Christmas Gifts for Film Editors 2019

The Best Christmas Gifts for Film Editors

It’s that time of year again, one for celebration and rest and a chance to show a little gratitude to the hard working film editor in your life.

In putting together this year’s list I looked back at last year’s list and was pleasantly reminded of how much I like all that stuff! So do take look at it too.

In preparing this year’s list I tried to find gifts for a range of budgets although there are a few new (expensive) gadgets and gizmos that will make thoughtful gifts for the film editor in your life.

If this year’s ideas are not enough for you, here’s further inspiration from previous instalments:

The Best Christmas Gifts for Film Editors

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!

Christmas Sales and End of Year Deals

DaVinci Resolve online Training sale discount code

LearnColourGrading.com – Alex Jordan who runs a popular YouTube channel on colour grading in DaVinci Resolve usually offers his 10-course, in-depth video training at rock-bottom prices over the holidays and this year is no different.

So for just $97 you can get access to all 10 of his courses, plus his 200 x LUT collection. That’s a saving of $600!

This includes life-time access to the course and free updates as they amend the teaching to keep track with DaVinci Resolve’s on-going developments.

His training also covers every aspect of DaVinci Resolve including editing, grading, compositing in Fusion, using the Fairlight page and much more. The sale ends one minute before midnight on the 30th of December.

In 2019 LowePost.com has gone from strength to strength as a colour grading and visual effects training site, massively increasing the number of video training courses it offers in both breadth of the topics covered and depth of their content.

However they’ve recently increased their prices, which to be honest were absurdly low, to better reflect the value of their offering to $15/month or $129/year.

Opting for the annual subscription works out to $10.75 a month, which is still a decent saving…

BUT they’re giving you a final chance in 2019 to lock in at just $69/year for the lifetime of your membership via this special link, until the end of the year.

So don’t miss out, sign up now and save yourself $60!

You can check out my detailed review of what LowePost has to offer, which goes well beyond simple video training here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QbAnuTsN2Y

Masterclass.com – I spent most of my working lunch-times in 2019 learning from absolute masters of their craft on Masterclass.com for a daily dose of wisdom and insight on a huge range of topics.

I don’t know of any other place where you can learn from literally the world’s best and brightest with such simplicity and engaging high-production values.

For a limited time Masterclass are offering a Buy One Give One holiday offer in which you and a smart thinking friend could buddy up ($90 each) and split the cost of an All-Access Pass ($180) and get another one for free. Or you could be super generous and buy one and give the other one away!

Act fast because the deal will likely end soon!

If you want a better sense of what you get, here’s my detailed review of the All-Access Pass, with a closer look at just some of the amazing people you can learn from, including Aaron Sorkin, Hans Zimmer, Ron Howard, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson and many, many more!

Rampant Design Tools – Always have a big end of year sale and this year it seems like they’ve just kept their Black Friday sale rolling!

There is 60% off all their individual products and bigger savings on their bundles, like the Ultimate Graphics Collection for only $29 (down from $225) or their Rampant Style Kit Collection down from $1014 to just $99.

Ripple Training are offering 25% off their exemplary online video training tutorials for Final Cut Pro X, Motion and all aspects of DaVinci Resolve including freshly updated training for version 16.1

I love their highly featured online video player/training library, their teaching is always concise and professionally minded and absolutely worth every penny!

Save 25% with the coupon code: gift-25

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.

But maybe you know there is a charitable cause that means a lot to your nearest and dearest editor, give to that instead. I’ve adapted and updated this list from last year’s list.

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.

If you’re in the UK another 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 funky tin can, if you like – and they then supply a second pair of hardy socks to your local homeless shelter in return.

I bought a pair for my brother last year and they are really high quality socks that are well worth it.

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 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.

The Best Christmas Gifts for Post Production Professionals

Buy on Amazon Global Stores

Editor Paul Hirsch’s Autobiography

From what I see in the editor’s Twitterverse there seems to be more excitement about editor Paul Hirsch’s autobiography, than any other film editing book of note in quite some time.

