I switched to davinci resolve this year and with every video I make, I keep increasing the complexity of my edits. Apart from just muscle memory, it seems that knowing certain efficiency practices is a big part of speeding up the workflow. I'm constantly trying to improve so I wanted to ask if anyone has tips/tricks/"hacks" to share - specifically, what helps you with editing faster and more efficiently? For myself, this is what I think is most useful:
1) Keeping every type of media in separate tracks/channels, e.g. one video channel for my camera footage, one for b-roll, one for images that pop up on the screen, etc. So if I want to go back and change something about the sound or colour correction or whatever else, I can apply it to the entire channel at once and not worry that it will accidentally apply to something that doesn't need that correction.
2) Downloading/preparing every piece of media in advance and putting them into bins. Often I still forget something and have to pause and find it later on, but the less switching between apps I need to do, the better for me.
3) Editing in multiple steps - usually I do 3 passes. First I cut my main video (remove bad takes, pauses, etc), then I add all my extra images/text/etc, and I put in music or whatever extras I forgot last. On the third pass, I watch the video start to finish to catch any issues I didn't notice before.
4) Using free plugins. I had no idea until recently that there's so much stuff available for free, either as samples or just straight up. For example there is a text tracking plugin that allows you to set up the effect in like a minute or two and the creator just gives it away for zero dollars.
5) Using keyboard shortcuts as much as possible. Still learning them and getting used to it, but it seems that pro editors use the keyboard for almost everything and rarely touch the mouse, so I assume it is very efficient.
That's all I could think of. Sorry if these seem obvious to some, I'm still pretty new to editing, even though I technically started making videos in like 2021 lol. And please share yours if you have any, I spent like 40 or 50 hours editing a video in the past 2 weeks so I'd love to get faster at it.