- [Narrator] Once the underdog, Blackmagic Resolve has
grown into a mature NLE, capable of competing
with industry standards, like Final Cut, Avid, and Premiere Pro. So much so that many longtime
editors are making the switch. In this video, we're gonna compare Resolve against the competition, in particular, we'll show you what it's
like to actually edit with. Whether you're considering
learning Resolve from the ground up, or maybe you're already
an experienced user looking to better harness
its unique strengths, stick around, this video is for you. (upbeat electronic music) Quick note, for a steady
stream of new tutorials from professional Hollywood editors, be sure to subscribe to the
Film Editing Pro channel and turn on notifications. Okay, let's begin. We're gonna start with a look
at the Resolve user interface, its feature set, how it integrates with the rest of your
post-production workflow, and of course, its cost,
spoiler, it's free. Then, we're gonna show
you a live demonstration as we quickly edit a
scene from a feature film shot on the Arri Alexa. Next, we'll summarize Resolve's
strengths and weaknesses, and finally, we'll
answer the big question, should you start using it? Here we go. (ominous electronic music) Unlike other editing
software that requires you to choose where to store
your project files, Resolve manages these internally. While it's possible to
export Resolve projects in the .drp format, by default,
Resolve stores project files in a database, allowing you to access them from its own interface. It's a small detail,
but it's quite elegant. The interface is clean and well-organized. Resolve's feature set is
divided into seven pages and each page is dedicated
to a different part of the post-production workflow. You've got media management, editing, VFX, color correction and
grading, audio, and delivery. It's similar to most NLE's workspaces, each configured for a different task. Premiere does offer more customization, but Resolve's interface
feels pretty polished. If you don't feel the need
to customize the UI much, you won't miss the ability to do so. (lively electronic music) Resolve used to be a one-trick pony, focusing on color grading,
but its feature set has grown to include editing, compositing,
audio, and encoding. You can think of this like
Premiere, After Effects, Audition, Media Encoder, and Lumetri all packed into one program, although Resolve's color grading
functionality, of course, is far superior to Lumetri. Resolve is, after all,
the industry standard for color grading, and it's used on films costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Essentially, Resolve blows
Lumetri out of the water, but that's a topic for another video. So when it comes to editing, Resolve has a bit of a split personality, offering two different editing experiences via the cut and the edit page. It's not a perfect analogy, but you can think of the edit
page as Premiere Pro or Avid, offering your traditional
track-based editing experience, and then the cut page is
more like Final Cut Pro, featuring a magnetic-style timeline. If the cut page scares you, don't worry, you don't have to use
it, but you're curious, it's designed for speed, with
a streamlined set of tools for the tasks that you
most commonly perform when assembling an edit, and you don't have to
choose one or the other. Any edit can be opened in
either the cut or the edit page and you can switch back
and forth between them depending on what stage of
the editing process you're at. Blackmagic even makes hardware
specifically for working in the cut page. The speed editor offers physical buttons for the most commonly used tools and a large weighted
jog dial for scrubbing. It's worth noting that this
is not just a regular keyboard with hotkeys printed on the buttons. It's a dedicated video editing aid. Working in Resolve's edit page is gonna feel familiar to you. In fact, it's so similar to
editing in Premiere and Avid that it's simpler to talk about where it's actually different. All the same core tools
and concepts are present. Of course, Resolve does have its quirks, but what software package doesn't. Resolve lacks some niche
features found in other NLEs, like automatic resizing of
videos for different aspect ratios or final cuts,
fantastic keyboarding tools, but it also adds additional
features; like compatibility with audio time code generated
by popular time code hardware like Tentacle Sync. It also adds automatic face
detection for sorting media, a super cool feature, and it
adds automatic cut detection when importing pre edited videos. This is kind of similar to Premier's new scene edit detection. An NLE's editing experience
is only part of the equation, it needs to be able to integrate with the rest of the
post-production workflow. Resolve is capable of importing and exporting XMLs,
FCPXMLs, EDLs and AAFs, making it really easy
to transfer your edits to Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Premiere. I'd say that Resolve has the
best native compatibility of any NLE, which is a plus if
you're considering switching. Knowing that there's a
way to export your edit to another NLE, Resolve
isn't gonna be a dead end for your project. Being able to seamlessly
transition your edits into the color page is probably
Resolve's biggest draw. Color grading is no longer a luxury, but an essential part of every edit. Many editors working in
Premiere, Avid, and Final Cut Pro are already using Resolve to color grade. Now that its creative
editing capabilities are on par with its competitors,
many are beginning to consider whether it's easier to simply
edit a project directly in Resolve from the beginning
and avoid the whole round trip in and out just for color grading. Also, now that Fusion and
Fairlight are part of Resolve, you can also handle audio
mixing, motion graphics, and compositing without
leaving the software. Of course, Avid does have pro tools, but migrating edits from
