Post Magazine

March 2018

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www.postmagazine.com 37 POST MARCH 2018 REVIEW ack at NAB 2017 in Las Vegas, Blackmagic Design introduced a beta of DaVinci Resolve Version 14. Fast forward to fall, and BMD has re- leased the final version, putting it at 14.1 at the time of this writing. I tested the beta version of 14 back in May and found it to be not only an excellent color grading ap- plication but also an exceedingly capable nonlinear editor. Now that the bugs have all been worked out after a few months of user testing, I decided that Resolve was ready for another look. OVERVIEW For those unfamiliar with DaVinci Resolve, it's an all-in-one application capable of handling media asset ingest and transcode, nonlinear editing, color grading and correction, audio produc- tion and editing and media output. Until recently, it has been mostly thought of as an advanced and powerful color grad- ing application only. But Blackmagic has made its intentions of becoming a serious competitor in the entire post production software market clear. NEW AND IMPROVED Some of the newest and biggest fea- tures in Resolve aren't necessarily novel to post production software, but they have made Resolve more competitive. They've integrated the Fairlight audio production system. Fairlight is used in many pro audio production facilities, and it allows Resolve to work seamlessly with those systems, even running directly on advanced Fairlight audio boards. On the editing front, you get support for multicam productions, transitions and keyframing for more advanced effects. Output from Resolve includes support for UHD sizes and beyond, high dynam- ic range as well as presets for popular online publishing destinations like Vimeo and YouTube. Probably the biggest addi- tion is collaboration. Version 14 includes the ability to work with multiple other post disciplines simultaneously on a single project. An open project can have timeline editing, color grading and audio sweetening all happening at the same time on different computers. The biggest caveat to this feature is that all computers must be on the same network and have a server setup to handle the traffic. One of the computers being used for Resolve can double as the server. This differs from similar offerings from competitors in that Resolve's collaboration capabili- ties aren't capable of working over the Internet. It's intended as a solution for internal facility usage only. There's a chat dialogue, which allows you to communicate with team mem- bers to point out needed changes or ask for assistance. Clips, timelines and bins can be locked if needed to prevent users from sabotaging each others' chang- es. And any network-attached storage will work for collaboration as Resolve's solution doesn't require proprietary hardware. Like any good collaboration software, there's also the ability to bring up a timeline comparison that will high- light any changes made by other users. You can then choose to accept those changes to your own version. Under the hood, Blackmagic has add- ed a new playback engine to Resolve which is up to 10 times faster than previous versions. This is a benefit you'll really only notice if you've used an older version. As someone who has, I can tell you that Version 14 runs much smoother than previous releases. This especially stands out with color correction, as edits show up in realtime without causing my MacBook Pro fans to kick into high gear. Finally, it should also be pointed out that Resolve is one of the most cross-platform editors available, capable of running on Mac, Windows and Linux. If you're wondering why anyone would want to run Linux for video editing, you probably haven't used Linux before. In general, a Linux OS is very lightweight and swift. It's also a very secure platform, not subject to the usual litany of viruses, spyware and other malicious attacks that the more popular platforms are hit with on a daily basis. Plus you can build spec- tacularly-powerful computers for lower costs than Macs and PCs. CONCLUSION Each version of Resolve is better than the one before, and Blackmagic is upping its software game each year by adding some killer features normally only found in the most expensive NLE options. In just a few years, Resolve has gone from a specialty colorist application to a serious contender for any post production professional. What if I told you, you could have DaVinci Resolve 14 for the low, low cost of just $0? Too good to be true? Actually, no. You can download and run Resolve for nothing if you don't need collaboration and some other effects. If you want the whole shebang, you can purchase Resolve Studio for only $299. And that's to own the product, not to rent it monthly. BLACKMAGIC DESIGN DAVINCI RESOLVE 14 B MORE THAN JUST AN ADVANCED & POWERFUL COLOR GRADING APPLICATION BY PAUL SCHMUTZLER KNOXVILLE, TN EMAIL: PAUL@ THESCHMUTZLER.COM TWITTER: @ THESCHMUTZLER VITAL STATS MANUFACTURER: Blackmagic Design PRODUCT: DaVinci Resolve 14 PRICE: Starting at $299 WEBSITE: www.blackmagicdesign.com • All-in-one application • Integrated Fairlight audio production system • Ability to work with multiple other post disciplines simultaneously on a single project Resolve works on Mac, PC and Linux platforms.

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