Correct procedure in Media Management

Hi All,

Basically I have three questions, regarding Resolve 16:

1 - What is the recommended/correct first step to copy files from a memory cards to hard drive? Should one just use the computers folders system (outside DaVinci) or should it be done inside DaVinci Resolve (using the clone tool?)? I'm asking this because of my background in still photography where I always use Lightroom to download cards, copy and managed all photos, folder creation, etc. So what is the recommended procedure/workflow with video files if one is using DaVinci Resolve as the only software?

2 - Can DaVinci Resolve be used in a similar manner as Lightroom to somehow organize ALL the footage that we have in our hard drive? It will be great if one could do a unique import of all the file structure (with ALL the clips shot to date), adding some metadata, renaming, etc so all that work is done only once and available to any future projects, much like Lightroom in the still photo world.

3 - A more case-related question: I always trim original RED R3D files using Redcine X (I still haven't tried to do it in Resolve) to just keep the footage I want. That process creates a new RDC folder with an added _S000 suffix (because at that moment the original still exists). After that I delete the original folder and only keep the new ones with good footage inside. The issue is that when I go to the Media Page to search some clips in my folders, DaVinci Resolve can see directly through any original folders, hiding the folders itself and showing the clips, but in the case of the new ones (which have that "S000" added in the name), the folder itself is displayed and not the clip inside. I then have to click in each and every folder to see the clip inside which is not practical. IS there any setting in Resolve to forces it to show the clips inside any folder regardless it's name?

Note 1 - RedcineX do note have any problem with the new names and just keep showing the clips inside directly.

Note 2 - If I use Finder to rename those folders and delete those added "S000" then DaVinci Resolve sees through them as supposed. But since I now have thousands of folders already renamed with the S000 I cannot now go to every one and delete that suffix by hand. Also, the added suffix is a very useful an simple way to knowing which clips have already been reviewed or not, just looking at their name in Finder.

Attached are captured screens where you can see the folders name in Finder and what is displayed in Resolve.

Thank you for any help

I think Trimmed Clips are a problem with spanned media, for all the reasons you cite. It may seem simplistic, but the best solution for us was just to buy a spitload of drives and Media Manage with the entire clip.

The alternative would be to decode the raw and then transcode to a lossless format like DPX or EXR, which a lot of big post houses do. That way, they only have to keep the (relatively small) DPX sequence that actually winds up in the show. We have done that with ProRes 444 and ProRes 444XQ on a smaller level, and it can work if you really stay on top of the Raw settings during the transcode. Once it's ProRes, it slices and dices just fine... because it's not a spanned clip.

There may be another solution that I'm not aware of, and I'm all ears if somebody has an answer. BTW, I've noticed that H.264 also does not trim very well (and I hate that format for a lot of reasons), and JPGs kind of blow up during Media Management as well. Alexa raw files, MXF files, and Blackmagic Raw files are fine.

Thanks for your reply Marc.

Regarding my question 3, I agree with you that your "simplistic" solution is the one with less possible problems, but once you got tons of clips, simply buying more drives is not very user friendly, money wise

But it looks like there should be (I hope) a setting in Resolve so it can be able to just look through any folder, regardless it's name. I understand that this can only be done to a certain level, in order for folders with names of locations, dates, etc can be correctly displayed and only "camera/software generated" folders be ignored, making them transparent to DaVinci. I need to understand what is the criteria used by DaVinci Resolve to decide if it should show the folder as it is or if it should ignore it and show the clip inside instead.

Regarding questions 1 and 2, I'm still looking to some feedback from members of this forum to see what's the usual workflow practices (and if they use DaVinci Resolve) to download memory cards and physically organize media.

Cheers,

1. File Manager. (Windows Explorer, Finder, etc.)

2. No.

3. My philosophy is: Keep Everything.

Regarding question 3 - After several tests I found out that DaVinci Resolve only recognizes (and see through) folders as "clip-folders" if it's name contains the exact number of characters, like in this example:

A010_C042_0207PD.RDC

When one does a R3D trim, it creates another folder with the added "S000" in the name (because the original folder with the same name still exists). So that results in a folder's name bigger then expected by DaVinci Resolve which leads to the folder itself been showed and not directly the clip inside it.

So I need to find a way to easily recognize which clips were already revised but without creating a bigger folder name.