I've been shooting drone footage for about 6 months now and I'm drowning in files. Expect to have videos of many gigabytes in size, because an afternoon shoot can easily take you over 20-50GB. Having a post-shot production workflow is vital if you'll be shooting a lot. I end up with these massive 20-30 minute files from each flight that I need to break down into usable clips. One of the longest steps is organizing my footage into shots, or scenes. Wondering if anyone has found an efficient way of doing this.

Currently using DaVinci Resolve but open to other suggestions. How do you seasoned editors tackle the organization and initial breakdown phase? Any specific naming conventions or folder structures that work well?

Before diving into the editing process, create a well-organized file structure for your project. Label and sort your clips into relevant categories for easy access during editing. I use date_location_type format for files and separate folders for raw footage, edited clips, and final exports. Game changer!

I create a separate timeline just for organizing clips before my main edit. I create a separate time line in my project just for scenes. I'll drop in the full footage, then using keyboard shortcuts trim out want, leaving me just scenes ready to drop in the primary timeline. It's like having a staging area where I can quickly mark in/out points for the good stuff.

External drives are your friend! External hard drives grow cheaper and cheaper with more and more capacity. Having an external hard drive will save space on your computer. I keep current projects on my main drive but archive completed ones to external storage. Also helps with backup redundancy.