Christmas Gifts for Film Editors 2018
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
It’s Christmas time! Here are seven more ideas for what to give your fellow post production professionals, to show them a little love. Maybe you’re gifting up to a post supervisor, client or director, or maybe to a colleague, junior or young hungry apprentice.
If you see something particularly new, different or interesting that would make a great gift for fellow post pros, do hit the comments to let me know!
If these ideas don’t chime with your tastes or budget then be sure to check out previous gift lists here:
- Christmas Gifts for Film Editors (2017)
- An Editor’s Christmas Gift Wish List (2016)
- Christmas Gifts for Film Editors (2015)
- What to get a Film Editor for Christmas (2014)
- An Editor’s Epic Christmas Wish List (2012)
I’ve updated my Amazon Gift Collection with these and other ideas from previous years if you want to visually see everything in one place.
Post Production Christmas Sales
If I come across any good holiday sales I’ll update this post with them, but what I know now is that FilmConvert is running a holiday sale with discounts on all their products.
And for the first time they’ve allowed you to ‘stack’ promo codes, which means that if you use my referral link you’ll save an extra 10% on top of their holiday sale, giving you a decent 35% off!
You can read my full review of FilmConvert’s easy to use film emulation plugin here.
Masterclass – Buy One Gift One
Masterclass.com are running their Buy One Gift One event for just a few days from the 18th – 26th of December 2018.
This is a great opportunity to pick up a year long All-Access Pass for half price if you can find a friend to split the cost with you. Normally getting access to every single Masterclass costs £170/$180, but if you already own a single class you can upgrade for just $90/£80 to the All-Access Pass and still get a entire second All-Access Pass for free. So that’s only $45 each for a year of Masterclass.com.
I’ve listed out some of the best classes (scroll to the bottom of this post) or you can read my detailed review from a film editor’s perspective here.
Masterclass.com have recently added courses from National Geographic photographer Jimmy Chin, wine connoisseur James Suckling, independent filmmaker Mira Nair and guitarists Carlos Santana and Tom Morello.
Next year they will also be introducing courses from Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster!
Check out Masterclass.com’s Buy One Gift One here.
LearnColorGrading.com Holiday Sale
Alex Jordan, the DaVinci Resolve trainer behind LearnColorGrading.com, is offering a massive bundle of 7 DaVinci Resolve colour grading courses, his popular VIVID LUT pack (200 x 3D LUTS) and his DaVinci Resolve practice footage for only $97. That’s a $600 saving!
Snap it up before midnight on December 28th.
Ripple Training Holiday Sale
One of the best online training providers, RippleTraining.com, is offering a whopping 40% off any of their tutorials (excluding bundles or plugins) with the coupon code: cheer-40
Personally the new DaVinci Resolve training titles from Mark Spencer, Jason Bowdach and Alexis Van Hurkman look very tempting…
Rampant Design Year End Sale
Rampant Design are offering a massive 50% off everything in their store. You can save even more on some special bundle deals such as saving $699 on their Ultimate Rampant Style Kit Collection, snapping it up for just $99.
Use the coupon code: BASH50 to get 50% off before December 31st!
Christmas Gifts for Film Editors – Some Charity Options
When I first put this post together I forgot to add some charity options, now that I’ve done my own Christmas shopping it reminded me of my error. Hopefully these are the kind of gift that reflect on the generosity of spirit of the person receiving it, whereby you’re saying you know they’re the kind of person who would rather give than receive.
As the majority of my readers are from the U.S. I thought I’d start with a charity who seem to offer the very best kind of ‘leverage’ when it comes to donations in and impact out.
RIP Medical Debt allows you to buy up the outstanding medical debt at pennies (or less than) on the dollar. So a $5 donation could pay off $500 worth of medical debt.
To me this would make for an excellent stocking filler or secret Santa gift; “I know we said the budget was only $10 but I thought I’d give you a $1000 gift instead…“
You can read more about it in this recent New York Times article, or watch John Oliver swear about it (a lot) and pay off nearly $15 million of debt for less than $60,000, here.
