The Real Yellowstone was Peters first documentary using DaVinci Resolve Studio for both offline and online editing. After the experience Peters stated that Resolve provides an end to end workflow that’s hard to beat.
After being tapped by award winning Director and human rights advocate Tom Opre to assist with recuts for his “Killing the Shepherd” documentary, Peters quickly signed on to edit the subsequent two films in Opre’s series, “The Last Keeper” and “The Real Yellowstone.” These films reveal how true conservation begins with respect for the people who live closest to the wildlife.
An editor and colorist with expertise in commercials, television and feature films, Oliver Peters says that “‘The Real Yellowstone’ was my third documentary film for Opre but the first using DaVinci Resolve Studio for both offline and online editing. The switch to Resolve came at the urging of the colorist, largely to eliminate relinking issues he’d encountered in the past with other systems,” said Peters. “Up until now, I’ve used DaVinci Resolve Studio for color grading and some minimal editing tied to finishing work, and ‘The Real Yellowstone’ is the first project where I used Resolve as my principal editing application, start to finish.”
“The Real Yellowstone” delves into the lives of ranching families who find themselves at the heart of a complex struggle: rising real estate prices, predator attacks, and a powerful conservation movement that seeks to reshape the landscape they call home.
“It’s an honest look at modern life in the American west, which is quite different from the way it’s presented in TV fiction,” noted Peters. “As a documentary, we tried to give voice to all sides, draw some observations, and raise awareness for ideas that sometimes challenge popular concepts.”
Writing with Picture and Sound
According to Peters, unlike a scripted drama, a documentary also involves curiosity and education. “You learn things you might not have been aware of. As someone who’s never lived in the western states, there are unique issues particular to that region that I learned about. As a film editor, documentaries are more of a vehicle for the editor to tell the story, in effect, writing with picture and sound. Naturally, it’s the director’s story to tell, but the editor has a key role in shaping it in ways that other types of content don’t offer,” he said.
According to the information shared by Blackmagic Design, production spanned two years and incorporated multitudes of content, including events, interviews, and B roll recorded with various formats: professional cameras, smartphones, and drones, as well as some stock footage, stills, and animation.
“To keep things simple, I worked in a DCI 4K timeline with all proxy media at the same size and frame rate as the original. No conversions or relinking wizardry would be needed when handing off the project to the colorist,” noted Peters.
While the edit was largely straightforward cuts, dissolves, clip scaling, and tracking, Peters also created all opening titles, lower thirds, and end credits using DaVinci Resolve Studio’s standard text tools. He also handled all music editing and placement for a temporary mix, using DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fairlight page for basic track processing, such as EQ and compression. “I had built up the score from original music elements provided by Composer Paul Mounsey. It’s better to make clip level adjustments in the edit page, popping over to the Fairlight page to refine each track; for example, a common EQ and compression setting for all dialogue tracks. Same for music,” he said.
“DaVinci Resolve is an all in one tool that easily handles editing, effects, color correction, and audio post. While creative editing was my focus, several additional tools came in handy. Throughout the edit, plenty of resizing was required. I punched in on a lot of 6K footage, and all the still photos required ‘camera moves’ added by me. Both tasks were done within Resolve’s edit page,” Peters added.
Peters benefitted from DaVinci Resolve Studio’s robust feature set when it came to internal reviews. “Although I wasn’t doing final color or the mix, it was still important that the ‘rough cut’ looked and sounded good for whenever Tom presented it to the stakeholders for feedback,” he said. “Throughout much of the offline edit, I worked with proxy footage displayed in Log. For these reviews, I tabbed over to Resolve’s color page for some light color correction to make the film look more polished. The point is to mitigate anything that might take a viewer out of the film, such as sound and color, while reviewing for notes.”
Once the cut was locked, Colorist Matt Hartle of Baked Studios graded the full resolution media in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Assistant Editor Rob Dewbre rendered out the final film as several textless DCI 4K sections, again in Resolve. “These were sent back to me, along with the final mixed audio tracks. I tracked and blurred a few faces in Resolve’s color page as a last touch. From these elements I then assembled the final versions of the documentary,” noted Peters.
“Since we all worked end to end in DaVinci Resolve Studio, the edit and color information exchange was easier than nearly any other offline/online workflow. No XMLs, EDLs, etc. were required, and creative choices, like Ken Burns style moves on photos, translated correctly,” Peters concluded. “Admittedly, at the start, while I was confident in Resolve’s basic abilities, I questioned if it would be up to the task of cutting a full length feature film with tons of media files from a wide range of sources. It turned out to be a very pleasant and successful editing experience.
“At first glance, the breadth of Resolve might seem daunting to new editors, but it’s easy to use. For any editor at any level, Resolve provides an end to end workflow that’s hard to beat.”
The Real Yellowstone documentary is the most recent documentary from Shepherds of Wildlife Society, founded by Tom Opre. Through award-winning documentary films like Killing the Shepherd, The Last Keeper, and The Real Yellowstone, the society exposes the beauty and tragedy of what’s happening in wild places—where human dignity, cultural rights, and ecological survival are intertwined. The society’s work goes beyond conservation clichés to reveal the true cost of failed policies and the urgent need to rethink modern conservation through the lens of sustainable use and local stewardship.