ok so i finally got decent footage from my last trip, like the shots themselves came out pretty good this time. but editing is just destroying me. im spending like 3-4 hours on a 2 minute clip and i dont even feel like the end result is that much better than if i'd just slapped it together in an hour

im using resolve which i love but i think my problem is i have no real structure to how i work. i just kind of dump everything in and start cutting and then realize i need music and then the whole pacing changes and i end up starting over half the time. there has to be a smarter way to do this. also still trying to figure out color grading dlog footage which is a whole other thing

pick the music first, genuinely changes everything. i wasted so much time editing to no audio and then being surprised when nothing fit. find the track you want, listen to it a few times, figure out roughly where your big moments should land, then start pulling clips. it sounds backwards but it makes the whole thing go so much faster and the pacing just kind of works itself out naturally

for the dlog stuff in resolve just grab a free lut to get you to a normal starting point and then do your actual creative grade from there, trying to grade dlog from scratch is a pain that isnt worth it when youre still figuring things out

3-4 hours for 2 minutes actually doesnt sound that bad to me depending on how much raw footage you're sorting through, some of my stuff takes way longer than that. but yeah the starting over thing is rough. what i started doing is just making a quick rough cut with zero grading just to get the story or flow sorted, like terrible looking but the edit itself works, and only then i go in and do the color work. keeps me from getting precious about stuff early on and having to throw it out later