DaVinci Resolve’s new Clone Tool copies footage safely before coloring begins. Here’s how to use it.
Top Image from DIT World
Copying media during or after a shoot is not as simple as transferring via the computer’s native operating system. Large chunks of data can fail in the middle of a transfer, and a checksum is preferable to make sure the data was transferred correctly.
Digital Imaging Technicians (DITs) have long dealt with data wrangling software to make sure precious footage is copied effectively. Since DITs often work with DaVinci Resolve to create initial looks on set, it makes sense for DaVinci Resolve to offer a tool to make sure data is transferred properly. Resolve’s new Clone Tool copies footage safely before coloring begins. Here’s how to use it.
The Clone Tool is located on the Media page next to the Media Storage (blue circle). Selecting it pops up the queue (green square).
The interface isn’t immediately intuitive; you may want to simply drop a folder into the Queue panel, but you need to first click Add Job to create a new job window and initiate the cloning interface.
Then, as the interface indicates, drag your source and destination folders into the Queue. You can also right-click a folder and set it as either the source or destination folders for the cloning process.
You can also choose multiple destination folders, which saves time in the copying process.
There’s only one option in the Clone Tool preferences, and that’s Preserve Folder Name. I’d recommend turning this on if you’re duplicating footage to create backups.
Click Clone to start the process. When it’s finished, a checksum report will be generated, allowing you to verify that the cloning process completed successfully and that everything copied correctly.
