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Stock Footage


ricardo_sousa11
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Hey

 

Recently as some of you may know, I've aquired the lovely NX1 with its amazing detail and 4k quality. One of my friends suggested me that I should try and sell some of my footage on stock banks, considering I live on an exotic island with beautifull landscapes (Madeira-Portugal). What do you guys think ? Is there a demand, of course it will depend on how good the footage is, what are the most popular and what are usually the prices for these sort of things ? I never tried to sell stock footage...

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EOSHD Pro Color 5 for Sony cameras EOSHD Z LOG for Nikon CamerasEOSHD C-LOG and Film Profiles for All Canon DSLRs

I have dabbled with it. Sold some stuff on Pond5, Shutterstock, Istock and most recently, Videoblocks.

If the stuff you shoot has demand, then there's definitely money to be made. I haven't made a ton, but enough to buy new bits of gear here and there. 90% of my clips sold are actually shots of my dog. The other 5% is shots of my city (Vancouver) and a few other scattered clips. 

Anything around you that is unique from a landscape standpoint could be valuable. 

It's worth trying. Worst you end up doing is spending time filming random stuff. We all do that anyway, haha.

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I have been joining a few recently. Started with Shutterstock and made $130 from two 1080p wildlife clips so far (got $105 from one as it led to a subscription). Uploaded maybe 50 clips a few weeks ago. Also been uploading to Pond5, Videoblocks and Dissolve- been too busy to fill in the meta details and tax info so far. Should be a nice little couple of hundreds bucks a month once all 80+ suitable clips I have are online.

One of them, beginning with R I think, only allowed clips max. 480 x 680 (or something equally weird) so didn't bother with that.

iStock was a pain in the ass, they had ridiculous requirements like certain format and size, but I got an automated error when I created clips that way. After bollocking them I think they accepted us but I will leave them to the end, they wanted different versions and photos and shit. Might be able to get into them via Getty Images; I am not clear how they work together yet.

Anyway seems to be worth a try, they only want short clips so it doesn't take much time to do.

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So,

 

Yesterday I went out and took the camera with me, just to try and film something that would probably be worth putting on, Heres some examples of what I shot, it was some random event going on (Wine), so I grabbed a few grapes footage, no landscapes yet. But this left me with a question, do you guys sell them graded, corrected or ungraded ?

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Is these even worth uploading ? Should I search around and see whats the demand from the people who buy stock footage ? I have absolutely no idea what sells and what doesnt.

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Is these even worth uploading ? Should I search around and see whats the demand from the people who buy stock footage ? I have absolutely no idea what sells and what doesnt.

Lookin' great! What settings and lens(es) did you use? EOSHD LUT, I suppose? Just got a Helios 44-2 f2 and it works so beautifully with the NX1.

I'd appreciate more info on the stock business as well, might give it a go.

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I did purchase the EOSHD LUT but havent had the time to read the guide or use it, just did some simple grading with the M31 LUT, trying to match the Canon Colors that I quite love !

I used the Nikon 35mm f2.5 filled with fungus that a friend gave me, its a war rig and worth absolutely nothing, but I love it ! I will be getting a few more fast Vintage lenses, they work great with the NX1.

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One of the sites tells you how many of each clip or image has been sold: it is iStock. That is a good way to reserach what sells. I am a newbie to stock but would assume subtle grading is best. The images above look really good to me, not sure if they would be too flat or not.

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One of the sites tells you how many of each clip or image has been sold: it is iStock. That is a good way to reserach what sells. I am a newbie to stock but would assume subtle grading is best. The images above look really good to me, not sure if they would be too flat or not.

Thank you :d Ill be checking that and see what people are buying.

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They are such arses at iStock and Getty. I have submitted the correct file types but no acceptance (incorrect file type error). I am on Shutterstock, Dissolve, Videoblocks and Pond5. Any others I should be doing? I will get on iStock/Getty, it is just frustrating dealing with their wrong interface and clueless staff, and I have a feeling they are the biggest.

