okay so this has been bugging me for a while. i shoot maybe 20-30 clips per session and by the time i get to editing im completely overwhelmed and i end up either not finishing the video or rushing through a bad cut. i use premiere pro and my project files are a disaster, proxies dont always work right, and i cant figure out a folder system that actually sticks. i know this isnt strictly a flying question but figured people here probably deal with this too since we all end up with gigs of footage after every outing.

does anyone have a workflow that actually works for drone footage specifically? like from card dump to final export. mine involves too many steps that i made up on the fly and it shows in the final product. also open to switching software if thats the answer, ive heard resolve is better for the color stuff but idk if i want to learn something new right now.

the folder thing i can help with ? i do location name, then date, then inside that i have RAW, PROXIES, PROJECT, and EXPORTS. every single time, same structure. once it becomes muscle memory you stop losing stuff. for the actual culling process i watch everything once at like 2x speed with sound off just to flag the keepers, then i go back and pull those into a selects bin. you end up editing maybe 30% of what you shot and it makes the whole thing feel less overwhelming.

re: resolve ? i made the switch about a year ago and the color tools really are better for drone stuff especially if you're coming out of d-log or similar. the learning curve isnt as bad as people say if you come from premiere, maybe a week or two to feel comfortable. but fix the workflow first before adding a new tool tbh.

honestly the best thing i ever did was just be more brutal while still at the location. i do a quick review on my phone through the rc before i even pack up and delete anything that's obviously unusable. cuts down the card dump by a lot and i dont have to make those decisions when im tired at my desk. might sound obvious but i was hauling home like 40gb of footage and only using 4 of it for the longest time. also proxies in premiere are kind of a pain, i just edit native h265 on a half res playback setting and it's fine for most things.