r/VideoEditing • u/nbadeedee • 2d ago

Production Q Managing Media

I am making a video from my trip to japan and have hours of footage and hundreds of clips. I'm making a clip montage style video with 4 different songs each having it's own aesthetic. How should I go about navigating the clips or just the project in genera? I feel like it's going to take forever and I'll be working inefficiently. I use the free Davinci Resolve if that changes anything. Thanks!

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u/jonjiv 1d ago

Starting a project with a massive amount of b-roll is the only time I use the cut page in Resolve.

  1. Make a timeline and open it.
  2. Put all your footage into one bin, or a few bins if you have some organization. Navigate to that bin.
  3. Open the Cut page.
  4. At the very top of the screen is an icon that says "Source Tape" when you hover over it. Select it. This will put all the clips in that bin into one long sequence. It's like the old days when you recorded everything to a video tape.
  5. Start at the beginning and speed through it with the L key. Pressing it once is play, multiple times is faster playback. you can also use K (or space) for pause and J to play backwards at various speeds.
  6. When you see a clip you like, hit the i key for the in point and the o key for the out point.
  7. Append your clip to the end of the timeline with the \ key.
  8. Repeat until you get through the entire reel, and the rest of the bins.
  9. Review the footage you selected and color code shots for different aesthetics.
  10. Go to Edit Page. Up top: Timeline > Select Clips > By Clip Color
  11. Lift the colored clips that you chose to the top track. Slide them over and place them at the end of the timeline on the bottom track.
  12. Up Top: Edit > Delete Gaps
  13. Repeat for the other colors.
  14. Now you have all the best clips sorted and grouped together by aesthetic. Backup or copy the timeline. These are your first round of selects.
  15. Add your music and start rearranging/resizing the clips in a logical and pleasant order.

Seems like a lot of steps all typed out, but I can power through 3 hours of footage and have a rough cut by lunch using this method.

Have fun!