Gift Guides for Visualists, Video DIY

CDMotion’s contributors haven’t come up with a wish list this year. Maybe that’s because we’re most wishing for time to work on all the projects we’ve got planned! (No material goods needed – unless it’s a Time Freezing Machine or Brain Accelerator!)

But there are a couple of really fantastic visual gift guides out there.

MAKE: Blog: Video makers gift guide

KipKay writes up this great guide, packed with gift ideas and DIY projects from the pages of MAKE, like hacking a single-use camera and sending it up on a model rocket. Never use boring footage in your live visual sets again!

TUAW: Gift guide for amateur video producers

Sure, it has “amateur” in the title. But replace “visualist,” and you have some fantastic ideas for gathering footage. (Hint: if you’re not on the Mac, the one Mac-only item here, Final Cut Express, can be neatly replaced on Windows with a version of the wonderful Sony Vegas, which I loved enough to basically give up on my Mac as my main editing machine and move to a PC. Really.)

And yeah, I totally want a MinoHD. With a USB jack and serviceable HD footage, this is exactly what you want for capturing some last-minute footage. I love that you can even add a custom image on the thing.

Oh, wait. I said I wanted time and nothing material. I probably lied.

On a sad (and non-digital) note, the wonderful Super 8 / Super 16 magazine smallformat reaches the end of its run. That means a very excellent idea is this Berlin-based magazine.

smallformat

Got other items on your wish list? (Hey, my birthday is January 13, so I think of that a bit as an additional holiday… maybe there are other Capricorns out there.)

On the music site, see also our last-minute gift guide round-up, holiday season discounts (thank you, global recession?), and of course the new print-on-demand / free PDF CDM Winter ‘08 Guide!