10 Reads for September 30, 2012

I was speaking with Clay Asbury, who has just started writing from us, about the theme of our blog. After I finished going on and on about what we are trying to do, he summarized our mission as helping people work smarter not harder. I think that's a perfect description, and a good thing to think about as we roll into October.

• Blackmagic Cinema Camera Video Roundup. The name pretty much says it all. I think my favorite video is the low light shootout from Frank Glencairn.

• Parenthood in Production and Post: Being a Editor Dad. A great interview by Kylee Wall with Tim Wilsbach about how he manages to balance a hectic life as an editor with the demands of being the father of a 2 1/2 year-old. How can you possibly be successful in video while raising a kid that doesn't grow up to resent you? Read on to find out. Look forward to the next two parts of this series.

• Vimeo: Tip Jar and Pay-to-view. This one is a post from the ever thoughtful Vincent Laforet about Vimeo's decision to help its community monetize videos with a tip jar and a forthcoming paywall product. He believes (as do we) that this a huge step forward in the evolution of online video delivery. He is now using it to fund his video reviews. Some good discussion in the comments on who these new services will work for.

• Video Metadata Practices to Boost SEO. A helpful look at the importance of metadata in the context of online video, what this means for your videos, and some best practices to improve your search results.

• The Best DIY Dolly Might Already Be Sitting in Your Garage (Yes, a Car). What can be better than hanging out of the trunk of your car to get that perfect shot. Check the comments for other people's stories about using this technique and their tips on how to avoid destroying gear or getting killed.

• Raindance 2012: How to light a Spanish Galleon set with the Underwater Realm’s Eve Hazelton. This is a great account of the real life challenge of lighting a location set under some tight budget and power constraints. Love the atmospheric shots of the light coming in through the top of the ship and scattering through the cannon smoke.

• New Macedonian sync software WooWave SyncPro battles with PluralEyes at a third of the price. Would love to hear from anyone who has tested it out. If you aren't that adventurous, then you can always use the tried and true PluralEyes, which has just been upgraded to version 3.0.

• Will hybrid drive technology help speed up video editing? Toshiba launch two HDD + NAND drives. Most people can't afford to use SSDs for all their editing needs, so these drives which combine a hard drive with some built in Flash memory that accelerates caching and drive performance could be a good option. What do you think?

• Interrotron: an Interviewing Tool Essential to the Documentaries of Oscar Winner Errol Morris. I loved Errol Morris's Fog of War, so I found this interview about the technique he uses to make a connection with the subject while getting a first-person angle on them quite interesting. Creative problem solving at its best.

• An important next step in transitioning from FILM to DIGITAL CINEMA: FilmConvert. An in depth look at FilmConvert a plugin for After Effects, Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and Apple Motion as well as a stand alone application, that is used to to approximate the look of different film stocks with footage shot on a variety of digital cameras. As Laforet explains, this product doesn't take the easy (and low-quality) route of applying a generic curve to your footage. Instead it takes painstakingly created color charts of different stocks and maps these to the different image sensors. Read on for more on this cool tool.

P.S. - We published a detailed look at Adobe Anywhere and the impact it could have on postproduction.