Christmas Gifts for Film and Video Editors 2021

The Best Christmas Gifts for Film Editors 2021
Post Production Christmas and Year End Sales

It’s that time of year again when we can spread a little love and Christmas cheer with a Christmas gift the film editor in your life will love.

This year I’ve (mostly) tried to aim for ‘analogue’ gifts that will get them up and out of the chair and enjoying the rest of life, away from the screen so they can come back to their creative work, refreshed and re-inspired.

Here’s a short list of the best Christmas gifts for film editors in 2021:

FluidStance Balance Board for Standing Desks
Masterclass.com All-Access Pass
AromaBoy – 2 Cup Coffee Maker
Collectable blu-ray box sets, including 2021 LOTR blu-ray remaster!
Cut To The Monkey and other Essential Books for Film Editors
Thunderbolt 4 Dock for your new M1 Mac
A monthly subscription to Cut/daily!
Incredibly useful book reading light

If you’re more of a visual browser then you can skip over to this Amazon page which collates all of these gifts and many others from previous lists, in one easy to peruse location.

I’ve ordered this year’s list with the more expensive gifts towards the end, so you can keep scrolling the more generous/hopeful you are!

A Free Gift To You – The Best Christmas Album Ever!

This is without doubt, my favourite Christmas album ever. Open it in a new tab and enjoy the festive feels while you read the rest of this post!

Post Production Christmas and End of Year Sales for 2021

Although it feels like Black Friday/Cyber Monday only just finished some post production brands and services are extending or renewing their sales during Christmas through to the end of the year.

I’ll be updating this list as more sales become available, but here’s a quick run down of brands that had a sale last year and so might run one again this year!

Loupedeck are offering $50/£50 off their Loupedeck CT and Loupedeck CT and travel case bundle, £30/$30 off the smaller Loupedeck Live and free world wide shipping, until December 15th – which is the last day to order to make it in time for Christmas!

You can still take advantage of Masterclass.com’s 2-for-1 holiday offer which allows you to get two of their annual all-access subscription for the price of one.

So find a friend and split the cost to double the learning!

I am a HUGE fan of Masterclass.com and include a subscription in my best gifts for film editors list almost every year!

I have also reviewed almost all of the film courses on the blog, including:

But there are now close to 100 world-class experts to learn from so the value of the all-access pass has sky-rocketed in recent years.

Get inspired and learn from the best, it will help to broaden your creative horizons!

Save $40 on a 1TB super-fast Samsung T7 USB 3.2 SSD drive and transfer at over 1000MB/s.

These were also on sale during Black Friday, so be sure to take a look at some of these other Black Friday post production deals to see if you can still scoop up some savings.

The Best Christmas Gifts for Film Editors 2021

So what are the best Christmas gifts to give to the film editor in your life in 2021?

Here are some of the things I’ve enjoyed (or would enjoy!) this year and I hope they will too.

Last year’s top pick was the DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor, which is a delightfully well made editing keyboard and jog shuttle wheel, that even my (then) 5 year old enjoyed using.

I wrote a post about people trying to hack it to see if they can use the Speed Editor in other video editing software here. And you can learn more about the Speed Editor and all the other new hardware and features in DaVinci Resolve 17, in this round up the best online resources.

1. FluidStance Balance Board for Standing Desks

I’ve been interested in this FluidStance ‘Level’ balance board to use while working at a standing desk ever since Mission Impossible 5-8 Editor Eddie Hamilton, recommended it in this excellent interview with Filmmaker U, as a ‘must have’ item in the edit suite.

FYI – I wrote up some of my favourite moments from that interview in this issue of Cut/daily including the essential questions every editor should ask of a scene, according to Eddie.

The Level was designed to allow your natural micro-movements to strengthen and stabilize your body, keep fluidity in your joints, burn extra calories, and keep you focused and alert while accomplishing great things at your standing desk.
FluidStance.com

They’re not cheap at $249, although you can get $15 off if you pay attention to their email grabbing pop up, but they look pretty slick and if they can help you stay healthy and keep you more alert while you’re working then they’re likely worth every penny!

Check out them out for yourself at FluidStance.com

2. Masterclass All-Access Pass

While I love that I can learn more about the craft of filmmaking from industry-veterans on Masterclass.com, one of my favourite things about Masterclass is the breadth of visionary voices that are available in their always growing library.

Here are some of my favourite non-film courses on Masterclass.com

Don’t forget, you can take advantage of Masterclass.com’s 2-for-1 holiday offer which allows you to get two memberships for the price of one. Find a friend and split the cost!

3. AromaBoy – 2 Cup Coffee Maker

The Melitta AromaBoy is a retro looking 2 cup coffee maker that delivers surprisingly good filter coffee through it’s miniature apparatus.

This is perfect for me as I’m pretty much the only one who drinks coffee in our house and usually only 1 cup a day.

The ‘Cup’ here being pretty small so a decent size mug will require two scoops of coffee and topping this puppy up to Max Fill.

One of my favourite features is that it will keep the coffee warm for 40 minutes and automatically turn off after that time, which is handy when you’re making it whilst looking after young children. Although, it’s sad when you hear it click off in the other room and you’ve not had a chance to enjoy your brew yet… but that’s another parenting story!

You’ll also need to get size 100 compostable paper filters (or a re-usable plastic one) to make it work. It comes in three colour schemes; retro brown and beige or all black or all white.