Premiere or Final Cut, or even Resolve, to master in Protools is not a particular challenge. Finally there's Resolve's most
killer feature, it's cost. It comes in two flavors, free, and cheap. Now you might be thinking
that $300 doesn't sound cheap but before I get into that, let me tell you about the free version. It retains all the core functionality of the paid version, but
loses some color grading based features like noise reduction. It loses the neural engine, audio effects, and some high-end broadcast features. If you're worried, don't be, Resolve's free color
grading is already better than anything that Premiere, Final Cut or Avid offers built in. The paid studio version is well
worth the modest price tag. For comparison, Resolve
costs around the same as a year's subscription
to Premiere or Avid, but it's yours forever,
including free future upgrades. And actually it's possible
to get the Resolve Studio, the $300 version, for free when purchasing a Blackmagic
camera or other accessories. Okay, so enough talk, let's edit something and check out Resolve in action. We're cutting a scene from Chapman, a dramatic feature film
shot on the Arri Alexa. Now this won't be a comprehensive tutorial on editing in Resolve, it's just a brief demo to
highlight a few cool features and give you a taste of what it's like to work in the program. I'm gonna start by importing the rushes from scene 11 in the media page. I could import using
Resolve's media browser, but since I already have the
footage open in the finder, I'll just drag it right in. Now I wish that more NLEs had Final Cut Pro's key wording system, but as I mentioned
earlier, Resolve can use facial recognition to
organize your footage. Just right-click on the footage and go to 'analyze clips for people'. As I've already entered the
characters names earlier from previous imports, Resolve
already knows their names. Now I can locate clips
using these automatically generated smart bins. So let's head to the edit
tab to assemble the scene. My media bins are in the top left. My inspector is in the top right. Effects are accessible here. I'll start by laying
down the master wide shot and I'll be using three point editing, scrubbing through the clips
and my source monitor, I'll add in points and out points. And I'll just pop this
clip into my timeline. Now I've already read the script and I've watched the dailies. So I'm pretty comfortable with how I want the scene to play out. We've got several takes
from different angles. Watching through, I can
see that I need to insert a single of Marie here. This clip looks good, but I
need to find the right moment. If I click on the source monitor menu I can have Resolve overlay an
audio wave form in my viewer. It makes it much easier
to find characters lines. - I don't think so. I saw a whole construction sign up there. - I'm gonna place it in
track two for the time being, I'll tidy this up later, but I like laying down my cuts like this to see if everything lines up. - I saw a whole
construction sign up there. - Rich Holt's my dad. - So I'll cut back to that
shot when Marie speaks again. - Oh, you're taller than I expected, but let me get a good look at you. And Alex all buff and grownup,
look at you muscle man. Oh, you're taller than I expected, let me get a good look at you. And Alex... - And there's a nice opportunity
for a reaction shot here. So I'll use my smart bins to
help me find a clip of Alex. From the thumbnails, I can
see that this is the clip that I'm looking for. This is a short scene, but
the more media you have, the more useful these smart
facial recognition bins become. - ... all buff and grown up. - So I'll use that Alex
shot again when they hug. Now we'll hop into Marie's smart bin and find a nice close-up
of their awkward hug. And finally, a reaction shot from Alex. So the clips line up pretty well. Let's condense everything onto one track. Remember we said that it's
possible to move the edits between the cut and the edit page. So let's move on to the cut
page and refine the edit. The framing of this opening
shot has been bugging me, it's chopping off too much of Alex's face. I'll fix that by moving
the clip in the inspector, much better. The cut page really excels
at editing linear sequences like this, edits automatically ripple, meaning that as I tighten
the sequence like this, I don't have to manually fill the gaps. I can trim, ripple, and roll edits. So I'm gonna watch it through
and check that my cuts fall in the right place and then
tweak anything as needed. Of course, all of these
tools are available in the edit page too, but this
is a pretty unique selling point of Resolve that you can choose which interface you prefer. So there's plenty more than I need to do in this assembly edit, but
for now I'm pretty happy. So let's add a quick color
grade before we export. Moving over to the color page, you can see that all the edits in my timeline are now
displayed as thumbnails. In the node viewer I'll
create three nodes connected in serial using the hot key, 'alt S'. Nodes are a great way
of compartmentalizing your grade into different groups. It makes it easier to isolate
particular adjustments, and let me name them
to make it super clear, Primary adjustments, LUT, secondary adjustments, and look. This footage has all been shot in log. So I'll use the rec LUT
to normalize it to Rec709. Note that I'm doing
this on my second node. I like to make my primary adjustments before the color space conversion. So I'll switch to that first node, make the image brighter
by adjusting the gamma, add some contrast, correct that green tint, and warm the image up slightly. Now the color of the grass
is bothering me a bit. So let's fix it with a
secondary adjustment. I'm gonna adjust its color
using the hue vs hue tool which allows you to easily
replace one color with another. I'll use the qualifier to