Another good Christmas gift that will do some good for your sole (lolz) are a pair of Jollie Socks.
It’s quite simple really, you buy someone a pair – gift wrapped in a can if you like – and they then supply a pair of hardy socks to your local homeless shelter in return.
I thought I’d ask Hans if he’d like a pair…
Last but definitely not least, I thought it best to include the incredible charity my better-half works for, Refugee Support Network, who do unbelievable, life-changing work with some of our city’s most vulnerable people; unaccompanied asylum seekers.
To you and I, that means teenagers who have been forced to flee conflict, torture and worse in their home countries and have come to the U.K. seeking refuge.
RSN are on a mission to raise £6,000 by the end of the month and they’re most of the way there. Maybe you can help them hit their target and support them in their vital work.
Christmas Gifts for Film Editors
If you’re after a (not particularly) cheap film related ornament then this glittery ‘gem’ could be just what you need, or possibly this rather more intimidating Hal 9000 Christmas bauble.
This compact hide-away book styled accessories case looks like a really useful gift for any editor spending a lot of time working on the move, and with a recent MacBook Pro, because you’ve no doubt got peripherals stuffed in every pocket and dongles scattered hither and yon.
Created by Twelve South from genuine leather it should also be fairly long lasting, you can get a tan leather ‘journal cover’ instead, or even a larger sized laptop case too.
The BookBook costs [amazon_link asins=’B075KNT7NC’ template=’PriceLink’ store=’jonelwfiledi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’104e5c07-f713-11e8-bd3d-dffab3fd3bb4′] and is available on Amazon Global Stores.
Special Features for Film Editors
Whether or not you’re a fan of the Mission:Impossible film series it’s worth getting yourself (or a friend) a copy of the Mission:Impossible Fallout blu-ray or 4K release as it contains the following three commentaries, among many other special features.
- Commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise
- Commentary by director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton
- Commentary by composer Lorne Balfe
You can learn a huge amount more about the making of the film in this massive round up of interviews with editor Eddie Hamilton and several of his key post production team, here.
By the way, if you see any other recent releases with commentaries from the editor – let me know! This previous post includes the best film editing special features and commentaries I’ve discovered so far.
If you want to edit a little more like Eddie then you should check out this post on the Razer Naga Chroma programmable gaming mouse, and the settings he uses to speed up his workflow while cutting in Avid Media Composer, it also makes an excellent Christmas gift, although personally I prefer a Wacom tablet over a mouse.
Do you still use a Razer Naga gaming mouse with customizable buttons?
I do — I still use that mouse and tweak that customization week by week as I refine what I do.
I use it to turn waveforms on and off, to go to color-correction, to switch between cameras in multicam and, if I’m on my laptop, I use it to switch between full-screen mode and timeline.
It allows me to zoom in and out of the timeline and work incredibly fast. It’s very nerdy — but I’m a post-production nerd and I love all this stuff. – Eddie Hamilton via Studio Daily
Books on Film Editing
If there is one gift that could make all the difference to someone’s career trajectory in this list, it’s a copy of Jump Cut by Lori Jane Coleman ACE and Diana Friedberg. I’ve previously reviewed the book in more detail here, but the following should give you a good sense of why it’s such a worth while purchase.
What Jump Cut does so well is to pack in a tremendous amount of wisdom, tips, tricks and insights into what it takes to not only become a better editor, but to make the leap from working as an assistant into the editors chair.
This is a topic that’s not always easy to find reliable information on and often, especially if it comes from only one editor’s experience, can be a little narrowed in it’s view. Jump Cut however draws on the author’s experience not only as editors themselves, but the roster of ACE editors they’ve had access to over 10 years.
The book is split into a four different sections
- So You’re an Assistant Editor, Now What?
- Discover the Rules
- Guides for Editing Non-Fiction
- Words of Advice from Editors
It takes time, tenacity and a true passion for discovering the multi-layered talents that an editor possesses – and it takes commitment. When your paid job is assisting, making the time to edit is challenging. Editing takes energy and a high level of concentration – you need to get lost in the scene and be in the zone. You probably fee overworked and overwhelmed as it is, and there is just so much time in the day. After all, you would like to have a life outside of the work place.