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I've been thinking about stock footage too. I don't have a 4K camera, which I know isn't a requirement, but I feel like I'm limiting my market a tad if I don't shoot 4K.

One thing I really think you need to do is think like an end user. How and where are these clips being used? I've used stock before, but having a good sense of this will help you determine what to shoot and how to shoot it. 

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I've been thinking about stock footage too. I don't have a 4K camera, which I know isn't a requirement, but I feel like I'm limiting my market a tad if I don't shoot 4K.

One thing I really think you need to do is think like an end user. How and where are these clips being used? I've used stock before, but having a good sense of this will help you determine what to shoot and how to shoot it. 

Thats a problem for me, I never used stock, and dont know anyone who has.

When you did buy it, how was your experience ? Did the footage come graded ? What were you searching for ?

 

The shots I shared, were just to have an Idea of what Im shooting, I probably wont put those up for sale, I hardly think there would be interest, but I wanna know more about what should I do.

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I heard of one guy that has his whole video bussines based on stock footage and he doesn't do anything else(unfortunately I don't remember his name anymore). I have seen his portfolio, and his bestsellers by a large margin were corporate videos, like some people working in the office or some bussines woman showing a presentation to clients or coleagues, engineers in a factory etc. Only issue with those kind of videos is that sometimes you have to spend to make them, and you have to obtain signed model release from talents.

I think that footage with happy people / families / children in nature or a park, field etc., also sells well because banksters and other similar corporate guys like to present themselves like they care about are happiness, environment and so on, so most of their commercials suggest that if we all take a loan from them or buy something from them, then all of us will be smiling, dancing and live happily ever after.

 

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Thats a problem for me, I never used stock, and dont know anyone who has.

When you did buy it, how was your experience ? Did the footage come graded ? What were you searching for ?

 

The shots I shared, were just to have an Idea of what Im shooting, I probably wont put those up for sale, I hardly think there would be interest, but I wanna know more about what should I do.

Experience was good. Simple and straightforward. The footage did come graded, and that's how I wanted it. I had no desire to spend time grading it. But to my knowledge, I believe you can submit both, graded and non. Probably the graded will be purchased more, but some may like the option to grade. 

I heard of one guy that has his whole video bussines based on stock footage and he doesn't do anything else(unfortunately I don't remember his name anymore). I have seen his portfolio, and his bestsellers by a large margin were corporate videos, like some people working in the office or some bussines woman showing a presentation to clients or coleagues, engineers in a factory etc. Only issue with those kind of videos is that sometimes you have to spend to make them, and you have to obtain signed model release from talents.

I think that footage with happy people / families / children in nature or a park, field etc., also sells well because banksters and other similar corporate guys like to present themselves like they care about are happiness, environment and so on, so most of their commercials suggest that if we all take a loan from them or buy something from them, then all of us will be smiling, dancing and live happily ever after.

 

Funny, corporate stuff is exactly what I used. I could see the family stuff working too. 

Ricardo, imagine you are a corp creating a vid to promote a new product or service. What would you need? Btw, I think your wine stuff is a great start. I have a friend who lives in wine country who does nothing but design websites for wineries. Definitely a market.

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Experience was good. Simple and straightforward. The footage did come graded, and that's how I wanted it. I had no desire to spend time grading it. But to my knowledge, I believe you can submit both, graded and non. Probably the graded will be purchased more, but some may like the option to grade. 

Funny, corporate stuff is exactly what I used. I could see the family stuff working too. 

Ricardo, imagine you are a corp creating a vid to promote a new product or service. What would you need? Btw, I think your wine stuff is a great start. I have a friend who lives in wine country who does nothing but design websites for wineries. Definitely a market.

Great news and thanks a lot for giving me an insight of how stock is being used. Throughout this month, Ill probably be filming some stuff exclusively for Stock Footage, a bit of everything and then start uploading. I guess Ill upload these clips as well, nothing to lose =)

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  • 1 month later...

I'm not wrong to assume it's okay to submit the same footage to several different stock sites, am I? and be able to use it for myself? since I', still the one with the rights to the footage? sorry, old topic, just don't want to break the "law" or whatever

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