BMD Please tell us what users you’re targeting

DaVinci was originally $50K-$500K or so.
BMD bought it and reduced the price to free/$300.

Clearly the business model changed. What’s not clear is what user groups BMD is targeting.

I mention this because we’ve got people here who have been using DaVinci from before BMD bought it and people who are coming in new.

An often repeated piece of advice is this is high end software and novices might be better served elsewhere.

Since BMD is pretty tight lipped here we don’t know if they’re aiming to be a viable choice for novices or are fine with Resolve having a steep learning curve and being best suited for pros who live in the software.

Having at least a clue from BMD might make this forum a bit more peaceful and helpful.


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An often repeated piece of advice is this is high end software and novices might be better served elsewhere."

Respectfully, I have to disagree.

While I don't disagree that this forum isn't well managed, and the discord and sub reddit's are really a mixed bag. It's a constant challenge seeing folks trying to edit gaming videos in h.265 codecs with variable frame rates on slow hardware in the free version while pros are trying to request real feature changes that could benefit a large community on the studio side.

BUT I really believe BMD is trying, not always succeeding, at being a professional tool that isn't so intimidating that novices can watch a few tutorials and get started making this own films. It's albeit an impossible task, but with AVID clearly catering to the pro crowd and FCPX catering to, well, hard to say really, maybe the lowest common denominator. Resolve is uniquely positioned. FCPX only has a trail version unlike Resolve's extremely powerful free version. So while I think FCPX is catered more to folks doing simpler projects, Resolve is allowing itself to be available to anyone interested in learning.

Adobe does have some training series too, but Resolve's are way more extensive, providing a significant amount of material to practice with and with each version they have updated a lot of their course work. Adobe redirects you to paid services for training and third parties and while there is free training on YouTube it is mostly beginner level while Resolve's channel have in depth guides from pros teaching both beginner lessons and advanced techniques.

They also publish extremely detailed guides vs Adobe's lame manual having only been recently updated as of 2019 as they shifted to online only pages and workflow guides. I get the feeling BMD really cares about the student who wants to learn this to, one day, be able to do professional work. The CUT page is designed for fast work or to learn fast (it's no coincidence it's the first page to launch on a fresh install. And the Color, Fusion & Fairlight pages are so insanely powerful that a highschool student with a school computer could shoot, edit and master their film with entirely free tools.

I think it's actions speak louder than words here. And while it might mean pro features we really really want might take longer to get here so they can have an efficient piece of software compatible with more machines or make the experience for a new edit more possible, I think in the end, that is a good thing.

On the flip side BMD has been steadily building out the own complement of professional input devices in the form of Editor Keyboards, Colour Panels and Fairlight mixing consoles; with introductory and advanced versions. In many cases the hardware actually adds new input methods and even shortcuts not normally available with shortcuts.

I think it's going to be extremely difficult to build a tool that is easy to learn the basics but impossible to master, I'm here for it. Now if only the forums could follow suit.

BlackMagic is clearly chasing the Adobe dream of one ecosystem for a WIDE variety of users, media, hardware, and workflows.

There are problems inherent in that path: a greater number of bugs/unexpected behaviors; inconsistencies between performance for users of similar items against other users because of intervening (but often non-recognized) exterior factors; a user sense that The Company doesn't take their niche seriously (common across all niches), and clashes between user groups.

Adobe's Premiere Pro is running a very high number of licenses. I just heard an actual number from a staffer, but doubt I should share that publicly. It is ... massive.

If BM can get to a quarter of that, it will still be a massive user list.

And those users will be all over the video post workflow possibilities.

And everyone of them, a potential buyer for BM hardware. Which I think will entice Grant & Company to continue their goal of bringing video capabilities to the masses.

I know three local video shops that are doing well financially, all doing a slightly different mix of media for local companies and organizations. Involving website explainers, "meet our people", demonstration vids, and mixes of those for every social media that takes video files. Featuring YouTube quite often.

And occasionally they even get to do a commercial for broadcast use.

Fully professional, very nice work. But the deliverables are primarily for web use. And one just ditched his Canon pro camcorders for a BMPCC4K.