Check it out for yourself on Amazon Global Stores.

4. Collectable Blu-ray Box Sets

I love a collector’s edition blu-ray in the hopes that the behind the scenes extras, commentaries or making of features will be particularly insightful or delightful.

Here are some to check out:

5. Essential Books for Film Editors

I’m still working my way through Roger Nygard’s excellent book Cut To The Monkey: A Hollywood Editor’s Behind-The-Scenes Secrets to Making Hit Comedies, which is packed with editing craft gold.

Even if you never plan on getting into editing comedy as a career choice, it is absolutely worth reading. A full review is underway…

I already love this book. https://t.co/cy8LGOMDuW pic.twitter.com/xIcolDhCdn
— Jonny Elwyn (@jonnyelwyn) November 8, 2021

If you’re after a new read on the art, craft and business of film editing here are a few, new and old, must read books. Click through for each book’s review.

A long time ago in a cutting room far, far away…. by Paul Hirsch
Behind The Seen – Editing Cold Mountain on Final Cut Pro by Charles Koppelman
The Art of The Cut by Steve Hullfish
Make the Cut – A guide to become a successful assistant editor in Film and TV by Lori Jane Coleman ACE and Diana Friedberg, ACE.
Jump Cut – How to jump start your career as a film editor by Lori Jane Coleman ACE and Diana Friedberg ACE
The Visual Story by Bruce Block.
Into the Woods by John Yorke

But I’ve also reviewed a lot of other books on the blog over the years on a wide range of topics, and you can browse a full-list of every book reviewed on the blog here.

6. Thunderbolt 4 Dock for M1 Macs

OWC have two great looking Thunderbolt 4 docks/hubs to choose from. Personally I would plump for the actual dock – greater number of connections including ethernet and audio IO.

OWC Thunderbolt Hub –

4 Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) Ports
1 USB 3.2, Gen 2, Type-A Port up to 10Gb/s (1250MB/s) – USB 2.0/3.0 backwards compatible
Compatible with all M1 Macs, Thunderbolt 3 equipped Macs, and Thunderbolt 4 PCs.

OWC Thunderbolt Dock –

3 x 15W Thunderbolt 4 Ports
3 x 1.5W USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Ports
1 x USB 2.0 Type-A Port
1 x RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Port
1 x 3.5mm Audio Port
1 x SD Card Reader
90W Thunderbolt 4 Host Connection

I’ve had an OWC Thunderbolt 2 dock for years and it’s worked perfectly the whole time. Mostly to give me a greater number of USB ports to plug in my many peripherals, hard drives and the like.

If you’ve upgraded to a shiny new M1 Mac featuring Apple’s pace-setting Apple Silicon chips then you might want to also upgrade to a Thunderbolt 4 dock or USB Hub too.

Apparently the difference between v3 and v4 of Thunderbolt is more of a benefit for PC users in terms of throughput (40 gbps) but it’s always nice to future proof your tech as much as possible.

Check out OWC Thunderbolt Hubs and Docks on Amazon Global Stores

7. Monthly Subscription to Cut/daily

Cut/daily is my new thing and I’ve been working insanely hard on it.

If you enjoy learning more about post-production in a bite-size daily insight, then Cut/daily is for you. Come for the knowledge, stay for the funny gifs.

For the past 180 days I’ve shared a daily email, every Monday to Friday with my faithful subscribers and people really seem to love it.

I’ve shared 5 of my favourite learnings from the first 130 issues in this post and a composite interview from the Cut/daily Meets… series which features six different Post-Pros sharing wisdom from their career journeys.

It’s a super-low cost $5/monthly subscription, to get 20 fresh post-production insights direct to your inbox, plus access to the complete archive of all 180+ previous issues, member benefits and much more.

You can check it out for free and get a free email every Friday, by signing up for free (no credit card required) and read 50+ previous free issues too.

You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain – sign up for free at Cut-daily.com

8. The Best Reading Light You’ll Ever Buy

This gift was on last year’s list but it’s just been too useful not to include again!

Having bought several kinds of reading lights over the years to try to get through some books in the evening while not disturbing my wife, this one is the clear winner.

It’s got a chunky grip which makes it ideal for working through massive tombs or clipping to a desk, shelf or night stand. It’s soft and deeply orange light means it won’t keep you artificially awake and doesn’t bother anyone else in the room.

The neck is entirely flexible and can be shaped into any position, while the light itself is pretty uni-directional, which prevents a lot of spill. The battery lasts for ages and charges quickly via a standard mini-USB cable.

All in all this light is amazing, especially if you’re up changing nappies at 3am and don’t want to wake your sleepy baby by blasting them with light.

I can’t recommend it enough.

Buy the best reading light you’ll ever own on Amazon Global Stores

Give the gift of Giving – Charity Options

If you’d rather step away from the consumer inferno that is the ‘holiday’ season and give some good (or even if it’s just virtue-signalling) then these three charities have got you covered in the UK and US.

As the majority of my readers are from the US, 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.

I thought it best to include the incredible charity my better-half works for, Refugee Support Network, (now re-branded as REUK) who do unbelievable, life-changing work with some of our nation’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 UK seeking refuge.

RSN are on a mission to raise a lot of money for their new building project which has the potential to spring-board the organisation, and several others, to new heights for years to come. Until January 1st every donation given will be matched by a generous benefactor up to £50,000. So you can double your giving at no extra cost!