A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away, the book charts Paul’s 5 decades in Hollywood editing films such as Carrie, Star Wars, Falling Down, Mission: Impossible and many others.

“Paul, I know you are just about finished with Carrie. How would you like to come out and help us edit Star Wars when you are done?” she asked.

There’s a short but entertaining excerpt from the book over on Entertainment Weekly, in which Paul describes how he came to work on Star Wars IV: A New Hope, which you can read at length here.

I’m really looking forward to reading this one myself, as editor’s autobiography’s don’t come along very often, and when they do they can be a bit hit and miss. But from what I’ve seen so far I have high hopes for A Long Time Ago… especially given the dust-jacket quotes from Brian De Palma, J.J Abrams and Mark Hamill.

That said, Walter Murch’s Behind The Seen, which covers his work on Cold Mountain, is also a firm favourite.

Other editing books that would make an editor happy and better informed this Christmas would include:

I have reviewed a lot of other books in my time and you’ll find a comprehensive list of every book reviewed on the blog here.

(Spoiler Alert) Paul was the subject of the first episode of Name That Editor, in which I edited together a montage of trailers from the film’s on editor had cut in chronological order.

It’s really interesting to do, as you see the trajectory of their career play out through the size and quality of the projects the cut, develop over time.

Paul was also interviewed at length as part of EditFest London in 2016, this playlist will give you his whole conversation with journalist Adrian Pennington, in which they cover numerous highlights from his long career. You can also check out this round up of the whole event here.

Buy A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away… on Amazon Global Stores

Mapify Wall Art

Christmas gifts for people you don't know what to get them

I just bought one of these as a Christmas gift for a family member (they don’t read this!) this year and thought I’d share it here too.

It’s a nice way to make a customisable map based on a location of your choosing and it’s a good go-to for that person who you just don’t know what to get them.

You can get $10 off your first purchase with this referral link (until Christmas day!) and if you throw in the coupon code ‘welcome10’ you should hopefully also get 10% off (I just guessed it and got lucky!)

A 50 x 70 cm (16 x 24″) map costs $69/€49 at full price.

Personally I liked the nautical theme with either ‘Modern’ or ‘Pantone’ layouts. Save $10 bucks at Mapify.com

Turing Tumble

The Turing Tumble is a mechanical computer disguised as an addictive marble run, that will actually teach you (or your kids) the essential principles of computation.

At $69/£55 it’s not exactly cheap, but it does look like it would make for a fun and educational (!) toy for all the geek-leaning family. A demographic bracket I’m trying to embrace.

Although it’s squarely aimed at kids, it looks like it would still provide a good deal of entertainment and challenge to a (somewhat) grown up editor, and would definitely make for a better desktop distraction than a traditional Newton’s Cradle.

Check it out for yourself at TuringTumble.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIrWoD33z68

To get a feel for what it looks like in action, watch this 60 second promo.

(Coffee) Gifts That Keep on Giving

Buy on Amazon Global Stores

What I love about the coffee related gifts I’ve received is that I use them pretty much every day. And when I do, I think to myself, “Ah, that was a good gift.”

And I think happy and pleasant thoughts about the gift giver. So for year long joy-giving, consider one of these coffee related gifts.

Ember make these fancy coffee mugs which cost [amazon_link asins=’B07NQRM6ML’ template=’PriceLink’ store=’jonelwfiledi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’1d4389e7-58f1-48cb-b081-344d1d4f976e’], but they will keep your coffee (or other beverage) hot for up to 90 minutes. So about half of The Irishman.

wanted to share the original poster for the irishman before i got cut for time so the movie coudl b a normal length wonder how long it ended up being pic.twitter.com/YmGpwVCSqa
— BoJack Horseman (@BoJackHorseman) November 27, 2019

Ember just released the 2nd generation of their mugs, which come in a variety of sizes from 10-14 oz. (284 – 397 ml, a can of Coke is 330ml). You can control the temperature of your drink from you iPhone and the LED light will inform you when it hits 88mph.

