been thinking about this because i just spent way too long on a video from a trip i did last month and i feel like a lot of that time was just me being disorganized. i dump everything into a folder, maybe rename some clips, and then just kind of start cutting and it turns into a mess halfway through. ended up with like 47 versions of the same project file which is embarassing to admit.

curious if people have like a set process they follow or if most folks just figure it out as they go. im using resolve right now, switched from premiere a while back and still getting used to it. not even sure if my question is about drone stuff specifically or just editing in general but figured id ask here since most of you probably deal with a mix of drone footage and maybe some handheld stuff too

lol 47 versions i feel that deeply. i went through a phase like that. what actually helped me was just forcing myself to do a rough selects pass before i touch anything else, go through all the clips and mark the ones i actually want to use and bin the rest. in resolve you can use the media pool bins pretty well for this. i have folders for aerials, ground level, detail shots, and then a selects bin where stuff actually goes into the timeline. sounds simple but just having that structure before you start cutting saves so much time later.

the other thing that changed everything for me was deciding on the music first before i even look at the footage properly. once you have a track you can feel the pacing and it makes the whole thing click into place way faster. some people hate this approach but it works for me

resolve has a decent color page for drone footage too if you havent dug into that yet, especially if youre shooting in D-log or whatever flat profile your camera uses. not directly related to your workflow question but just something i wish someone told me earlier because i was editing log footage without a proper LUT for way too long and wondering why everything looked washed out