Learning DaVinci Resolve in 24 Hours While Running an Marathon: Part 1.

Tomorrow I’m going to embark on a rather mad plan. I’m going to attempt to plan, film and edit a video using a piece of software that I’ve never used before. As if that wasn’t complicated enough, I’m going to do this while also spending the day running a marathon.

Why am I doing this? Well, for a start, I usually post a YouTube video on a Thursday and I have nothing ready. Giving myself 24 hours to get it done seems like a good way of focusing the mind. I’m using DaVinci Resolve because it has better tools for audio than CapCut and I don’t know how to use CapCut anyway; that was what my previous editor did. And finally, the person who previously edited my videos is currently either missing in action or on holiday, depending on your point of view. They may or may not be taking a break partly because editing my videos is boring and nobody wants to watch them. So here I am, having to do it myself (which only seems fair given this is my mad project and adventure and I don’t have any money to pay anyone).

To do this right, I’m setting up a few rules for the game:

• All the running must be completed within 24 hours.
• Each hour a distance of between 1.5 and 2 kilometres must be run.
• All the scripting, planning and filming/recording must be completed within 25 hours.
• No footage can be used from outside of the filming window.
• No outside support with DaVinci other than what I can find freely available online.
• There will be an additional 1-hour window that evening for a final edit.
• The final result should be published before the end of the day.

Having 25 hours to complete the scripting, planning and recording gives me a half-hour buffer on either side of the 24-hour running window, which I will need for the setting the scene and wrapping up the video bits. I’m also giving myself a final 1 hour period after I have caught some sleep, to be able to sanity-check the video before I publish it.

This may all go horribly wrong. I am not a cinematographer, videographer, or vlogger. I’ve done little bits of tweaking in CapCut, but I’ve never used DaVinci Resolve. The last time I covered this much distance was eight months ago back in September. The weather is likely to hit 35ºC tomorrow. There is no guarantee that anything coherent will be filmed or there will be enough to make a full video.

I have no idea what the end product will turn out like. But it’s going to be fun finding out.