UPDATE FEBRUARY 4 2018: I’m happy to report that PVC’s sister company Filmtools has signed on to bring us this year’s #28daysofQuickTips 2018 and with that we’ve got two more prizes to add into the mix:

Grand Prize

A G-Technology 4TB G-DRIVE Thunderbolt USB 3.0 Hard Drive as our grand prize for my favorite reader QuickTip for 2018.

• 4TB Storage Capacity
• 1 x Thunderbolt Port
• 1 x USB 3.0 Port
• Up to 165 MB/s Data Transfer Speed
• Preformatted HFS+ for Mac
• Windows Compatible via Reformat

These G-Tech drives make great backup drives as well as shuttle drives as you move media from the shoot to post-production or moving an entire edit from one location to another. They are fast enough for editing provided you’re working with a good intermediate codec like ProRes or DNxHD and you’re not cutting with multiple streams of media and asking it to serve up a lot of 4K. Both a Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 port makes for some connection flexibility and the 4TB of space makes for… a lot of space.

2nd Prize

A LaCie 2TB Rugged Thunderbolt USB 3.0 LaCie 2TB Rugged Thunderbolt USB-C Portable Hard-Drive as the runner up prize for my second favorite reader QuickTip.

• 2TB Storage Capacity
• Thunderbolt / USB-C Connectivity
• AES 256-bit Encryption
• Bus-Powered
• Drop-Resistant Up to 6.5′
• Shock, Dust, and Water Resistant
• Windows & Mac Compatible

The orange Lacie Rugged drives are near ubiquitous in and around post-production these days. While they aren’t fast enough for demanding edits right of the drive they do what portable drives are supposed to do: provide great convenience, decent size and acceptable speeds in a small and rugged package. I haven’t met an editor yet who couldn’t get use out of a drive like this.

Plus Hedge backup software for the winners!

And both winners of the hard drives will get a copy of the backup software Hedge for either Mac or Windows. The $99 personal license will help backup your footage in a fast and safe way to multiple hard drives. Thanks to Hedge for tossing this prize into the mix!

Read on for how to submit your own QuickTip for #28daysofQuickTips 2018.

Way, way back in the year 2009 when I started this channel on PVC I published the 28 Days of Quicktips. And then we did it again in 2011 and included reader quicktips. We did it once again in 2015 including reader QuickTips and gave away some prizes! In fact ProVideo Coalition has a history of these 28 series including Art Adams’ 28 Days of Cinematography Insights and Woody Woodhall’s 28 Weeks of Audio Tips. There is a whole lot to learn by digging into these series.

For #28daysofQuickTips 2018, it is as exactly what the title says: one QuickTip a day for the entire month of February that somehow relates to post-production. Like we did in 2011 and 2015, this year we’re also looking for user submitted QuickTips. Just send us your favorite short QuickTip and an accompanying image or two that helps illustrate the tip and we’ll try to publish those as well. And as an incentive to send us your own QuickTips I will choose what I personally judge to be the best 2 or 3 submissions and send them a free copy of Steve Hullfish’s book ART OF THE CUT: Conversations with Film and TV Editors.

Send us your QuickTip and win a copy of ART OF THE CUT.

In addition to the hard drive prizes above we’ll be giving away at least a couple of copies of ART OF THE CUT as well.

As in the past, here’s how submitting reader QuickTips will work:

Write up a brief description of your favorite Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, DaVinci Resolve or really any other post-production software (or hardware related) QuickTip. Pretty much anything is fair game if it’s useful. Keep it short and to the point. These need to be tips that are handy and helpful that might not be entirely common knowledge. The most basic things like how to set and clear IN and OUT points won’t be published. The value of a QuickTip and its publish-worthiness, and the winners will be determined entirely by me, myself and I. Each tip MUST be accompanied by at least one image to illustrate the point (but more than one is better than one). If that image needs some kind caption please include that in the email as well. The better the supporting images for a good QuickTip the better chance of winning a prize! Images must be in jpeg or png format no larger than 1000 pixels wide. Please be honest and make these quicktips your own. Don’t steal them from someone else and don’t pick ones out that you’ve already seen elsewhere on the web or on Twitter.

Send the Quicktip and images to this email address: [email protected]

That’s pretty much it. Email it over between February 1 and February 26. Please include your name and a link to your website or Twitter handle, Instagram, whatever if you want that published with your QuickTip. Any other email addresses or identifying information will be kept confidential.

Thanks in advance and I hope this can be a fun way to share some Quicktips with your fellow editors. Use the hashtag #28daysofquicktips when discussing or twittering.