hard drives listed inmedia storage top left. You can view these in thumbnail or list mode. It’s easy to import footage by dragging your chosen file into theMedia Pool where a pop-up appears allowing you tomatch frame rates. Fromhere you can create or bin folders and organise your footage. This method of importing files is somuch clearer and better organised compared with Premiere or Final Cut. Edit tab The Edit tab’s layout is pretty standard compared to other NLE software with a small Media Pool on the left, timeline on the bottom, a previewmonitor top centre and a programmonitor top right. If you’re in a hurry you can import media in the Edit tab too, by opening a finder window and dragging your files into theMedia Pool – you can’t preview footage though. As withmost editing apps you can figure out what’s in a clip by selecting it and scrubbing over with your mouse. This is an e¡cient way of figuring out what’s what. Below the previewed footage is a small

“Making a huge impact as a fully-fledged editing programtoo” Media tab DaVinci is broken down into sixmajor tabs to help with your workflow: Media, Edit, Fusion, Colour, Fairlight and Deliver. The first thing that pops up is the home page where you can see all your recent projects and create new ones. Create a new project and the Edit tab will open. Before you do anything, go to the lower right corner Settings toggle, as this is where you set all your project settings like frame rates and formats. Youmust do this first as oncemedia is added, you cannot go back and change the overall settings. Click theMedia tab which acts as your mediamanagement centre. This allows you to browse your systemand copy files fromdrives. This is hugely user-friendly with theMedia Pool at the bottom, preview

PRO MOVIEMAKER SUMMER 2018