davinci resolve, one lesson per page
Twenty-nine lessons from first launch to finished film: how the free DaVinci Resolve 20 puts editing, color, effects and sound in one app, the seven pages and which one to start on, bringing clips in and keeping them organized, marking In and Out points, building a timeline, trimming and rippling, J K L playback, normalizing loudness, ducking music under voices, the color wheels and scopes, titles and transitions, and the Quick Export that ships your film to YouTube in a few clicks.
A diagram, the page map, and one thing to try this week. That's a page.
davinci resolve, one lesson per page
Twenty-nine lessons from first launch to finished film: how the free DaVinci Resolve 20 puts editing, color, effects and sound in one app, the seven pages and which one to start on, bringing clips in and keeping them organized, marking In and Out points, building a timeline, trimming and rippling, J K L playback, normalizing loudness, ducking music under voices, the color wheels and scopes, titles and transitions, and the Quick Export that ships your film to YouTube in a few clicks.
Set in Space Grotesk, Inter and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License).
Every fact in this book is as the official sources state it, fetched and read during this build: The Beginner's Guide to DaVinci Resolve 20, the official Blackmagic Design training book (documents.blackmagicdesign.com), and the official Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve training page (blackmagicdesign.com). Behaviour that is specific to Resolve 20 says so on the page. Demand evidence from live beginner threads, reconfirmed at dispatch; no facts are sourced from Reddit or YouTube. An independent guide, not affiliated with or endorsed by Blackmagic Design.
Your purchase is for personal use only. You do not have redistribution rights: please do not share, resell, or republish this book or its pages.
© 2026 Steve Hodgkiss. All rights reserved. Personal use only; no redistribution rights.
Edition 1.0 · stevehodgkiss.net
Contents
The studio
Why Resolve feels like four programs: editing, color, effects and sound in one app, the free version's promise, the seven rooms you walk between, and which room to start in.
- 01One studio, one app
- 02The seven pages
Per the Blackmagic Beginner's Guide (Resolve 20): DaVinci Resolve 20 is the only post-production solution that combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics, and audio post-production all in one software tool; you don't have to learn multiple apps or switch software for different tasks; Blackmagic Design offers a version of DaVinci Resolve 20 that is completely free.
One studio, one app
Resolve feels overwhelming because it is four crafts in one app: editing, color, effects and sound. Per the Blackmagic Beginner's Guide, Resolve 20 combines all of them, and its whole point is that you do not learn multiple apps or switch software between tasks.
And per the Guide, Blackmagic offers a version that is completely free. The studio is on your desk already.
You are not behind. You are standing in a studio with four rooms and a good map.
Download the free Resolve 20 this week and open it once. Learn nothing yet; just notice the row of page buttons along the bottom of the screen.
Per the Blackmagic Beginner's Guide (Resolve 20): the cut page is the default starting page for all projects, however this is not the usual place to begin working; the media page is dedicated to reviewing and organizing your source media; keyboard shortcuts switch pages (Shift-2 media, Shift-4 edit, Shift-5 Fusion, Shift-6 color, Shift-7 Fairlight, Shift-8 deliver); you can keep moving between the different pages seamlessly at any point.
The seven pages
The bottom of the screen is a corridor of seven pages: Media, Cut, Edit, Fusion, Color, Fairlight, Deliver. Each is a room with its own tools; per the Guide, you can keep moving between them seamlessly at any point.
The Guide also warns: Resolve opens on the cut page, but that is not the usual place to begin. The media page is for reviewing and organizing source media.
Name the seven rooms this week. Naming a room kills half the fear of it.
Click each of the seven page buttons once, ending on the edit page. Say each name out loud as it opens.
Per the Blackmagic Beginner's Guide (Resolve 20): press I to add an In point and press O to add an Out point; the duration timecode value in the top left of the source viewer tells you the duration between the In and Out points; only the portion between In and Out is edited into the timeline.
Mark In, mark Out
Never drag a whole clip anywhere. Watch it in the source viewer, then press I at the first frame you want and O at the last. Per the Guide, only that marked portion gets edited into the timeline.
The duration timecode in the top left of the source viewer tells you how long the marked span is. The Guide's own first lesson marks a six or seven second bite out of a minute-long clip.
Editing is deciding what to throw away. I and O are where that decision becomes real.
On your next clip, mark In and Out with I and O only, and do not drag it in until the marked span is exactly the sentence you want.
Per the Blackmagic Beginner's Guide (Resolve 20): hold K and tap L to jog forward one frame; hold K and hold L to play at half speed; press L twice to shuttle forward at twice normal speed, J for reverse; you can keep tapping the J or L keys to increase the shuttling speed up to 64x; Home and End move the playhead to the first or last frame.
Play with J K L
Stop scrubbing with the mouse. Per the Guide: J plays backward, K stops, L plays forward. Tap J or L again to double the speed, up to 64x. Hold K and tap L to jog forward a single frame.
Home and End jump the playhead to the first or last frame. That is the whole transport, three keys and two jumps.
Every second your hand leaves the keys is a second you were not watching the film.
Review your whole timeline using only J, K and L this week. Tap L twice and ride the shuttle; jog the last cut frame by frame.
Per the Blackmagic Beginner's Guide (Resolve 20): choose Clip Operations > Normalize Audio Levels to open the Normalize Audio Levels window; the Normalization Mode dropdown offers loudness normalization algorithms specific to various international standards, and peak normalization with Sample Peak and True Peak; the lesson leaves the mode at Sample Peak Level with the level set to -9 dBFS.
Balance the loudness
Nothing screams hobby film like sentence-to-sentence volume jumps. The fix is one menu: Clip Operations, then Normalize Audio Levels.
Per the Guide, the window offers loudness normalization to international standards, plus Sample Peak and True Peak modes. The Guide's own lesson leaves it on Sample Peak Level with the level set to -9 dBFS, and normalizes the interview clips together.
Select the speech clips, normalize, play. The timeline stops gasping for air.
Select all your speech clips and run Normalize Audio Levels this week. Then play the timeline and enjoy the calm.
Per the Blackmagic Beginner's Guide (Resolve 20): the Blackmagic Design Training and Certification Program publishes further training books for color, Fairlight and Fusion, with free training books and videos on the official DaVinci Resolve training page; finishing an edit with Quick Export completes the Beginner's Guide's own lesson path.
Ship it this week
The last lesson is not a tool, it is a deadline. Finish a small film this week: rough cut, normalized sound, one title, Quick Export.
Then go deeper on purpose: per the Guide, Blackmagic's training program ships free official books and videos for color, Fairlight and Fusion, the same path this book's facts came from.
A finished minute teaches more than a perfect hour. Ship, watch it back, start the next one sharper.
Finish a one-minute film this week: cut, normalize, fade, one title, Quick Export. Ship it before you are happy with it.