By Brady Betzel

With both NAB and IBC taking place online this year, Blackmagic Design had the opportunity to reveal product updates in their own timeframe. On Monday, via livestream, Blackmagic founder Grant Petty announced DaVinci Resolve 17. There are a lot of updates inside of this free update for current Resolve Studio users — from the Fairlight tab to the Color Correction tab. And if you are a Cut Page user, you even got a new hardware panel. Keep in mind that as of now, Resolve 17 is still in beta so please (seriously, please) do not update if you are in the middle of an important project.

Here are my Top 5 updates from the newly introduced Resolve 17:

New HDR-Specific Color Grading Wheels
With HDR gaining a lot of steam lately, finishing editors and colorists need more tools that allow them to worry about the creative and less about the technical. The new HDR color wheels do just that. The wheels include exposure and saturation control for each zone.

Updated Scope Layouts
If you don’t use scopes when color grading, you should. And if you do, thank you. Resolve 17 has added the ability to create 3×3 scope layouts and allows the user to open separate scope windows with different tonal and zoom ranges.

Think of using a vectorscope; it typically shows and overall saturation range, but if you want to isolate the saturation range of shadows or highlights you couldn’t before today’s update. In theory, you could have three vectorscopes with shadows, mid-tones and highlights isolated. This is really useful.

Sharing of Timelines (Not Entire Projects!)
In previous versions of Resolve, in order to share projects (not via collaboration mode), you would have to export the entire project, the other person would have to re-import the project and enable Dynamic Project Sharing, then open both projects, copy and paste what you want to share and then hope it works.

With the Resolve 17 update, you can now export a “DRT” file, which stands for DaVinci Resolve Timeline. Blackmagic has always been good at listening to its users, and this is a great example of that. Many Resolve users previously edited on Avid Media Composer and Resolve is a great blend of FCP X, Premiere Pro and Media Composer. However, one of the glaring holes has been collaboration, whether it is networked or via email. With the ability to export DRT files, we now have a much simpler way to send sequences back and forth.

Additionally, Blackmagic has added bin-locking and timeline-disabling to appeal to my inner assistant editor. I love these updates. What is even crazier is that Blackmagic allows users of the non-studio (a.k.a. free) version of Resolve the ability to work with multi-user collaboration.

Cut Page Speed Editor Hardware Control
If you saw the Blackmagic’s previously introduced hardware-based Resolve Editor Keyboard, you were probably intrigued… and then immediately not when you saw the $995 price tag. Well, apparently, Blackmagic noticed and decided to create the Speed Editor panel. While it won’t completely replace the Resolve Editor Keyboard, it does take a bunch of shortcut keys and puts them right in one spot. This allows editors like me to have their hand on a keyboard/Wacom tablet while having quick access on the Speed Editor.

It appears to me that the Speed Editor is focused more toward the less-technical producers and story producers who have embraced the Cut Page in Resolve. What I love about these hardware panels is that they don’t simply put a bunch of shortcuts on a board u — looking at you, Elgato Streamdeck (which is customizable, but still). Blackmagic appears to have gone a step further and really tried to make a hardware panel with tactile feel and placement of its buttons and keys. Having the in/out shortcuts large and with a different spacing than the rest of the keys is not something to be glossed over. The easier it is to find these keys, the faster you will be and the more time you will save and, potentially, make.

Proxy Media Workflow
If you came to prior versions of Resolve from Premiere Pro, you probably expected a similar Proxy workflow, and might have been a little let down. Resolve does have the option to use Optimized Media, but it can get a little messy. This “new” Proxy Media Workflow should work like the traditional Proxy workflow in other NLEs — set the Proxy Media resolution and media format in the settings, assign a location for the media, right click on the clip or group of clips you want to create Proxy media of, then link or unlink using right click on the clip as well. It appears that Proxy media will work like actual media, which can be moved to other systems and worked on. This is opposed to Optimized Media, which is not able to be sent to other systems to be used easily.

Final Thoughts
Blackmagic has done a huge service for its users with the Resolve 17 release. Some updates are small, but some are huge. From the new Resolve Wide Color Gamut color space (a better color managed workflow) to a meshed-based color warping tool to finding new ways of adjusting hue and saturation, or chroma and luma. There is a lot going on in this update that will cut across each tab of the interface. And I didn’t even touch on the updates they announced for Fairlight. Blackmagic consistently puts out updates that appease all sections of its client base.

Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on shows like Life Below Zero and The Shop. He is also a member of the Producers Guild of America. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.