Last Minute Gifts For The Filmmaker In Your Life
What Apps, Gadgets and Films Any Aspiring or Working Filmmaker Can Enjoy
December 25th is just around the corner, and you’re running out of time to get gifts that aspiring filmmakers will absolutely love. Whether they’re taking communications classes in high school, applying to film schools or starting pre-production on their thesis projects, any or all of these could mean the world towards their personal and creative development.
TECH
Final Draft App
Final Draft has long been the industry standard for screenplay or teleplay formatting, ensuring perfect pagination and structure from FADE IN to THE END. Most likely your filmmaker child, spouse or friend has already been in contact with this through their traditional computer software package…but did they know they could carry their script in .fdx format along with them wherever they go? Available for iPad and iPhone, the Final Draft app works in much the same way as the desktop version; you even have the ability to save and share between the formats.
Now, any new idea or feedback they get doesn’t have to wait until they return to their workstation.
Price: $9.99 (free read-only option also available)
FiLMic Pro
This year saw a major feature film release (Unsane) and a major feature director (Steven Soderbergh) use an iPhone to shoot everything. Between Soderbergh, Michel Gondry, Sean Baker and more, smartphone cameras are becoming as viable and trusted for cinematic quality as DSLRs and other, much-more expensive, cinema cameras.
However, the phone alone wasn’t enough to get Unsane ready for its Hollywood close-up. They used the application FiLMic Pro (available on iOS and Android) to give their iPhone’s camera the same kind of manual override controls you can get out of a industry-standard camera. With FiLMic Pro, any film student can take advantage of making a side project or personal short film into a stunning, beautiful final product.
Price: $14.99
Oculus Go
Though Virtual Reality and 360° video was all the rage over the last several holiday seasons, there is some reason to believe things have cooled down. However, any filmmaker interested in telling stories that pushes technological boundaries needs to keep an eye on this format. Things will only get better from here. Though most filmmakers will not want to try and make a VR film right now, this is as good a time as any to study VR films. There are already so many wonderful, creative VR and 360° short films available for purchase and download, but you can’t truly experience their power until you get a VR headset, such as Oculus Go. This budget-friendly headset is just right for someone starting out and looking to learn the craft of this brand-new medium by first watching and absorbing what’s out there.
Price: $179.99
EQUIPMENT
Fujifilm X-T3
Though we’ve previously mentioned other, equally worthy, budget cinema cameras, Fujifilm X-T3 is the right blend of budget and versatility. This DSLR-style mirrorless camera is perhaps known better for still photos, but its video features do the job for someone just looking to shoot a lot of footage and get a sense of their individual style.
While the exterior build is not that much improved from the X-T2, there are several key new features (higher-res EVF, 9 more customization buttons, improved battery) that make it worth the update. Fujfilm always comes with a remarkable attached lens. This one goes 18–55mm, meaning great options for shot variety already built in.
Price: $1,499
ROXANT Pro Stabilizer
If you’d rather stay away from purchasing a full-on camera and just stick with the smartphone, then we’ve got some great gear suggestions to go with it. While there are many hand stabilizers on the market, few are as well-regarded as the ROXANT pro. Though touted as being for DSLRs up to 2.1 lbs, it also works for smaller cameras like the GoPro and, yes, your smartphone. If you’re not exactly going for that Jason Bourne handheld shake, this will smooth out all motion just fine, while providing a sturdy, slip-free grip.
The ROXANT brand also comes with lifetime support and free training, so you know you’re getting a product that will last a film student several projects. We bet their friends will be wanting to borrow it for their own shoots as well (as long as they bring it back, of course!).
Price: $54.87
Comica CVM-VS08
Ask any filmmakers who has tried (and failed) on a few projects whether they’d rather have bad visuals or bad sound, and the answer’s the same: bad visuals. Audio that’s anything less than professional sticks out like a sore thumb and will kill most film projects on the spot.
So if you or someone you know and love is sticking with their smartphone for filming, this Comica condenser is a miniature shotgun mic meant to attach to the phone while still picking up great audio takes. Should you rely on it for graded film projects? Probably not. But if you’re still testing things out and exploring your cinematic voice, this is a trusty friend to have. Don’t worry about having to keep this behind for exteriors either; the set comes with a muff and windscreen.
Price: $45.99
Cinemaps
Filmmakers? Reading books? All jokes aside, there is not any fears of having to make it through Moby Dick here. Instead, this is a beautifully-illustrated book from the original mind of Andrew DeGraff. Inside are several maps of plotlines from famous films like The Princess Bride, North By Northwest and Fargo. It acts as a great reference point for fans of classic cinema, but it’s also a completely unique take on understanding story structure visually. This book will be great training for the filmmaker interested in combining large concepts with fast-moving narratives.
Price: $20.39
Miniflix Subscription
Short films are extremely important in a young filmmaker’s career. They are often the first films a director gets to make, either as a calling card for a bigger project or as a thesis for completing a degree program. No matter where they are in their career, studying and appreciating short films from past and present will no doubt improve skills and help them create even better stories.
Miniflix is a streaming service currently playing some of the best short films from around the world, including several recent Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated short films.
Price: $3.99/month
