Holiday Gift Guide

Gift Ideas for Filmmakers

By Seth Worley

Gift Ideas for Filmmakers

It's the holidays again! A time when countless filmmakers wake to stockings filled with miniature clapperboards, Syd Field books, and whatever this is. We're not complaining. We get it! It's hard to shop for a filmmaker if you're not familiar with our world.

So we've gone to the trouble to curate this list of cool, useful filmmaking-related gifts for your cool, useful filmmaking-related family member. We're pretty confident they'll want it, because we want it. Mom.

Apparel/Decor

Girls On Tops Tees - $20.96

Awesome simple tees that celebrate awesome female voices of film.

Hat That Says Movies - $25.00

Perhaps one of the greatest branding achievements of our time: literally a hat that says movies.

Filmmaker Pennants - $24.95

Most filmmakers suffer from not giving a *** about sports, but that doesn't mean they can't get in on all the sweet merch. These filmmaking-themed pennants are great for offices, dorm rooms, parents' basements, sports places, and anywhere that has a wall.

Filmmaker Enamel Pins - $7.99

Great additions to anyone's enamel pin collection, and badges of honor for any hipster filmmaker.

Education and Inspiration

Writing 201 with Seth Worley - $75

The long-awaited follow-up to 2015's Writing 101, this 15-part video series from writer/director (and Plot Devices™ co-founder) Seth Worley is great for writers from all levels of experience, covering things like breaking and outlining stories, creating great characters, writing better dialogue, pitching ideas, writing short films vs features, and more.

Masterclass All-Access Pass - $180/year

Masterclass has somehow convinced major league pros like Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Aaron Sorkin, and Werner Herzog to share their secrets across hours of in-depth videos, and this pass gets you access to ALL of them for a year.

Scriptnotes Podcast 300-Episode USB Flashdrive - $29

The Scriptnotes Podcast from writers John August and Craig Mazin is required weekly listening for any aspiring or working screenwriter, and this flash drive comes with the first 300 episodes on it. So, you know, this is what you'll be hearing instead of all other sounds for a while.

Little White Lies Guide to Making Your Own Movie - $12.23

Little White Lies, perhaps the coolest film magazine in the history of Earth, exists to "champion great movies and the the talented people who make them," using the powers of rad design and nerdy film content (two things near and dear to our hearts). Their book is awesome, too, and perfect for learning how to make movies the no-nonsense way.

The Art of Mondo - $50.73

Look how pretty.

Physical Stuff

Storyclock Notebook - $14.99

A practical and straight-forward tool for turning your ideas into stories, utilizing the simple method of visualizing stories in the form of a clock. It's built for screenwriters, but it works with any storytelling medium. Even ransom notes!*

*Please don't kidnap people.

Savage Industries EDC One Bag - $225

We're huge Adam Savage fans here, so we're all up on this bag he designed based on his years of carrying tools around busting myths and being awesome. Carry your daily gear in a bag designed by a Mythbuster. Because that's the dream.

Writer Emergency Pack - $19

John August's Kickstarter sensation helps you fight your way out of writer's block. This deck of cards delivers killer art and playful writing prompts like, "imagine Morgan Freeman was narrating your story -- what would he say?" or, "kill the hero," or, "what if your characters couldn't talk anymore?"

Fisher Space Pen - $17-ish

This pen was created for astronauts. Is it really necessary for us to keep typing things after that sentence?

Tested/Field Notes Flight Log - $12.95

You know what's even cooler than aerial drone shots? Not going to prison. We're actually not sure if you can go to prison for failing to keep records of your drone flights, but better safe than sorry! Prison is the worst! Two of our favorite things (Field Notes and Tested.com) came together to create this beautiful child, custom-built for logging your drone flight data when you're out getting sweet establishing shots from the clouds. Complete with really handy checklists and flight guidelines for reference.

Storyboard Notebook - $14.99

Finally, a definitive notebook for drawing stick figures in boxes, with only the features you need and none of the ones you don't. Plus there's handy cinematography resources on the inside covers to ensure that you know what you're talking about when you show up to set and start pointing at things and making box shapes with your hands. A perfect everyday carry for directors and cinematographers.

Digital Stuff

Slugline for iOS - $19.99

Write movies on your phone. Literally turn on your phone and write a movie. Keep writing it on a computer later if you want, too. Did we mention you can write movies on your phone now? It's now a thing. A glorious thing.

Red Giant Universe - $99/year

A collection of fast and easy-to-use effects and transitions for editing, titles, and motion graphics. With effects like VHS (which makes your footage look like VHS), Holomatrix (for holograms, because Star Wars), Ecto (Ghost-y smokey glow!), and AV Club (think Better Call Saul opening titles), Universe is almost an embarassment of riches. Most of the tools are ready to go as drag-and-drop effects, so no advanced skills required.

Compatible with After Effects, Premiere, Final Cut, Motion, Avid, Vegas, Resolve, and HitFilm. Basically every host app ever created just short of Video Toaster.

1980’s Synth Pack - $74.99

“Stranger Things”-inspired music to use in your projects! It also makes for fantastic writing music. Each track was inspired by a fake movie plot inspired by a real poster for a real 80's movie, so the results are authentic and awesome.

Prolost Boardo - $29

Animate your storyboards and make clients and collaborators look at you like you're a wizard. Then you can start charging them like one. And everyone knows wizards are loaded. But seriously, create camera moves and simple animations from your storyboards without a single keyframe. Like a wizard.

Compatible with After Effects

Triune Sound Design Tools - $149.99

These sound effects are insane. Add them to a project and sit back and watch that wizard money roll in.

Rampant Monster Toolkit - $99.00

Such a clever idea. If you can't afford prosthetics and make-up for your zombie horde, just add it in post with this kit of monster body parts you can track and comp onto your actors. Seth actually used this to make ghosts one time.

Whatever you decide to buy for your special filmmaker this holiday season, just remember to package it with the ultimate gift: Love.

Merry Christmas, Mom!