Loved the image and especially ease of getting skin tones on his talking heads so much he's planning on a 6K, so his 4K would be his B cam.

Another budding BM customer ...

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I too believe that’s what they’re chasing.
If this is so, the last thing they want is for people to think of Resolve as a high end only system with a steep leaning curve and far greater complexity that’s required knowledge before being able to use Resolve productively.

That’s why I claim that putting lots of effort into making Resolve easier to understand and simpler wherever possible - without dumbing it down - is the best way forward.

Apple was king of this when Jobs was around. Since he’s been gone they’ve slipped a lot.

Adobe has never been good at this. Their UIs are arcane and not discoverable - leaving lots of room for a company that’s focused on ease of use to win converts.


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Adobe's Premiere Pro is running a very high number of licenses. I just heard an actual number from a staffer, but doubt I should share that publicly. It is ... massive.

Isn't Premiere included in the Adobe bundle? At one point almost all photographers had the bundle not because they wanted Premiere but LR and PS. I'd be curious how many of those Premiere licenses are active users and not people who got it for free with the bundle.

That’s why I claim that putting lots of effort into making Resolve easier to understand and simpler wherever possible - without dumbing it down - is the best way forward.

I started around 2006ish with the Adobe toolset and most of Creative Cow forum talk was about techniques and less about how to use the program itself. Most of the people asking questions had actually used and learned the basics. Now it has flipped around and there are for realsies threads about how to save a project and how to automate everything and how I can make this film look like this with this LUT.

The users should have some accountability on learning how to use said programs instead of dumbing everything down. The thing about making things idiot proof is someone just comes up with a bigger idiot.

Now it has flipped around and there are for realsies threads about how to save a project and how to automate everything and how I can make this film look like this with this LUT.

Seems to be a somewhat general essence these days, asking ”what happens if I do this” and waiting aggressively for the answer for days seems somehow better than just trying out what happens oneself. Not sure why this is, people too lazy to think and try…? Tutorial mania has really eroded into ability to learn in isolation.

That’s why I claim that putting lots of effort into making Resolve easier to understand and simpler wherever possible - without dumbing it down - is the best way forward.

I hope so too. My hope is that they think their approach is a little more Tetris. Easy to learn the basics but hard maybe even so massive it's impossible to master alone. I have more faith they can do it than Adobe that's for sure. Having tools be there when you need advanced and complex workflows while staying simple (the cut page) when you don't is a great goal to strive for. It will be difficult, but I don't think there is anything wrong in expecting extremely powerful and professional software to also be easy to pick up and use without a tutorial.

Sure you be side-chaining dialog and music tracks in Fairlight on day one, but when you start to learn the benefits of the more advanced workflows you don't have to learn a whole other application to try things out. Hell I can't wait for the day when that new filmmaker asks the community for mixing and colour help and they literally just share their project in the cloud and we can jump the exact same project and help out in the time it takes to sync a proxy folder. Oh wait, that's now. I can do that now.

I think you are right. Don't dumb it down, but be approachable too. When they want to venture down that rabbit hole a 4000 page manual and hundreds of hours of training materials is waiting for them. But if they just want to post a video game highlight reel, giver too.

Seems to be a somewhat general essence these days, asking ”what happens if I do this” and waiting aggressively for the answer for days seems somehow better than just trying out what happens oneself. Not sure why this is, people too lazy to think and try…? Tutorial mania has really eroded into ability to learn in isolation.

It's weird because it has never been this easy to get a FREE edit/color/comp software and even get a bunch of raw footage from every camera manufacturer to play around with. Just play around, have some fun.

A little bit of clarity would be lovely. If it can't be a roadmap, at least something for the short term as it is now just praying to god on what bugs/workflow issues are gonna be fixed. It's often even impossible to know if you're dealing with bugs or "features"

I hope that BMD don't do that and restrict themselves to a set of users only.

It is for me clear that as hardware improves video editing difficulties will be less and less because our senses have a limit.
So in my opinion BMD should have the widest net possible.

