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This document contains tips and tricks that I use regularly on Davinci Resolve. It is by no means a definitive and absolute guide. Other methods can often be used, and keyboard shortcuts are fully configurable. The shortcuts used are mainly basic keyboard shortcuts.

To avoid having to play with different file formats, it's a good idea to first convert all video files to .mov and all audio files to .wav. The easiest way to do this is to use the ffmpeg utility. It is available natively in linux and can be installed in windows. It's a command-line utility, which makes it extremely light and flexible. convert a video file: ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 -vcodec mjpeg -q:v 2 -acodec pcm_s16be -q:a 0 -f mov myfile.mov The parameter -q:v n corresponds to the quality and n can range from 2 to 32. 2 being the best quality but resulting in a large file size. convert an audio file: ffmpeg -i myfile.mp3 myfile.wav

The advantage of using an otil in CLI is that it can be scripted and mass converted quickly and easily. The following command automatically converts all .MTS files in a folder to .mov. for i in *.MTS; do ffmpeg -i “$i” -vcodec mjpeg -q:v 2 -acodec pcm_s16be -q:a 0 -f mov “${i%.*}.mov”; done

Page dedicated to ffmpeg

Once the files have been converted, simply import them into Davinci Resolve. To preserve the folder structure, simply drag and drop the entire folder containing the media into the left-hand part of the media pool.

In the color page, the first step is to group the clips that will be calibrated in the same way. This can be done by selecting the clips concerned, then right-click > add into an new group. Then simply change the editing mode to group post-clip. All edits applied to the group will be applied to all clips contained in the group.

A good practice is to separate sound tracks according to their content. One possible solution is to place all voice recordings on audio track 1, all clip sounds added later on audio track 2, all sound effects on audio track 3, and all music on audio track 4. In this way, it is possible to apply sound effects at track level rather than clip level in the fairlight page. (Example of effects applied to track 1 in fairlight.

To switch a clip to Black & White, simply reduce its saturation to 0 in the color page.

The paid version of Davinci Resolve includes a number of textures that can simply be applied to a clip and edited in the Inspector. To add credit to the effect, it's a good idea to modify the corresponding sound in the fairlight tab and add vignetting (Effects Library > Open FX > Filters > ResolveFX > Stylize > Vignette).