3 min read

#266 - DaVinci Resolve 18 New Features

New toys are here!

Even if you don't actually use it, one of the reasons to keep tabs on what Blackmagic Design does with DaVinci Resolve is that it's pretty indicative of where the industry is heading.

In the leap from the long running .dot updates to DaVinci Resolve 17.4.6 (29th March 2022) to DaVinci Resolve 18 - Public Beta (19th April 2022) Blackmagic Design has doubled-down on collaborative workflows.

Simultaneous Cloud Collaboration

Powered by the new DaVinci Resolve Cloud Collaboration, you can host Cloud Projects on their central server and share them with multiple collaborators the world over, keeping everyone in sync.

Everyone who has access to to the Cloud Project can also work within the same project and the same timeline at the same time, if you want to.

Media can be synchronously shared using third-party services, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, with others in the works. Combined with a new Proxy workflow (to take the load off of your internet connection) you may never need to download the original media anyway, if you're only working on the sound design or edit, for example.

The Impact of Blackmagic Design's Cultural Values

Just because all the big tech companies do it, doesn't mean it's right.

— Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO

One of the most interesting parts of CEO Grant Petty's 90 minute presentation was his  articulation of how Blackmagic Design's values underpin the design of their new collaborative cloud workflow.

Both of which fly in the face of 'VC-funded, Big-Tech' business models:

  1. Not extracting rent through subscriptions that 'lock up your work'
  2. Not tracking your data to sell to third parties

These values are also the reason that every single update to DaVinci Resolve has been free since they started developing it and why they looked to find a collaboration system that would mean your data stays private.

For us to make money, we actually have to help you make money.

— Grant Petty, CEO Blackmagic Design

As a privately owned company, Grant can do what he likes with BMD which is maybe why it's always doing interesting things.

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