Mail lists are user groups to which you subscribe. When you or another subscriber sends an email to the list, it is forward to all list subscribers. In most cases, you can subscribe in “single-sub” mode, where you receive each message separately, or in digest mode, where messages are grouped together, and you receive a batch as a single email.

While mail lists are dedicated to a specific subject, sometimes they go wildly off-topic, occasionally with spectacular results. Feuds are waged, and people have in rare cases been kicked off of lists. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often.

This page lists video-related mailing lists that we think you might find interesting and/or useful. We constantly look for useful lists, and welcome suggestions and submissions for additional sites to add to the list.

If you know of or maintain a list that you'd like added, send us information at: WebMaster@McQPro.com, and we'll be happy to check it out for possible inclusion.

After Effects

This is a fairly active list devoted to Adobe After Effects. Postings run anywhere from 50 - 200 per day, and the list includes some very knowledgable users who serve as mentors. The AE list is pretty good at staying on topic, and valuable information appears daily. It’s hosted by René Hedemyr in Stockholm, Sweden, who also hosts the IMUG list (see below). Both single-sub and digest versions are available, with the digests containing up to 10 emails each, generated according to accumulated message date, and whatever’s on hand at midnight in Sweden each night.

Adobe personnel apparently monitor this list, but rarely ever participate or respond to postings.

Avid-L

The Avid list originated at a university, but is now hosted by Avid themselves, in a completely hands-off manner. That is to say, they provide the server, but they don’t interfere or censor the list in any way. It’s a very active list, with anywhere from 50 to 150 postings per day. Both single-sub and digest versions are available. The digest is spit out once every day—generally around midnight, Eastern (US) time—and divided into two or even three files dependent on the size of the aggregate postings.

Avid personnel monitor the list, and will occasionally participate and reply to postings.

Cinematography Mailing List

This is a terrific resource for everything related to shooting moving images. It differs from most mail lists in that the discussions are archived in a very nicely organized fashion by topic and sub-topic. This is why we’re also listing it on the Links page.

Final Cut Pro

This is a Yahoo group that lets you either receive postings as email, or view them on Yahoo’s groups web site. It’s moderately active, with from 20 to 50 postings per day. In order to join, you’ll need to sign up with Yahoo groups, which is a fairly painless process. Both single sub and digest subscriptions are available.

Apple personnel do not appear to monitor the list.

International Media Users Group (IMUG)

This began its life as the Internation Media 100 Users Group, but as more and more of the members started switching to other systems—Final Cut Pro in particular—the group changed its name to reflect the shift in makeup. It still, however, is the primary mail list for Media 100 users. Both single-sub and digest versions are available, with the digests containing up to 10 emails each, generated according to accumulated message date, and whatever’s on hand at midnight in Sweden each night. As is the After Effects list, this list us hosted by René Hedemyr in Stockholm, Sweden.

Media 100 personnel monitor the list, and will occasionally respond to posts.

Strata 3DPro

This list for Strata’s 3D application is independent of the company, and moderately active, with from around ten to thirty postings per day. The list often goes off-topic, but is usually interesting when it does.

Strata personnel and former employees still close to the company monitor the list, and often respond to posts.