Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Shooting Stock Footage.

Pawel Achtel said:
Hehehe.

Mark, it may work for stock, not if you follow the action. Also, with the amount of gear I have, I usually take 3/4 of the deck space. I'm as bad or even worse than Howard Hall. We do take some divers to offset some cost, but generally those divers pay a fraction of normal cost and are limited to less than 20% of the boat capacity. I take the rest of space. :biggrin: Divers do not have any say where we go or how long we stay there, although no one complained yet...(and came back alive).

Besides, I go to very strange places out of the beaten track. Sometimes it takes 5 days just to get there by boat. It is not unusual for me to film in the same spot for a month. Most tourist divers would find it boring.

Lastly, and most importantly, I do not film when tourists divers are in the water. How do you avoid some clowns getting in the view with 20+ tourist divers in the water?

Most professional u/w film makers do exactly the same: Howard Hall, Dave Hannan, Richard Fitzpatrick, just to name a few.

With topside filming, it is completely out of question to take any tourists. The places I go are remote, hazardous, require strict permits, and I spend long times with animals trying not to disturb them.

Today's nature films are very competitive. BBC, Disney, Nat Geo and others make it very hard for independents to compete. They have budgets of tens of millions of dollars per film. No one will give you money to produce your nature film. They may take your ideas and hire you at best.

If you are filming just as good material, frankly, you are wasting your time! To be competitive you have do do better, much better than the BBC. And, it is tough.

Unfortunately, to get better results more often than not you have to spend more too. When it hurts is if you go for a 2-3 week shoot and come back literally with nothing. It happened more than once...But then sometimes you do get footage that would make producers of the Planet Earth green with envy. :bleh: And, that's the reward :devil:
Click to expand...

I wish I could take the time (on land) like you do at each location to get the premium shots. Unfortunately, we are always rushed. So things have to go well with weather, hardware, logistics, and the magic hour opportunities are limited. *sigh*

Phil
http://www.artbeats.com
 
Pawel,
I doff my cap. I have filmed many a groundbreaking sequence underwater, mantas mating, white sharks actively seeking jellyfish as a spicy side platter, 7 months in the company of Mandarinfish to produce the first ever complete and in-depth look at their crepiscular behavior. I have won awards and been a part of some wonderful projects, all of which have relied heavily on persevering with at times harsh, cold conditions. All this and for a fraction of the costs you mention. I have built a network of friends in the recreational dive industry around the World who invite me to join their tours when spaces are available. Living also in Indonesia means I am right on the doorstep to some of the most unique dive locations.

I guess I do things diferently.

Best with your work and hope to hear you are on the road to recovery.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
I live in Sydney and have family. Unless I bring $200k+ p.a. back home we are under the poverty line here. That's unfortunate because, like you, I would much prefer to have a more modest lifestyle. Indonesia sounds great, and you are right, there is much more there that you can film at relatively low cost. I spent a month at Raja Ampat with scientists in 2002 before the area was "discovered". A good friend of mine, Dave Hannan set up his semi-permanent base there and he is doing by far the biggest and most ambitious underwater filming project in the region. I don't know what I am still doing here... :biggrin:
 
Speaking of underwater shooting, a heard a story recently about a friend of a friend who sold his SD collection of underwater stuff recently to some footage library for several MILLION dollars USD. I was like, "Wow. Must be nice." I guess the guy had recently switched to HD, and just figured he would go out and shoot all the same footage again on HD. :)
 
Tom, I don't think you can pull such a deal off now, but my friend Howard Hall did sell his SD and 16mm library quite well before getting to HD. How much he got for it, I don't know, but he did well, I imagine.

Stock footage is about networking and the name. I also had some good sales, but not in the millions, and not enough to offset the high costs. It is always most profitable to make films instead of selling stock footage.
 
I don't know who even buys catalogs outright? Somebody, obviously.
 
This is an interesting discussion. What stock footage subjects are currently most popular in the market?
 
Tom said:
I don't know who even buys catalogs outright? Somebody, obviously.
Click to expand...

All the "usual suspects". :innocent:
 
Tom said:
Speaking of underwater shooting, a heard a story recently about a friend of a friend who sold his SD collection of underwater stuff recently to some footage library for several MILLION dollars USD. I was like, "Wow. Must be nice." I guess the guy had recently switched to HD, and just figured he would go out and shoot all the same footage again on HD. :)
Click to expand...
What I did say is that I was recently in Japan for my wedding. What I didn't tell you is that the missus has a bulldozer to carry the ring around and that I also flew there in my new gold plated Lear Jet......:tongue:

Hehehe, I wish.
Cheers,
Mark.
 
Here is my experience:

Last time I spoke with a MAJOR stock footage house, it was 70 or 80 percent to them (depending on a couple factors) and the lady told me that the average producer makes a couple hundred USD per month. SERIOUSLY!
 
David Rasberry said:
This is an interesting discussion. What stock footage subjects are currently most popular in the market?
Click to expand...

Very high quality generic subjects are usually the best for sheer volume. It seems like water is always in the top 10 of subjects that sell best. Whether it is waves, water effects, water drops, Phantom ultra slow motion water, etc. The challenge now is coming up with new footage of water that looks *different*. Also, timelapse skies, timelapse flowers, aerials, nature subjects, lifestyles, from there on down the subjects are very mixed.

