5K tourism stock

[Ethan Knight]

Hi folks,

I have a few questions regarding 4K/5K stock material. I'm in the process of completing a documentary that is been shot entirely in Andalusia, Spain with my EPIC and Scarlet.

Throughout the production process we've had access to some very unique situations that I believe is the first time that these were shot on an the RED system in UHD.

Some of these scenes are not going to be used in the final documentary (as they don't serve the story line) but are nonetheless beautiful and can be easily re-fitted to a tourism spot.

However I have zero experience with selling stock and it's intricacies. I've read the numerous discussions regarding stock on reduser, but they seem to appeal mainly to the USA market.

Any ideas regarding on how to go about it? what's the best way to distribute it? How effective are those UHD stock agencies that are around? Would it be better to pursue a local TV contact for example?

Any thought on the subject would be much appreciated

You can check out some production stills - HERE

Many thanks.

Ethan

 

[Steve Gibby]

Artbeats represents a portion of my Red camera stock footage library - and I've been quite happy with them. The owner of Artbeats (Phil Bates) and his staff are great to work with. They can easily represent international Red camera footage.

Monetizing and leveraging out a footage library can be tricky - but if done right can be a very good addition to your monthly or quarterly cash flow. Beyond the artist themselves, the most valuable asset any production entity owns is the high quality footage library that they own the rights to - whether they be a giant studio on down to a 1-person operation.

 

[Ethan Knight]

Thanks Steve for your feedback, I had a look at artbeats and will be contacting them soon.

Cheers
Ethan

 

[Mark Whatmore]

Hi Ethan,

Take a look at www.Iris32.com - they are a newish European library specialising in Red Footage. If you're interested in becoming a long-term stock footage producer I think they offer an exciting and interesting options as they are building a network or Red Owner/Operators to build the library.

All the best,

Mark

 

[Frederick von Sulle]

Mark, txs - from the IRIS32 team

 

[Antony M]

Hi Ethan,

Take a look at www.youtube.com - they are a newish European library specialising in Red Footage. If you're interested in becoming a long-term stock footage producer I think they offer an exciting and interesting options as they are building a network or Red Owner/Operators to build the library.

All the best,

Mark

Hi Mark,

I know that YouTube do allow you to monetize your videos (mostly by showing ads at the start or overlaying ads on the bottom), but how do you use them to sell footage?

(Thanks for your email BTW).

Regards,
Antony

 

[Antony M]

Thanks Steve for your feedback, I had a look at artbeats and will be contacting them soon.

Cheers
Ethan

Their website currently says:
Does Artbeats take footage submissions?

Artbeats is not accepting footage submissions at this time. Please check back with us later.

 

[Phil Bates]

Their website currently says:
Does Artbeats take footage submissions?

Artbeats is not accepting footage submissions at this time. Please check back with us later.

We've had a backlog that we've been chewing through as fast as we can. We hope to be able to start accepting more submissions around January 1.

Sorry about the wait,
Phil

 

[Björn Benckert]

Hi Mark,

I know that YouTube do allow you to monetize your videos (mostly by showing ads at the start or overlaying ads on the bottom), but how do you use them to sell footage?

(Thanks for your email BTW).

Regards,
Antony

I think youtube is not what he wote it's reduser that change unwanted links. Try to write triple w dot iris 32 (with no space in between) dot com they deal with stock r3d's only, which is nice. I uploaded some shots there but nothing sold yet. but i think it will be great as they sell / keep it all r3d native.

If you try to write out their adress here then you will see that your link turn into a useless youtube link,

just like when I try here: www-youtube.com

So the world is free, but reduser however is red land

 

[Antony M]

Thanks for the explanation Björn.

That's rather silly. So now both you and I have had to waste our time discussing it, because they automatically change the link.

