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Stock Video/Timelapse Question

Tom Lowe

Tom Lowe

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I was approached via email by a fairly bigtime feature and music video director asking if he could buy/license a couple my night timelapse shots for a major-label music video he's shooting. I guess he just saw the clip on vuze or youtube. He asked if I had my clips at a stock house and I said no, but he seems to be willing to work me directly. He's in LA, and I told him I could deliver in basically any format, since I have the shots in RAW 3.5K now.

Should I consider hooking up with a stock website?

He mentioned that a "one-time worldwide" typical rate is like $300-400 per clip, or that sometimes people might buy a clip outright for something like $1,000. Is that about right? These clips are only like 10 seconds long. I guess if you sell the clip outright, then that person owns it flat out and you no longer own it, whereas with the first option, it's just sort of a "rental" that they can use once in this one video.

I've never thought seriously about selling my stuff as stock, so I wonder if any of you guys can give me some general advice? Does anyone happen to know a good stock house to work with?

Much thanks.
 
NEVER sell you stuff as buyout for only $1000.00 unless you do not think you will ever sell it again. I had a stock house offer me a buyout of $1k per 15 sec clip but they were willing to buy up to $50K per month.

If you stuff is time lapse and really good I would think $750-1,000.00 per clip based on how many clips and the total buy. That is about what most stock house charges.
 
Enzo said:
If you stuff is time lapse and really good I would think $750-1,000.00 per clip based on how many clips and the total buy. That is about what most stock house charges.
Click to expand...

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Are you saying the one-time use fee would be $1,000, or a "sell" price of $1,000 per clip?

My timelapse stuff is a little bit unique in that it is almost all night star trails, which is difficult to do.
 
Tom you also forgot to add:

My timelapse stuff is a little bit unique in that it is almost all night star trails and its stongkingly good, drop dead gorgeous and pant wettingly enticing, so buy it all now"

Or something along those lines at least!

Cheers,
Mark.
 
haha, thanks!

I just got another email from the director and he wants four clips. So should I sell them outright or one-time use? The shots are nice, but nothing I couldn't part with. Plus it would be exciting for me to see my clips actually used somewhere, since it's really just a hobby for me! :)
 
Tom i will give you Advise ..do not ever insult your work by reducing its value
Ever ?? its from my expereince
as Enzo say's at least try to fixe your price (and keep some small space for bargain)
if you said 800 per clip to your director
dont accept less than 700 ...(very tied space do not jump too much)
good luck:devil:
 
Tom your time lapse stuff is 100% proffesional and it does not suprise me at all that someone is very interested. Just my thoughts but if he wants to buy I would imagine he plans to use it a few times or knows of people who would be interested in using it. Hence he will probably come back for more and I would suspect you would do better with 1 time use. Also then you can put it up to a stock company.

Just my thought's.
 
I think at this point I prefer just to sell the clips outright. It will be easier and I could use the money for this timelapse motion-control rig I'm working on. Any ideas about a fair price to sell each clip? The director mentioned that $1,000 is about normal. To me, that's a nice little chunk of change. :)
 
Exactly. And probably the next time I shot them, I could improve them, in terms of getting the exposure a little better, etc.
 
No way

No way

Tom said:
Can you clarify what you mean by this? Are you saying the one-time use fee would be $1,000, or a "sell" price of $1,000 per clip?

My timelapse stuff is a little bit unique in that it is almost all night star trails, which is difficult to do.
Click to expand...

Tom,

I would not sell these shots outright unless the price is right (see below). You have gone to a lot of trouble to produce these and they are very good.

What if you were injured and could not re-shoot them for a while?

I think you should ask for $1000.00 per clip for up to 10 sec. for one time non-exclusive use in one music video. If he comes back and wants to use them again give him a 25% discount on the 2nd use fees.

If he really wants to own them and you are willing to let him have them (don't do it man).... Then I would ask for $10,000.00 per 15 sec. cilp... that is what an agent would ask for and that is a cheap price to own these very fine shots.

Hell, I'll give you $1K each and then put them with my stock agent and make my investment back 10+ times in 4-5 years.

I get a nice check every month for shots I did 10-15 years ago.

Call one of the stock agents in LA and ask them before you do anything you will regret....

Unless you want to sell them to me and then I will deal with him..... And yes, I'm serious. PM me if you want to discuss.

Steve
 
Tom,

I would personally not sell those clips outright, there's lots of potential for future customers here. Like Enzo said, you should consider placement with a stock footage company or even start promoting them yourself.

I hadn't thought of it until reading Enzo's post, but if you're interested in selling outright, I may be interested as well. I could lump them together with a couple of my timelapse efforts and place them with a stock agent. :)
 
Tom said:
Exactly. And probably the next time I shot them, I could improve them, in terms of getting the exposure a little better, etc.
Click to expand...

Over the years there's only been a handful of the hundreds of timelapse clips I've got on the market that I wouldn't be tempted to sell outright if the money was decent... I don't know the specifics of your content, but in my case even the "above average" sunset/sunrises in my collections tend to come around again and again where I live.

I think you're on the right track... sell 'em and just go do them again... ain't that the fun part anyway?

Regards,
 
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