I agree and i posted about it that editing page in Resolve is not the most friendly but even with that limitation i don't see it difficult to learn. I advice everyone even a kid to try DaVinci Resolve, i don't see video as that complex or difficult. Can be improved, yes.

This is not a feature request.

TL;DR
Why even beginning to entertaining the idea of a separation in the user base?

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Since BMD is pretty tight lipped

So why the thread in the wrong part of the forum? If you know they wont talk about their strategy on a forum? They never do that. I can't name any company doing that anyway.

An often repeated piece of advice is this is high end software and novices might be better served elsewhere.

It's pretty rare, and it only comes from an handful of people, I'll say 1 for sure. People who have nothing to say or just want to gaslight people, Big deal.

Maybe these "novices" just want to learn the software, be helped by the community, instead of having canned responses by those who are gate-keeping something they don't own, it's free, it's for everyone who wants to spend time with a great piece of software.

98% of the time I see cool people trying to help with sharing their knowledge or by pointing the to the right direction, without assuming anything about the person who is asking the question, without sarcasm, without trying to pass for some kind of "elite".

Everyone was a "novice" at some point. These "novices" coming in is what makes this "high end software" more usable over the years, for one good reason "Who can do the most, can do the least", and all the suggestions (filtered by BMD of course) makes it better and better. Tons of little things requested by "novices" are used by "high end power users/pros". They see things that other as so used to that they can't think out of the box anymore (not everyone, but many do).

(And some of those novices will become paid pros (or not), with more knowledge than many of "pros" here. That's how it grows.)

And even "dumb" questions can lead to a big change in Resolve because those who are using it for decades are so used to who it works that they can't see the basic/logic flaws. I'm a victim of that. I'm "mastering" a particular software, and one time I had a question about it, I gave an answer about how it works and how he could do the thing he asked for.

Then I thought about it, and it made me realize that the the way the software works in this instance is not very logical and practical, I was just so used to it. Like a never fixed "workout around".

Having at least a clue from BMD might make this forum a bit more peaceful and helpful.

Not really, nobody cares, nobody thinks about that because it doesn't really matter. Everyone has access to it (it's free AND super cheap for the Studio version), everyone is able to learn everything about it and produce anything they want with it. From the basic tik tok videos to the 100M movie - That's the beauty of it!

A helpful forum is when people have a problem, with others trying to help them, direct them to the right answer, instead of just throwing "books" at them without even knowing if it could help, or gaslighting. Easy.

I don't get this post. "forums" exist for decades now.
Even if BMD would come out and say : We are targeting this particular demographic - it wouldn't change a single thing.

Will they have to make a banner so everyone knows how to "feel" about Davinci Resolve? If they can register or not to post a question? What's the goal.

Yes it's sarcasm but no mean spirited. I only care about the goal and how something can be applied int he real world. Here, I only see someone pointing at a non-problem.

I'm all for suggestions, of any kind, only if it makes sense, can be applied in the real world and is useful to the vaste majority of the users

Yes, I'm a bit heated because I can't stand these type of discussions involving "novices" or "segmentation" in general when we're talking about basic softwares! It has the potential to push away people instead of making the user base grow.

A helpful forum is when people have a problem, with others trying to help them, direct them to the right answer, instead of just throwing "books" at them without even knowing if it could help, or gaslighting. Easy.

my wife is a teacher. She teach elementary children, music to be precise. During the years she developed an habit to ask teh same question three times: the first time they dont listen, the second time they listen but not answer, the third time that answer.

Unfortunately she does the same thing to me, and I answer the first, second and third time the same with increasing frustration: I'm an adult that pay attention to the question and provide the answer.

in the usergroup I see quite often the web version of this: asking the same question over and over and over in the quest of a different answer, or simply because a basic search OR reading the manual was not attempted.

so, yes, if the short and correct answer is: "read the manual" I will answer in that way personally.

To make a point what Walter wrote:

Just happend today in the Cinematography section:

Someone bricked his Pocket 4k during a firmware update and asks how to revive it.
Then posts he got it back to work by help from support.
BUT he does not write what he was told by support, so others could benefit.

