Insta360 Studio: Project management? Where and how?

What is it with Studio project management which I do not understand or can figure out?

What I have seen, project management is non existent.

So, I shot my first set of 360 video on my ski trip. Consisting of 2 memory cards full of footage.

I copied them from the cards to my local drive on my Windows PC.

As I want to make one big video having mixed parts of the footage along with audio soundtracks and finally produce a compelling experience I need to reframe all in Studio first and produce several exported clips. They then will be used in a Davinci Resolve to put together, add the audio, add nice transitions and effects and finally produce the ski holiday trip video.

And because the editing in Resolve will result in having to make minor adjustments to the reframed clips I need to go back and forth between insta360 Studio and Resolve by making minor changes to the reframing, export those clips to be imported in Resolve and make them fit until I like the result.

Now to my surprise, Studio seem not to have “real” project management.

First of all, there is no “new project” option in Studio. It creates a “project” consisting of a .insprj file and a folder containing thumbnails automatically when you drag/drop a 360 clip.

When you reframe a clip, this info is saved in the project folder which is defined in the preferences.

The “project” for one clip is stored in a folder having an unreadable name, which resembles a GUID, so no way to know which folder is used for which clip. No option to save a “project” under a speaking name.

Ok. After editing and reframe the clip so it seems to be correct to be used further on in the pipeline I can export it. The resulting file can then be used in a Resolve project.

Now, what to do when the reframed clip does not fit into the idea’s used in Resolve?

Well, you would think that you reopen the “project” for that clip, adjust the reframing and do another export. But there is no option for that.

No “Open project” is available in Studio. You start Studio with a blank slate and no way to get your previous “project” loaded in and make your adjustments.

Well, the .insprj file should be the way to do it. So double click on the “project” file starts Studio but does not open it. It gives an error “1 footage import failed: unknown error”.

Also when using Open File from the menu and load the .insprj file gives the same error.

Is this supposed to work?

In this state, the workflow is fairly cumbersome.

I need to reframe a clip, export and keep Studio open (or else I loose my edits). Import in Resolve and make the edits, decide to have minor changes, go back to the still opened Studio and repeat the process.

No way in preparing the clips this week and start Resolve editing a week later. I’m unable to reuse the hard work in Studio this way.

Am I missing something?

Why is there no “real” project management you expect from a Video Editing software where you can save a project with a speaking name so you can reopen it later without having to guess which clip to take from the dozens saved folders having GUID’s as names?

And how do I reopen my precious edits later on when I want to make changes?