How do subclips save storage?

• A. Copy the media into a new file
• B. Reference original media
• C. Create proxies of the clip
• D. Re-encode to proxy

Answer: (B)

Subclips save storage by acting as pointers to a portion of the original media rather than duplicating the data. When you mark a range and create a subclip, Resolve stores a reference to the source file plus the in/out points for that range. No video data is copied or re-encoded, so the only extra storage is small metadata about the clip. You can have many subclips from one long file without multiplying the actual media size.

This is why it’s more storage-efficient than duplicating the clip, creating proxies, or re-encoding to proxies—the latter options produce separate media files that occupy additional space.