New: Foundation

• Before I make any creative decisions, the most critical step I take in handling a multi-cam, multi-subject project is strict file organization. When I’m managing hundreds of gigabytes of 4K or 6K footage from a high school camp shoot, I know that an unorganized drive will instantly bottleneck my entire editing process.

• For this testimony series, I’ve established a standardized directory structure. Everything lives within a master project folder I’ve broken down sequentially. By separating my DaVinci Resolve project files (01 Resolve), Adobe After Effects dynamic links (03 AE), and raw media into highly specific subfolders (08 Testimony Shoots), I eliminate the risk of offline media when I reach the final render phase.

New: Proxies

• Working with high-bitrate codecs natively can tax even my Mac Studio. To keep my timeline smooth during the assembly phase, I immediately generate proxies for all A-Cam and B-Cam footage. Recently, I relocated my proxy media storage from a 1TB SSD to an 8TB HDD. This allows me to keep my high-speed drives dedicated strictly to cache files and current project saves, while the heavier, space-consuming proxy files live safely on larger capacity drives without me sacrificing timeline performance.

New: Syncing

• Once I’ve ingested the files, the first technical check I perform is the audio sync. I match the scratch audio from my camera systems to the high-quality WAV files I captured with dedicated mics. Using timecode or waveform syncing in DaVinci Resolve, I lock these tracks together. At this stage, I also apply metadata tags to all 17 clips per interview, labeling them by subject name and camera angle, ensuring that when I move into the actual edit, every asset is exactly where I expect it to be.