#427 - What the Editor in your life wants for Christmas
Oh hello, did the beloved editor in your life forward this to you?
Well, you're in luck. Pick something off this list, and you'll have chosen them a thoughtful, useful, and enjoyable Christmas gift this year.
Well done you.
It's the most wonderful time of the year, and in this celebratory issue of Cut/daily you'll find a few different lists.
- One free book you really should read
- Five of the best Christmas gifts for film editors
- Ten of the most popular issues of Cut/daily in 2024
A Free Gift To You – The Gift of Giving
Zulu Alpha Kilo are the makers of some of my favourite funny videos, but last year they smashed it with this touching and surprising video on donation dodgers.
In the spirit of giving, you should read or listen to an excellent free book on the generosity of ideas, sharing, and the monumental power of the internet to amplify good in our world.
Chris Anderson's new book, Infectious Generosity, can be downloaded as an ebook or audio book for free here. I downloaded the audiobook which was a fast and engaging listen, read by Chris Anderson himself.
I have found myself asking a recurring question: What is the most generous version of everything I do? – Chris Anderson
I hope it inspires you to give, share, and create for a better world in 2025.
More Fun Please
During 2024, this delightful mashup from The Bell Brothers was my most shared video amongst friends and family (you're welcome), so I'm here to share it with all of you too.
Here's hoping for more of the same from the Bell Bros in 2025.
The Best Christmas Gifts for Film Editors
I've been compiling a list of interesting Christmas gifts for film editors since 2012, and if you rummage through the back catalogue you'll find some fun stuff.
Who knew* I'd be geeky enough to love a T-shirt about an obscure in-joke from an episode of The Bear?
(*My wife, definitely.)
Here's what's in this year's full list, which you can read in detail here.
- Stream Deck Studio (Or Stream Deck Plus USB Hub)
- Pomodoro Egg Timer (as used by Editor Joe Walker)
- Conversations with Wilder + new Every Frame A Painting
- Collectable Blu-ray releases – The Usual Suspects in 4K and more!
- Complete access to 425+ Issues of Cut/daily!
- Unreasonable Hospitality – A prompt to rethink your service
- Heat 2 Audiobook
- M4 Mac Mini – with the right spec for video editing
- Art of the Cut Vol 2 (+10 free chapters to read right now)
- Walter Murch's new book Suddenly Something Clicked (Coming in 2025)
Four Christmas Gifts for Film Editors
#1 - Stream Deck Studio and Stream Deck Plus USB Hub Add-on
It seems like every editor and colorist I know has at least one Stream Deck in their setup, if not two.
Well, the new rack-mountable Stream Deck Studio could soon be added to the most button-hungry of Post Production Professional's suites.
With 32 LCD buttons, two dual-function encoders and a slew of broadcast ready features such as RJ45 with PoE, cross-point routing and Native support for IS-04 and IS-05 for seamless IP-based broadcasting (whatever that means!).
At $899 for a single unit, the Stream Deck Studio is unlikely to make it into that many regular edit suites, especially when you consider that you could buy three Stream Desk Plus' ($250 a pop) for less than the price of a solitary Studio.
In which case this next item will actually be super handy...
Stream Deck + USB Hub
This will especially be useful if you've just bought a new 2024 M4 Mac Mini and need some extra ports for your other USBA and USB-C peripherals!
Specification:
- 2 x USB A
- 2 x USB-C
- 1 x USB-C 100W Power In
- 1 x USB-C 65 W Charging (e.g. for laptop)
- 2 x SD Card Reader (SD and Micro SD)
What's nice about this device is that it:
- Takes up less desk space as it fits neatly in the back of the Stream Deck Plus
- Frees up a fast port on your MacBook Pro otherwise needed for charging
- Lets you read from both SD card slots at once
Handy! Check it out for yourself at Elgato.com
#2 – Pomodoro Egg Timer
In my recent Cut/daily Meets... interview with editor Joe Walker, he mentioned that he uses a Pomodoro Egg Timer to help him focus his energies, whilst also taking little breaks to reset.
I started using a Pomodoro egg timer to keep me away from the internet.
I set it, stay on track for 50 minutes, then run free for 5, and so on.
These optimum periods were learned at school, I thinkJoe Walker, Editor
There are tons of Pomodoro timers out there to choose from, but I like the look of this one, with its more simplistic analogue vibes.
If time is money then making more of the time you have through enhanced productivity and focus will either get you more money or give you back more time.
If you want even more task management support check out the products from Minimal Desk Set Ups.
#3 – Conversations with Wilder
To celebrate the return of Every Frame a Painting and this excellent essay on legendary director Billy Wilder, you should pick up an absolute gem of a book: Conversations with Wilder.
Edited transcripts of conversations between director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Elizabeth Town) it is filled with delightful anecdotes from scriptwriting to final screenings.
CC: I haven't quite figured out how you were able to edit all those movies while still filming them in such quick succession.
BW: Quickly. That's the only way to cut them. There is no other way. The Apartment was done in a week.
Cutting a 5-time Oscar-winning film in a week! (They were cutting as they shot, but still!)
On your next project try to think: if I only had a week to cut this, what choices would I have to make now?
The book is also available in a beautiful hardback that will make your edit suite coffee table look all the more refined. (Assuming it's not already covered in the detritus of a week or two in the editing trenches.)
#7 – Heat 2 Audiobook
Since having kids audiobooks have become a big part of my life.
One of my favourite listens this year was Heat 2 by Micahel Mann and Meg Gardiner. It actually made my heart, literally, pound on more than one occasion.
Once you embrace the machismo of the narrator's voice and some of the writing, it's a really great listen. Pretty brutal in parts, but gripping.
Apparently, the movie version is aiming to start shooting at the end of 2024 or in early 2025 —hopefully, it will be as good as the book!
I do all my audiobook listening through Audible.
Right now you can get 3 months of Audible for only $0.99 - That's $45 worth of membership for only $0.99!
You'll get a free ebook each month, which you keep even after you cancel your membership, plus access to thousands of other audiobooks while you maintain your subscription.
A money-saving tip - At the end of the membership just hit cancel and say it was too expensive. Audible will try to get you to stay with another half-price membership offer for 3-4 months. I've done this a couple of times. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever paid full price for Audible.
If you're an Amazon Music Unlimited subscriber you can now also borrow one audiobook a month as part of your subscription. Amazon is also running a 3-month free trial for Unlimited music and podcasts right now too.
Read the rest of The Best Christmas Gifts for Film Editors here.
And now...
Top 10 Cut/daily in 2024
This was fun. Give it a listen!
Here are ten issues from 2024 that you don't want to miss:
- #420 - Cut/daily Meets... Editor Joe Walker
- #383 - This is why AI won't take your job
- #416 - How to build the perfect workflow
- #401 - You'll find it in the Timeline
- #392 - Smart Advice from a Savvy Assistant
- #411 - Eddie Hamilton edits $180 million movies with this?
- #415 - Cut/daily Meets... Supervising Sound Editor David McCallum
- #386 - The Secret to Killer Sound Design
- #406 - Two edits you might want to use more often
- #398 - How to Crawl Inside The Mind of a Director
So remember, give and ye shall receive and cut daily.
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