Then I'll put in the blanks and put in a link where I describe the procedure and also note:
"Just in case someone stumbles over this thread via Google: the procedure is described here:"

Today someone posts below my posting:
"Hello!! how did you solve it?"

The NLE is the most widely used and most readily accessible function in Resolve. Anyone who knows any other Avid-based NLE can be cutting in Resolve in 30 minutes. You won't know everything, but you'll know enough. And can find the rest in the usual way, including the manual.

If there's no prior experience of an NLE, there are books and videos -- and of course the manual proper, which is part reference and part instructional. Short of offering free classes, I don't know how they could make it any easier.

The remainder -- Color, Fairlight, Fusion -- are complex programs of which most non-professionals will have no prior experience. So there's no substitute for learning them, and the concepts behind them. BMD cannot do this work for anyone. Color correction with 3 wheels and a few sliders may be easy to intuit, no need to hit the books. If that's what wanted, there are numerous NLEs which offer it.

Here's guessing the company is "targeting" professional users, and non-professionals prepared to learn the program. What else can it do?

I guess I wasn't clear.
I also think BMD is trying to target a wide range of users. To this end, it's important to prioritize using established conventions so users can easily move from other NLEs to Resolve. It's also important to maximize discoverability. Finally, providing a very good index for the manual would be a huge help. All these make it easier to come to Resolve from other platforms - and would make for happier users.

The NLE is the most widely used and most readily accessible function in Resolve. Anyone who knows any other Avid-based NLE can be cutting in Resolve in 30 minutes.

To the extent that this is true I salute Resolve. Where it isn't I wish they'd consider whether the difference is necessary or arbitrary - and if the latter strive to remedy it.

Lastly, I'm just trying to do my part to help improve the program and the forum. I strive to be kind and helpful and try to read others' posts and requests in that way.

BMD is firstly a hardware company. So I think that people who use and need hardware are the primary target. So this makes anyone who needs a camera up to their highest high-end product a target.. They also want to catch prospective users early on in their careers.

I'm sure that many of these millions of adobe users low or high end have a "resolve" version in their arsenal, Just like adobe had when apple gave their space away.

One day resolve will implement avid style or better workflow and then ramming the walls of Hollywood studios will start and inspire more users.

Ricardo Marty

I guess I wasn't clear.
(...)To this end, it's important to prioritize using established conventions so users can easily move from other NLEs to Resolve. It's also important to maximize discoverability. Finally, providing a very good index for the manual would be a huge help. All these make it easier to come to Resolve from other platforms - and would make for happier users.

Agree 100% with discoverability.
I also think Youtube changed the way people learn applications. When i have doubt or want to learn something i hit youtube first and only after the manual.

The Adobe number i was told was for daily uses of Premiere only. Not the entire Adobe CC base.

Personally, I vastly prefer the UI and customization available in Premiere to Resolve. And the way my Elements panel is programmable by me for everything from color through the audio track mixer to sizing, positions, and rotation of screen elements.

In Resolve, that panel of course only is attached to *a few* color tools, as they naturally want me to buy their gear. It's how they make a living.

But my desk doesn't have room for an extra panel that *only* works in Resolve.

On the other hand, I LOVE the Resolve manual! That is always an amazing resource and Adobe doesn't have anything close.

I love the array of color tools in Resolve. Hate editing in it. Personal taste thing of course. Good friends LOVE editing in Resolve.

Like the rest of Life, it's always a mixed bag. As is the user base.

Which just makes it all more fascinating and interesting.

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I fail to see why knowing what users is BMD targeting is important. The tools make it self-evident. The fact that many users are not high-end users is beside the fact Those users have the free version and the forum is the only source of information for them. I'm sure that some great editors, producers, and directors might come from them. Bmd is counting on this and wants it to be the top tool for the business.

Maybe there should be a newbie section in the forum.

Ricardo Marty

Just like with making a movie, writing a book, etc, it's important to know one's target market. I can elaborate if need be but I won't unless asked.