But you must make time.
From six to nine in the morning, before anyone comes in, or from nine to midnight, after everyone has left.
You should be cutting every day.
I’ve previously reviewed a lot of different books on film editing, colour grading and more whilst writing this blog, to check some of those out click here.
Tech Gifts for Film Editors
I’ve switched things around in my edit suite lately and most of that change has been thanks to the introduction of the Elgato Stream Deck to my day-to-day set up.
The Stream Deck is a lightweight portable set of 15 programmable buttons, each of which is it’s own LCD screen. What this means is you can create an unlimited number of macro shortcut keys, all within easy reach of your finger tips.
I’ve reviewed the device in full in this recent post, but it’s definitely my current favourite peripheral for a few simple reasons:
- I can update the layout at a moments notice and I don’t have to memorise what each button does because it is easy to label graphically or in text.
- I can create a new profile for each app I use and it automatically switches between them as I do, and each profile can contain sub-folders upon sub-folders of shortcut buttons.
- It’s really fun and efficient to use.
For a few thousand more words on the Stream Deck and the chance to download my custom profiles for Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve check out my full review.
But as a Christmas gift for your beloved film editor, this is a sure fire win!
Thunderbolt 3 G-Tech SSD
I recently got hold of a couple of G-Tech’s latest portable SSDs and they are fast!
The Thunderbolt 3 G-Tech Mobile Pro SSD can transfer 10 GBs of data in well under 10 seconds. It’s not cheap at $695 for 1TB of super fast storage, but if you’re in a generous mood, it would make a lovely gift!
More affordable though is the G-Tech G-Drive R series SSD drives which are incredibly small, IP6/7 water and dust proof and not too expensive at [amazon_link asins=’B0765PBZNL’ template=’PriceLink’ store=’jonelwfiledi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’d972ffaf-f71b-11e8-94ea-f7fac2bb5379′] for 500GB.
The R-series connects over USB 3.1 resulting in write speeds of 485 MB/s and read speeds of 526 MB/s in my own testing, which is thoroughly decent. I’ve seen Samsung’s similar T5 SSD drive deliver speeds of 470 MB/s and 509 MB/s.
For even more film editing gear reviews from headphones to affordable colour grading monitors, check out this central page on the blog.
Masterclass All-Access Pass – Buy One Gift One!
This list would be far from complete if I didn’t mention my absolute favourite thing of 2018 – The Masterclass.com All-Access Pass.
Until December 26th you can pick up an All-Access Pass for just $90/£85 if you split the cost with a friend (normally $180/£170) in their Buy One Gift One sale.
Why do I love it so much?
Where else can you learn from such an incredible list of absolute masters of their craft?
- Aaron Sorkin Teaches Screenwriting
- Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring
- Martin Scorsese Teaches Filmmaking
- Ron Howard Teaches Directing
- Shonda Rhimes Teaches Writing for Television
- David Mamet Teaches Dramatic Writing
- Steve Martin Teaches Comedy
- Helen Mirren Teaches Acting
- Werner Herzog Teaches Filmmaking
- Samuel L. Jackson Teaches Acting
- Spike Lee Teaches Filmmaking
- Judd Apatow Teaches Comedy
- Ken Burns Teaches Documentary Filmmaking
- Mira Nair Teaches Independent Filmmaking
And this is just the film list, not to mention some of these other excellent courses which I have hugely enjoyed this past year.
- Annie Leibovtiz Teaches Photography
- Chris Hadfield Teaches Space Exploration
- Stephen Curry Teaches Basketball
- Daniel Negreanu Teaches Poker
- Garry Kasparov Teaches Chess
- Bob Woodward Teaches Investigative Journalism
- Malcolm Gladwell Teaches Writing
- Dominique Ansel Teaches French Pastry Fundamentals
- Paul Krugman Teaches Economics and Society
- Karl Rove and David Axelrod Teach Campaign Strategy
If you want to read more on these great classes, just click on the links in the list above or checkout Masterclass.com for yourself.