create some control points, and then adjust them
manually to get things looking the way I want. Now to give it a creative grade. This scene is a flashback,
so to really sell it I'm gonna try adding a glow to the image. The glow effect can be found
in the open effects panel. I'll change its composite mode to screen to make it a little bit softer. All right, great, so I'll
save this grade as a still, or basically a preset. Now, if I select the other
clips and open the gallery, I can apply this grade to them too. All right, so to render the video I'm gonna head over to the deliver page and I'll use this handy
H.264 export preset. But because this is only a preview video, I'll lower the bit rate
to make the file smaller. Now I know this wasn't a full on tutorial where I explained everything step-by-step, but I just wanted to give you a taste of what it's like to do your
creative editing in Resolve. So what do you think? How's it compare with your
current editing software? Let us know in the comments below. Let's summarize some of the pros and cons of doing your creative
editing directly in Resolve. Without a doubt Resolve's biggest strength is the integration of its industry leading color correction tools. Edits made in Premiere,
Final Cut Pro, and Avid, are regularly imported
into Resolve for grading. If you've ever experienced the
pain of conforming an edit, you'll probably have asked yourself, why didn't I just make the edit in Resolve in the first place. Next it's cost, it's cheap
at worst, and free at best. Next, some innovation,
Blackmagic has rethought editing with the cut page, but they're
not forcing you to change. It's just there as an
option if you want it. Also, Resolve is growing in popularity, it's quite mature, and
it has a wide user base and also receives regular updates. Blackmagic also makes a
wide range of accessories for use with Resolve,
including it's keyboard, color grading consoles,
video capture, and output. It's a complete ecosystem
that you can buy into. But of course there are some con. People familiar with
Adobe's layer based approach to compositing are gonna
find Resolve's node based workflow of bit confusing. It's not hard to learn, but plan to spend at least a little bit of
time uncovering its power and kind of rewiring your brain. Another Adobe comparison,
while Resolve does have Fusion and Fairlight, Premiere's
integration with After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition, and all the other Adobe
packages that can dynamically link together, is pretty powerful. If those links between
software are currently part of your workflow, you'll
probably have an empty hole in your heart where they once lived. While Resolve is the industry
leader for color grading, it is the underdog in
the world of editing. That means that at least
for now there's less demand for Resolve editors commercially. There's also gonna be
less plugins, et cetera. Of course, this is changing. Switching from editing in Premiere or Avid to Resolve is pretty easy given that they all share the
same track based approach. You've got all the same tools, they might have different names, use different keyboard hotkeys, or be in a different
part of the interface, but there's no quantum leap here. You don't have to wire
your brain a different way like you would if you were moving over to Final Cut Pro's magnetic timeline. In fact, to make things
even easier to transition, you can also customize
Resolve to use Premiere Pro, Avid, or Final Cut hotkeys, instead of its own
default key assignments. The story is a little bit
different when it comes to color and fusion. Now as mentioned, the
biggest learning curve is gonna be learning to use Resolve's node based color grading
and compositing tools. While the metre wraps up the complexities of color grading and easy to use sliders, and it guides you through the process with a deliberately sequenced interface, Resolve gives you the keys to the workshop to let you play around
without supervision. Lumetri is quick to learn,
but ultimately limited, Resolve is slower to learn,
but way more powerful. Expect to spend some time
learning to use the color panel before you're gonna be
able to work quickly. The same goes for Fusion,
it's node-based approach is nothing like layer based compositing that you'll find in Adobe After Effects. So, at the end of the
day, should you switch? Well, that's not up to us. Every NLE has strengths and weaknesses, and Resolve is definitely no different, but should you try it? Absolutely. And because it's free,
and easily allows you to export your edits back to other NLEs, you've really got nothing to lose. And of course, knowing more
than one editing program is gonna make you a more
versatile and valuable editor. At the end of the day, while Avid, Final Cut
Pro, Premier, and Resolve offer different experiences, they're all equally
powerful editing packages. What separates Resolve? In our opinion, here are the
three most compelling features. One is cost , you can't argue with free. Two is the innovative cut interface. You might hate it, but you might love it. And three of course is
it's fully integrated industry leading color grading tools. Ultimately editing is a
fundamentally creative skill. If you're a good editor in one software, you'll be equally as good in another, which exact program you
use really just comes down to personal preference. Hey there, for tons more
free editing training, head over to our website at filmeditingpro.com/freetraining, here you can download free editing guides along with high quality
video training courses created by our team of
professional Hollywood editors. Our tutorials cover a wide
range of editing topics; like cutting awesome movie
trailers, editing action scenes, how to work with music and
sound design, and a lot more. All of these free guides
and videos are available at filmeditingpro.com/freetraining. I'll see you next time.
