Last minute gift ideas for film snobs!

Ok Christmas is swiftly approaching, and I'm beting there are a lot of slackers like me who have yet to do their Christmas shopping yet. I am going to suggest a few gifts in different price ranges for different types of film nerds and enthusiasts. Remember while a cinemaphile always appreciates a new dvd to add to the collection, that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gifts.

The Cheap Stuff Gifts for about $10 and under

For a really cheap gift go around to local video rental stores, if possible hit the stores that aren't part of some big corporation. A lot of them give away movie posters or other promotional items (cut outs ect) for free. It may take some searching and haggling but sometimes you walk away with some really good stuff.

If you have a video camera make a video tribute to your friend and post it on youtube. It could be something silly like you dancing and singing to a favorite song of theirs. You could get friends and reenact a scene from one of their favorite movies. Or you could do something stupid involving fire or being hit in the nuts that will guarantee a viral video and dedicate it to them , just don't actually hurt yourself or do anything too stupid.

Here is an awesome example of a silly video some guy made for his girlfriend. It's very low production quality, very simple premise, and extremely silly. However there is no doubt in my mind that his girlfriend smiled when she got this. I would like to make this clear right now, I don't know who the heck this guy is. I found it because it's the top youtube search result for one of my favorite songs. He would probably be embarrassed to have this posted around by a complete stranger, but he allowed for embedding so I have to assume he is ok with it. But it gives you a good idea of what a gift video should look like.



Books are another good cheap way to go as far as gifts are concerned. If you go to your local bookstore you are bound to find a few books about film. There are reprinted scripts, books about production, books on theory, and my favorite books about directors. If you don't feel like browsing around then I recomend going with
"The Film Snobs Dictionary: An Essential Lexicon of Filmological Knowledge"
by David Kamp and Lawrence Leviretails $10 new

For the Budding Film Maker

As a film maker you can never have enough tape to work with. Sometimes a simple practical gift is the most appreciated. Get them some mini DV tapes you can get a pack of two for somewhere between $15-20 at most retailers. Something as simple as another tape will allow a director to take more shots and take more chances with their work.

Another great idea is getting a shirt (they make other items too) from http://www.filmmakergear.com/
They have some hilarious shirts all specific to the film making world. whats even cooler is that it's not just for directors they have shirts specific to DP's, sounds guys, and editors. Their shirts range from $13-$22

Build them a Steadycam for about $15
here is the site that tells you how to do it. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

For the General Film Fan

A gift subscription to netflix is always a good choice. You can get someone a very cheap two month, one movie a month subscription for $10. Naturally you can keep building up from that point. As an added bonus if you order between now and the 29th netflix is donating %5 of the profits from each gift subscription to Feeding America.

You can also give gift certificates to Fandango, allowing your friend or loved one to get movie tickets to almost any movie theater they want. As an added bonus they can do this all through email, you never even have to leave the house and your gift will get to them on time.

For the Big Spender

For somewhere between $100 and well above you can get them a VHS to DVD burner, and let them transfer all their old tapes onto something a little more modern.

Final Cut Studio 2 offers the budding film maker just about everything they need for post editing. It is priced at $1,299 but it is the best software available to non professionals. Not to mention there are a lot of film makers using pirated software due to the prohibitively expensive cost of video editing software, can you really put a price on keeping a loved one out of jail?

Finally for the Star Wars fan an opportunity to kick George Lucas in the balls. Now I have no idea how much you would have to pay him in order for him to agree to this, but everyone has their price. Giving someone the opportunity to kick George Lucas in the balls, punch him in the face, or perhaps simply the opportunity to yell obscene things at Skywalker ranch for a bit is the type of thing that a Star Wars or Indiana Jones fan would treasure forever.

I hope this helps make gift giving a bit easier.

Happy Holidays or lack there of!