Buy on Amazon Global Stores

There’s also a more expensive travel mug option, ([amazon_link asins=’B07NQSJRBZ’ template=’PriceLink’ store=’jonelwfiledi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c2208841-db66-4eaf-8282-19ede85875fe’]) which gives you the temperature read out on the side of the mug, and a battery life indicator. This one has a cool rotary dial on the base for tactile temperature control.

The extended battery life on the more expensive Ember Travel Mug 2 lasts for an impressive 3 hours, so just 30 minutes shy of The Irishman‘s feature runtime.

Or you could just buy them this microwave to put in their edit suite, instant hot coffee without the glitz and it’s cheaper [amazon_link asins=’B07GV36BLD’ template=’PriceLink’ store=’jonelwfiledi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’856244d3-a45d-4d47-9676-eea076711f31′].

Alternatively and possibly more practically you could get them a travel-ready Aeropress coffee making kit currently [amazon_link asins=’B0018RY8H0′ template=’PriceLink’ store=’jonelwfiledi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b2ad399b-4dd3-421e-a286-286a388290a6′] on Amazon, as favoured by Visual Effects editor Ben Mills (Mission:Impossible – Fallout).

All you’ll need to add is coffee grounds and hot water and you’ll be nicely brewing.

An optional extra would be to add in the Prismo expresso adaptor ([amazon_link asins=’B079YBT2LJ’ template=’PriceLink’ store=’jonelwfiledi-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=”]), again recommended by Ben whilst working on M:I.

Expensive Tech Gifts that are probably tax deductible*

Check out the Loupedeck CT in full here

At the top of my ‘wish list’ to review next year are definitely the Loupedeck CT, nuraloop and Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pen Display.

Oh and the redesigned Palette Gear/Monogram devices. So quite a bit actually.

The Loupedeck CT in particular really intrigues me because it’s relatively rare for new input devices to come along that genuinely do out-pace a keyboard and mouse/tablet combo.

Or at least augment it in a useful way like the Streamdeck or a colour grading control panel.

So it will be interesting to see how it works out in a real life working environment and hopefully I can review one on the blog in 2020.

*This does not constitute tax or financial legal advice.

Save 10% on nuraloop pre-orders

The nuraloops are on my list because the nuraphone headphones are incredible and well worth every penny for their personalised sound, which is tailored to the specifics of how you hear audio and so can deliver the best music experience possible.

nura are running a decent Christmas sale with 3 months off nuranow (their £10 a month subscription service) and also offering 10% off pre-orders of the more suited to active-wear, nuraloops.

There’s also 20% off an outright purchase of the full-size nuraphones.

Read my detailed review of nuraphones, and understand the technology behind them in this previous post, or save while you can on nuraphone.com

Check out the Wacom range on Amazon Global Stores

As a long time Wacom user and advocate – really you should do yourself the favour and switch to one to save your wrists from RSI! – I’ve been using a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablet for years.

I’d love to try working with the 16 inch Cintiq Pro version of their tablet line, because the display is built into the tablet you really can move clips around in much more tactile fashion. With the timeline on the tablet more of my main display could be freed up for other tasks.

Editor Alan Edward Bell (Red Sparrow, The Hunger Games Trilogy, 500 Days of Summer) has been using a 24″ Cintiq along side a Logitech G-13 for many years now, although I think he’s recently changed things up a bit in his new home edit-suite/theatre!

I’ve not seen many editors using a display Wacom, although legions do use the Intuos range, so I’m keen to see if there’s an opportunity for an improved workflow there.

Check out the full range of Wacom tablets Amazon Global Stores

Update – In the UK (and hopefully in the US at some point soon!) you can save over £200 on a Wacom Cintiq Pro 16, and get significant discounts on many other Wacom tablets across their entire range.