Do you have a friend or relative who’s into videography, wants to be a filmmaker, or just love making videos? Their birthday or a Holiday or Christmas is coming up and you still don’t have a gift?

In this post we’ll share 5 great gift ideas under $100 that ANY aspiring filmmaker creator will love!

Keep reading.

Great and useful gifts for filmmakers

In the video below, Scott Dumas, a pro videographer and filmmaker discussed 5 affordable gift ideas that are guaranteed to make any video creator happy!

Here are the 5 gift ideas:

1. White balance card

2. Reflector

3. External microphone

4. Memory card

5. Royalty free music library membership

Watch the video below of read the rest of the post for more details.

White balance / grey card

Bad color can ruin a video, and trying to fix it afterwards is often a nightmare.

Auto white balance in your camera (even in expensive cameras) can get it pretty good a lot of the time, but it also gets confused just as often.

Luckily, the solution is simple. A white balance or grey card.

Pop it into the light where you’re filming and grab a quick custom white balance- and then you won’t have any problems at all.

There are plenty of options- some even come on a key chain, some collapsible, some that pop onto the front of your lens.

Starting at under $10 this is something that no filmmaker should go without.

White balance will help to improve the video color and that makes it a good gift for any filmmaker.

Reflector

Bad lighting is guaranteed to ruin your video.

Sure, natural light is free but what if you’re filming under harsh sunlight or with strong backlight with your subject’s face hidden in the shadow?

That’s easy to fix with reflector.

Typically you only need a 3-in-1 reflector: black on one side and white on the other, with diffusion in the middle.

White will bounce light back onto your subject – perfect for taking your backlight and turning it into a second source.

Black will deepen shadows, which is perfect for more dramatic scenes.

Diffusion will save you from that harsh strong lighting in the middle of the day. It’s not the same as just blocking the light – it actually softens it, essentially giving you a new, nice and foft light source.

The reflectors are quite affordable, lightweight, and super easy to bring along to the video shoot.

You can get a variety of reflectors for $20-40 usually, a bit more if you go for a name brand which might be more durable.

It’s best to go for the size rather than brand name if you have to choose. A larger reflector or diffusion can usually do the job of a smaller one, but if you’re stuck with a tiny one that doesn’t fully cover your subject, you’re out of options.

Reflector is a great gift for any videographer, because it will help to make the videos more professional.

External microphone

Even if you’re making videos with a good digital camera, the sound recorded by the built in microphone will be pretty bad. Terrible, in most cases!

That’s why every videographer needs a decent external microphone to bring the sound in their videos to the next level.

For filmmaking specifically, this can really depend on what type of content you’re creating, but there are plenty of options under $100 for anyone.

A lav mic that clips onto or goes under your subjects shirt can be perfect for things like weddings, documentaries and more, and you can even get something like the Rode SmartLav+ that plugs into your phone to record and costs just $79.

If you’re doing more run and gun type filming, something on top of your camera like the Deity D3, can be a goof choice and for $99, the Deity even has a built in pre-amp that will get you cleaner sound than cheaper mics.

Another alternative here for someone who might have a mic already, but wants to get it off their camera, is something like the Zoom H1n, a $99 portable recorder.

This will let you plug in your mic and record audio closer to your subject, or even just use the built in microphones for capturing ambient sounds to use in your video, which will give you a far better result in most cases.

External mic is a great gift, since it helps to improve the sound of the video.

Memory card

Every camera needs a memory card.

Unfortunately, most people starting out in filmmaking don’t want to spend much money on a decent memory card and go for the cheapest option.

Cheap cards are prone to losing data under intense use and in some cases they might even be too slow for the camera.

Even if your filmmaker friend already has a memory card, any videographers would love to get another. Especially a reliable brand like Angelbird, Delkin or ProGrade.

Royalty free music library membership

What to gift someone who already has all the basic gear?

A gift that will keep on giving for a year!

As you know, music plays huge part in videos but there are strict copyright rules when it comes to using music.

Depending on the type of use, legally licensing music for your work or even a hobby YouTube channel can get expensive.

Fortunately, there is a simple and affordable solution.

Music libraries like TunePocket create music specifically for videographers and filmmakers to use in their video without the need to negotiate the licenses with musicians and their music labels.

You can give somebody up to one year of unlimited access to thousands of great music tracks and sound effects that can be legally used in all sorts of videos, including freelance videography and commercial filmmaking.

The library covers most popular and cinematic genres and adds new music every day, so this is definitely a gift that keeps on giving!

One of the advantages compared to other options in this post is that there is no shipping involved, so you can give it virtually to anybody, even if they live far away or in another country.

The service is right under $100 ($99 for the year of unlimited downloads), so it’s at the top of our price range, but you can use the promo code 10PCTYOUTUBER to save 10%.

Alternatively you can purchase a smaller download pack for $39 or $49. The download packs can be easily upgraded to the unlimited downloads plan later on.

Music plays crucial role in today’s films and videos, so giving someone unlimited access to a professional library of legal music and sound effects is one of the best gifts.

How to purchase TunePocket membership as a gift?

If you want to retain the control of the account (for example, if you’re buying for a child), simply purchase one of the membership plans and share the login credentials.

Otherwise:

1. Buy a gift card. You can choose between $39, $49, and $99 cards.

2. Send the code to your friend or relative. The person with the code can redeem it towards any membership plan.

Buy gift code

Questions? Comments?

In this post we shared 5 great gift ideas for the budding filmmakers.

Are you a videographer or filmmaker? What would be your perfect gift?

Let us know by posting a comment! Post a comment