Phil
http://www.artbeats.com
 
zacktown said:
Here is my experience:

Last time I spoke with a MAJOR stock footage house, it was 70 or 80 percent to them (depending on a couple factors)
Click to expand...


That is typical RF (Royalty Free) business model percentage (there is a lot more cost/overhead expended to produce than with Rights Managed). We are trying to change that, Artbeats is up to 40% in our FootageHub line. Rights Managed is usually 40% to 50%, but the business models are so different it is unfair to compare them.

zacktown said:
...and the lady told me that the average producer makes a couple hundred USD per month. SERIOUSLY!
Click to expand...

That could be true and reasonable. There are a lot of producers that submit very few clips and/or very niche footage that rarely sells. Their numbers can easily weigh the average down and give an unfair impression.

Phil
http://www.artbeats.com
 
Phil, what can a top stock earner make?
 
Tom said:
Phil, what can a top stock earner make?
Click to expand...

My imagination and gut tells me that we haven't scratched the surface of potential and that the sky's the limit. The other practical/experience side of me says five figures per quarter is doable with the RF (Royalty Free) business model (we've seen it). The RM (Rights Managed) model with a highly valuable niche, like Pawel's Potato Cod spawning, may yield more but it's out of my world so I don't know.

In order to reach full potential for sales with RF I suggest the following:

1. You have to stand out with high production value, unique footage. Things that are difficult to shoot. Know lightning and what makes a good composition. Follow shooting guidelines (techniques) that are recommended.

2. Always ask yourself if what you are shooting could be a solution for someone else. If you can save editors/compositors time and money you're on the right track. Be in communication with your stock footage rep to stay on top of what is in demand.

3. Don't get too niche if you want to go the RF route. Generic subjects like the basic elements (fire, water, skies, clouds, etc.) seem to do best and have for a long time. This is a well that doesn't seem to run dry. The problem is that since the basic elements have been done, it is now harder to get noticed. The trick is to do them better or more unique.

4. Be persistent, it may take a while to get there. Build up volume over time.

5. Brand awareness will help. Build your own brand (your website can help), and go with a rep that will support your brand.

6. I'll share my heart here and say that it makes me nervous if someone is depending totally on the performance of my company to build their future. I am always afraid of not meeting expectations. This is why I believe in the re-purpose strategy. Let me be the gravy, the icing on top. And though I want you to be exclusive to me, if there are other stock houses reaching different market segments, you might be wise to leave that option open.

On the other side of the coin, I am an optimist and believe that we haven't seen the full potential of what cinematographers can yield. We don't yet know how big this industry can grow. This is what makes my job fun. I am an innovator and don't want to just see footage on a TV/Theater screen (it sounds so boring) There are so many opportunities to tap into, the demand for footage will come from many unexpected places in the future, and I want to be there ready to be the solution.

I think I'm done. :)

Phil
http://www.artbeats.com
 
I largely agree with Phil's comments.

If you have something very unique and special, it may be better to offer it directly to one of the major users of such footage. To give you an idea, one major broadcaster paid outright about US $25k for one 40min HDCAM tape of raw footage of a single subect filmed over two days underwater. This was my worst (but still quite respectable) tape from a selection of about 10. They could not afford my winners. :matrix:

Time lapse clips go between $2k and $15k per 20s sequence for an outright sale. I have a few winners priced slightly above the upper limit, but vast majority within that range. I sold quite a few outright, usually generic and average shots. However, with no shutter flicker, shot RAW, full frame, L glass and technically correct.

It all depends on the client. Disney could easily pay $1m per rare sequence, but they seem to prefer spending $5m to shoot it themselves instead. On the latest shoot a couple of weeks ago, I am hearing, they lost one F900 with Zeiss Digi Prime and even more expensive housing, but it seems a drop in the ocean for a 80m+ Euro production.

Government agencies can be good. But, as usual, it is who you know or sleep with...:biggrin:
 
Geez, I just got my statement from Getty for last month and I made a VERY nice amount. What a pleasant surprise. One clip was purchased RR for a feature film from Lakeshore Entertainment, then a bunch of TV shows (in America, Brazil, etc) bought others. And I only have 6 clips up at Getty!

I can't wait for my new ones to get posted. They are much better than the ones I have up now.
 
Phil,

I have a bunch of tornado / storm footage in hd 1080 it was shot on a (dare I say it here) hvx 200.

Is that stuff in high demand on your site? How much does it sell for? A company called thought equity motion contacted me through some discovery channel connections and requsted a demo reel but I have not yet sent them anything.

I'd like to know more about it. Feel free to pm me anytime.

Chip
 
HI Phil
Checked out your site, very nice. Do you know, or do you guys look for footage from war torn countries such as Afghanistan? My latest stuff has been shot over here as I am managing a TV Network here and in the spare time (Weekends, downtime) out shooting my stuff, working on a Doc, but have some good stuff in HD (XDCAM 4/4/4) of the area, military action, etc that I will not be using in the Doc.

My Red does not arrive for another few weeks, hope in time for when I am on the Cape for Christmas, then you can expect some nice 4K Raw coming from the edge, if I keep my head down.http://reduser.net/forum/images/redsmilies/blink.gif

Regards
Ron
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top