Why do we need to know? Because we spend a lot of time talking about what we think would be good or bad for Resolve. Without knowing the target market, we can only think about our own desires and our guesses of BMD's intent. That leads to "religious wars" and factions.

I'm sure you've seen this - and they largely persist because everyone thinks they're right about where the product is targeted. Yet without some clarification from BMD, we have fairly different notions of this targeting.

In essence, we're not all on the same page. We're not making the same movie. Communication is key amongst collaborators and we, by volunteering our support, are collaborating with BMD to help make Resolve - the whole ecosystem including this support forum - a good choice of platform.

What if BMD want to have their options open because well world changes?
I think BMD should not say precisely what are their targets unless of something drastic like stopping support of one of 3 OS they support now, or if they will be focusing in only one OS. They would be unethical if they say only in last moment.

Apparent for outsider about BMD is that hardware is their primal activity and that their software would certainly reflect their hardware.
If you analyse Resolve and compare to other similar software it is clear it has one of most harsh hardware requirements.
So i would say the Resolve motto is: For those that buy current technology.

It is not for the person with an outdated CPU that only upgrades every 5+ years.

So Alex, you're saying that BMD should keep mum to keep it's options open, and that its use case is people who upgrade their hardware often.

Hmm... I don't know about you but I'm trying to edit feature films. My priorities have nothing to do with keeping my hardware maxed out.

I want to go with a company who's responsive to my need for a smooth, efficient, enjoyable editing device - and wants to keep it at the front of the pack by being on top of customers' pain points. I'm still hoping BMD and Resolve will fit that bill. Being the squeaky wheel may help that along. As long as I'm not too obnoxious about it!

DaVinci was originally $50K-$500K or so. BMD bought it and reduced the price to free/$300.

Small correction: daVinci Resolve was somewhere north of $150,000-$750,000 from daVinci Systems (depending on options) from about 2004-2009, but that was for a full-blown system with workstation and panels. In late 2009, Blackmagic Design bought daVinci Systems at a bankruptcy sale. In April 2010, they cut the price of the full system to $50,000 without a workstation:



If you bought the Mac version (no Windows yet), it was $995 for software-only, no control surface. This was kind of a shock at the time, since basically they had reduced the cost of Resolve by a huge amount. It didn't go down to $295 until Resolve 14 in the spring of 2017. A lot of us paid $995 for Resolve and believed (with justification) that that was a bargain; mine paid for itself in a few weeks, and I bought several more as backups and for other systems.

I guess I wasn't clear. I also think BMD is trying to target a wide range of users. To this end, it's important to prioritize using established conventions so users can easily move from other NLEs to Resolve. It's also important to maximize discoverability. Finally, providing a very good index for the manual would be a huge help. All these make it easier to come to Resolve from other platforms - and would make for happier users.

I agree 100% -- these are all good suggestions. I've argued before that the 4000-page manual should be split into 5 parts:

1) recommended system configs/install guide
2) Resolve Edit & Conform
3) Resolve Color
4) Resolve Fusion VFX
5) Resolve Fairlight audio

Do that, and we'd have basically 4 manuals of 800-900 pages each, plus the install guide. That to me would be more digestible. I think a thorough index with hyperlinks would be helpful, too, to locate modes and functions in context.

But I also get that BMD only has so many resources, and they make a lot of different products, so there's only so much they can do with their available staff.

So Alex, you're saying that BMD should keep mum to keep it's options open, and that its use case is people who upgrade their hardware often.

Hmm... I don't know about you but I'm trying to edit feature films. My priorities have nothing to do with keeping my hardware maxed out.

I want to go with a company who's responsive to my need for a smooth, efficient, enjoyable editing device - and wants to keep it at the front of the pack by being on top of customers' pain points. I'm still hoping BMD and Resolve will fit that bill. Being the squeaky wheel may help that along. As long as I'm not too obnoxious about it!

There are reasons to keep mum: competition, eventual changing circumstances, you certainly know how difficult to promise something to your clients and then cut that promise.
I am 100% behind your quest to ease the edit cumbersomeness of some Resolve ways. I wrote about Resolve lacking discoverability in a topic while ago here.