Importing & Organizing Media
Video Editing Fundamentals
Chapter 3 · Importing & Organizing Media
Chapter 2 named the Media page as the entry point for any project, without going further. This chapter is that full treatment — how footage actually gets imported, organized, and made smooth to edit with.
The Media Pool
The Media Pool is Resolve's own central repository holding every imported clip for a project. The concrete starting point for this entire course: the MKV file produced by OBS Studio's own capstone gets imported here first, becoming this project's own raw material.
Bins: Organizing Footage Within a Project
Bins are folders within the Media Pool itself — organizing footage by shot type, date, or scene, entirely separate from the operating system's own underlying file structure. A genuinely practical habit for any project with more than a handful of clips, well before disorganization becomes a real problem.
Proxies: Editing Smoothly on Lower-Power Hardware
A genuinely important concept for anyone recording high-resolution footage (per OBS Studio's own recording settings) on a machine that struggles to play it back smoothly while editing. A proxy is a lower-resolution, easier-to-decode stand-in file, generated automatically from the original footage, used only during editing. When exporting the final file (Chapter 8's own Deliver page), Resolve automatically switches back to the original, full-quality footage — the proxy is purely a working convenience, never present in the final output.
Generating Proxies
Resolve's own built-in proxy generation works by selecting clips in the Media Pool and choosing to generate optimized media at a chosen lower resolution. This is a background process that can take real time depending on footage length and machine power — best started before actually beginning to edit, not partway through a session.
Metadata & Sorting
Basic clip information — resolution, duration, codec — is visible directly in the Media Pool, genuinely useful for quickly identifying content without needing to preview every single clip individually.
| Concept | Does | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Media Pool | Holds every imported clip | The project's own central footage repository |
| Bins | Folders within the Media Pool | Real organization for any non-trivial project |
| Proxies | A lower-res stand-in used only while editing | Smooth editing on underpowered hardware, no quality loss in the final export |
Hands-On Exercises
Your computer struggles to play back high-resolution footage smoothly while editing, causing choppy playback in the timeline. Using this chapter's own material, explain the feature that solves this, and confirm whether it affects your final exported video's quality.
📄 View solutionA new editor avoids using proxies entirely because they're worried the final video will look worse. Using this chapter's own warning box, explain why this concern is unfounded.
📄 View solutionA project has 60 clips from three different filming sessions, all sitting unsorted in the Media Pool. Using this chapter's own material, explain a practical organizational approach.
📄 View solutionChapter 3 Quick Reference
- The Media Pool holds every imported clip for a project — the entry point for OBS Studio's own recorded footage
- Bins organize footage within a project, separate from the OS's own file structure
- A proxy is a lower-resolution stand-in used only during editing — never present in the final export
- Generate proxies before editing begins, since it's a real background process that takes time
- Using proxies has no effect on final export quality — Resolve automatically relinks to the original footage at Deliver time