Mode breakdown
Why workflow beats jumping straight to effects
Casey Faris’s video makes a simple case that many editors learn the hard way: the biggest time savings in post-production usually come from doing the work in the right order, not from chasing faster shortcuts inside one page of DaVinci Resolve. His answer is a six-step workflow built around one core idea. The edit is the foundation, and everything else should support it instead of competing with it.
That is the practical value of the video. Faris is not trying to turn Resolve into a mystery box of advanced settings. He is showing how professionals keep a project from spiraling into extra revisions. If you have footage imported and you are staring at a timeline full of raw clips, his advice is to resist the urge to jump immediately to transitions, color, or effects. First make the project usable. Then make it polished.
Start with color management and organized media
Faris begins before the timeline even becomes the main event. His first move is media organization: put footage into folders that make sense, then drag those folders into Resolve so the folders stay intact as bins in the media pool. It is a small detail, but it sets the tone for the whole workflow. If the media is already grouped logically, you spend less time hunting for clips and less time rebuilding the same structure inside the app.
From there, he treats color management as step one for footage shot in log. His explanation is intentionally plainspoken: log footage looks flat, and color management turns it into something that looks normal on screen before any creative grading begins. In the video, that means opening project settings, going to color management, setting the project to DaVinci YRGB color managed, turning off automatic color management, and switching the color processing mode to HDR DaVinci wide gamut intermediate.
He also shows the clip-level side of the process. In the media pool, you select the footage, right-click, and assign the correct input color space. He notes that raw footage can be handled automatically through camera metadata, while compressed formats like ProRes or MP4 need manual setup. The takeaway is not the exact menu path so much as the principle behind it: get the footage into a sensible starting state before you start judging exposure, contrast, or look.
For readers who are trying to avoid common beginner mistakes in Resolve, that may be the most useful lesson in the entire video. If your footage is still behaving like log, every other visual decision becomes harder to evaluate. If it is already mapped correctly, you can make cleaner choices later.
Build the story before you polish the picture
Faris spends the middle of the video drawing a hard line between editing and everything people often lump into “editing.” In his definition, editing is the work of shaping a story in the timeline: placing clips, trimming them, and arranging them so the video communicates something clearly when played back.
That distinction is the center of the whole workflow. He argues that the story should come before color, graphics, audio sweetening, or motion work. If the timeline does not hold together, polished visuals will not rescue it. If the structure is weak, extra layers only make the project more expensive in time.
This is where Faris’s advice feels especially grounded in real production habits. He describes the common temptation to focus on the flashy parts first because they are more fun to work on. Fancy transitions, cinematic grades, and LUTs are visible quickly. Story work is slower and less glamorous. But his point is blunt: if the edit is wrong, the rest of the process is built on sand.
For creators making YouTube videos, client work, documentaries, or short films, that hierarchy is useful because it changes what counts as progress. A timeline that tells the story cleanly is real progress. A heavily stylized clip that will probably get cut later is not.
Add graphics, grading, and audio only after the timeline settles
Once the edit is locked enough to stop moving around, Faris moves into Fusion for VFX and graphics. His reasoning is practical, not decorative. If you build graphics too early, you risk designing work around shots that never survive the final cut. The same goes for effects. Finish the timeline first so you only spend time on shots that will actually be in the project.
He applies the same logic to color grading. Since every shot in the final edit may need to be graded, it makes more sense to wait until the sequence is settled. That way, you are not grading material you will later remove. He also notes that grading should account for the final visual effects, so the last picture treatment reflects what viewers will actually see.
Audio mixing comes next, but with one important caveat: Faris says audio and color can be swapped more easily than the earlier steps. They do different jobs, but neither one changes the structure of the story. He describes color grading as polishing the visual elements and audio mixing as polishing the sound. In Resolve, that work generally happens in Fairlight, where you can shape the mix with tools like filters and EQ.
The broader lesson is clear. Not every post-production task has to be chained to a rigid one-size-fits-all rule, but the sequence still matters. Structural work first. Refinement second.
Render, then protect the project
Faris closes with rendering and backup, and that ending is more useful than it might sound at first. Exporting in Deliver turns the project’s many individual parts into one playable file. That is the version you upload, hand off, or distribute.
But he does not stop there. He also stresses backing up the project after export, even if you think you will never need the original files again. His point is not dramatic; it is practical. A project can come back for revision, reuse, or consolidation, and it is easier to have a plan than to rebuild missing media later.
That is what makes the video feel like a professional workflow lesson rather than a feature walkthrough. Faris is not promising that Resolve will do the thinking for you. He is showing that a disciplined order keeps the whole process from wasting time. If you treat the story as the core, then color management, graphics, grading, audio, and export all have a place instead of competing for your attention.
For editors trying to move faster without making sloppier videos, that is the real win. The workflow does not just organize the software. It organizes the decisions.
Recommended next
Products & tools
One Mode Digital Media product and one relevant affiliate recommendation selected for this page.
I Read The Comments
A darkly funny internet-culture design for anyone brave enough to scroll all the way into the comments section. Horror-inspired artwork turns online reactions into the real monster, making it a fun pick for creators, social-media veterans, and people who know better but look anyway.
Artlist
Music, footage and creative assets for video-first creators.