I am already in contact with Iris 32. Yes, their model seems interesting.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I had a similar question myself that I was going to ask, I recently shot a bunch of footage for a project and I think it's some valuable clips (about 30-40), a lot of the places I've looked at have a 100 clip minimum before they'll accept a library submission. Does anyone take footage ala carte? What's art Beat's system? And do you need to polish the footage before it'll be considered. It would probably be about 20-30 hours of work to clean it up and I'm not anxious to put in a week's work only to get a rejection letter. Whereas if I could show one or two in their final form and some rough quicktimes it would probably be worth it.

For those who have good clips on stock, what's the average return on a shot over its 'lifetime'. Is it worth even going out of your way to grade, stabilize (where necessary) and remove unwanted elements (e.g. telephone lines in an otherwise great shot)? Or is it mostly only worth it if you've already polished and graded the footage for a project and are just getting a cut on top?

 

[Paul Russell]

I have around 1,000 clips with Corbis Motion and I've had stills with Corbis for a long long time. There's a lot of admin involved, especially with metatagging and keywording every clip. Some shots sell over and over again and bring in thousands. Others never sell at all. I usually put a fairly neutral and realistic grade on clips, making sure that the blacks are black and whites are white, with everything sitting neatly in the parade, but not much more. I've stabilised quite a few aerials but that can make production very slow so choosing the clips is important. I've also done a couple of special series of grades like 'cop movie' and 'antique' so that the same clips can have multiple chances at being sold.

Now Corbis are asking for 4K submissions, but with the idea of you keeping the file until its asked for. A halfway house, really. Not much of a problem for me as I shoot in 5K all the time, but a big storage and labelling issue.

The stills market is dead. It's corpse may still be twitching but it's long gone. And the admission criteria for new shots is getting so ridiculously high that it is barely worth the time on a 'might-sell' shot.

 

[Phil Bates]

I had a similar question myself that I was going to ask, I recently shot a bunch of footage for a project and I think it's some valuable clips (about 30-40), a lot of the places I've looked at have a 100 clip minimum before they'll accept a library submission. Does anyone take footage ala carte? What's art Beat's system? And do you need to polish the footage before it'll be considered. It would probably be about 20-30 hours of work to clean it up and I'm not anxious to put in a week's work only to get a rejection letter. Whereas if I could show one or two in their final form and some rough quicktimes it would probably be worth it.

For those who have good clips on stock, what's the average return on a shot over its 'lifetime'. Is it worth even going out of your way to grade, stabilize (where necessary) and remove unwanted elements (e.g. telephone lines in an otherwise great shot)? Or is it mostly only worth it if you've already polished and graded the footage for a project and are just getting a cut on top?

Hi Gavin,
We take footage ala carte, no minimums. We don't require polishing before considering. Mainly, we look at industry demand and filter submissions that way. So, a lot depends on subject matter. Your suggestion of showing a few clips in their final form and some rough QT's is more than enough for us. Regarding polishing, there are two options: We take it as is with a higher royalty, or we polish for a lower one. Our work is typically a simple grade protecting highlights and black, with proper color temp. Sometimes, we will stabilize, fix a sky, do wire-removal, etc., but we have to be very selective because of costs. I would be curious about what you have, if you would like to PM me.

Paul's assessment of stills is interesting, as stills have become a commodity. We see footage heading that direction, especially with microstocks leading the charge toward shovel-ware. IMHO the health of the stock footage industry now depends on innovation, 4K, exclusive content, content that is difficult to shoot yet valuable, and niche markets that have not been saturated. Gyrostabilized aerials is a good example because matter how cheap the cameras get, helicopter time, fuel, and pilot costs are going up, so footage caught with these systems has a lot more staying power.

Another key ingredient is gaining the attention and trust of customers who don't trust the microstocks. We have been working hard on this for several years and it is paying off. Not everyone is riding the microstock train.

Paul is also correct that some shots sell over and over again, while others (some being my favorites) just sit there. We steer producers in the direction of industry demand to hedge our bets.

Some of our producers piggy-back shoots at the back end of paying jobs. If rigging was difficult for you, it will be difficult for others, shoot a little extra before breaking it down. If it was a high risk or in some other ways difficult to capture, that is a big part of it. I believe there are a lot of opportunities out there, but the low hanging fruit is pretty picked over.

Phil