
What to Consider When Shooting Stock Footage
- Shoot the Best Quality. It goes without saying that your footage needs to be good quality. ...
- Don’t Process Your Footage. If you’re a filmmaker, it can be tough to part with your raw footage, but resist the temptation to edit it other than basic corrections.
- Find Your Niche. ...
- Think About Including People. ...
- Film From a Variety of Angles. ...
- Don’t Get Tripped up. ...
Full Answer
How do I get Started with stock footage?
Stock Footage is All Around You Image by Daxiao Productions One of the easiest ways to start your stock footage career is to check your hard drives from previous projects. Many filmmakers have a ton of unused b-roll already. If you have the rights to repurpose older or unused clips, consider submitting them.
How to do a business footage shoot?
Use the location to grab shots of models at desks, stage some big company meetings, or even have a few candid moments of employees at the water cooler. These are the types of shoots that meet the high demand of business footage. Most Popular Categories Knowing what customers are looking for is the best way to target the footage in your shoot.
How are film and video makers using stock footage?
Simpler, cheaper, and faster. And this is how film and video makers are using stock footage. You see it many times throughout the day, every day. In films, TV, documentaries, adverts, and much more. The views of a city's skyline that precedes the next scene in the movie you watched?
How to sell stock footage on Shutterstock?
Here are a few tips on how to sell your stock footage. Shutterstock depends on high-quality content from great contributors. In fact, Shutterstock has paid out over $400 million to contributors. Becoming a successful contributor requires you to upload the best content you have available.

Who is the president of stock footage?
This tip comes to us from John Farr, the President of Stock Footage Inc , who explains, “Having a software product that you are proficient with is extremely important as you can fix, color grade, and edit your footage, turning it into a great stock footage clip.”
What is in Talson's camera bag?
Talson’s camera bag includes tripods, gimbals, and sliders. “Shooting stable videos is essential for stock footage, and right now, there are so many amazing stabilizing tools available to filmmakers. There is a whole world of gimbals, sliders, and cranes to explore if you wish to add smooth and stable camera movement into the shots. My essential piece of kit in this area is an Emotimo Spectrum motion control head that controls the camera and can move it in three different axis. This allows for timelapse and video shots with amazing motion.”
Can you get something on your Nikon sensor?
“No matter how careful you are, you will get something on the image sensor if you don’t bring a lens cleaner. Also, make sure the image sensor in your camera is compatible with the kit you bought. I once damaged a Nikon sensor cleaning it with a different brand solution.”
What is stock footage?
Stock footage, also called stock video or b-roll, is a piece of video content, a clip or shot (normally shorter than 1 minute, but there are exceptions) inserted in larger video production and that was not shot specifically for said production. These clips can be outtakes from other projects or archive shots.
Why is stock footage important?
Stock footage is a great resource for video and film creators to save time and money in realizing their vision.
What is Pond5 stock?
Pond5: This stock company offers all kinds of media types for content production, and they are a very popular choice for stock footage buying. They have a huge collection of high quality stock video shots, including HD and 4K resolutions. You can buy Royalty Free licenses for their videos on demand, or with a monthly membership plan that gives you access to a large selection of their library as well as discounts on à la carte purchases.
What is royalty free video?
Royalty Free videos are likely the most popular choice. The Royalty Free license grants you non-exclusive rights to use the shot in multiple ways and perpetually, for a one-time, flat fee. This means you only have to pay for the license fee once, and you get to use the clip in a wide range of ways, forever.
What is Getty Images?
Getty Images: The renowned stock photography agency also has a huge selection of stock video clips. They offer Royalty Free and Rights Managed footage shots, up to 4K in resolution that you can buy on demand on their website. They have a very large collection of Editorial and Historic stock footage.
What is rights managed footage?
Rights Managed footage, however, offers great advantages for big, highly-visible productions. The main benefit is exclusivity: Rights Managed license gives you the option (when available) to acquire the exclusive usage rights to a stock video, for a determinate period of time. In other words, you can assure that for the time you use the clip, no one else will be allowed to use it. This is a great added value for big TV and film projects or any other creation that benefits from having “unique” scenes that can't be seen elsewhere.
Is stock footage good?
Yes, stock footage too. Now you must be thinking, that you couldn't tell that scene from last night's movie was stock video. And that's a good thing. The purpose of stock video clips is to run with the visual flow of the final production. They are meant to fit in larger creations in a seamless way. Like this, stock footage turns out a great way ...
What is an establishing shot?
An establishing shot can be one clip, or a series of clips, introducing the audience to a film’s location. The shot establishes the context and space of a scene.
How to Use Stock Footage to Establish Scenes
There is a tried and true technique of mixing aerial footage with city landscapes to create establishing shots. Sure, it may be considered cliché, but it absolutely works. There is a reason you see this technique in hundreds of movies and thousands of television shows every year.
Landmarks
Use major landmarks to help establish a locations. Does the scene take place in San Francisco? Show the Golden Gate Bridge. New York City? The Empire State Building. London? Big Ben. By using these major landmarks, you help any audience member know where the story is taking place.
Street Signs
Using street signs adds direction to your footage. Are they characters heading to a stadium or arena? Show the exit ramps or physical street signs. Going to a luxurious home? Show off the famous Beverly Hills sign.
Aerials
One of the biggest benefits of using stock footage aerials is not having to file for permits or rent flight time with a helicopter. There are tons of filmmakers out there shooting stock footage with high end production cameras, and we have tons of talented artists contributing incredible footage to the Shutterstock Footage archive.
Stock footage opportunities are everywhere
You’ll hear it from creatives around the world: to get better content, you need to be shooting constantly. As you make the move from images to shooting stock footage, film everything. Start small, and dabble in landscape to learn how your camera shoots footage.
Create a stock footage shoot from scratch
On Shutterstock, we are constantly looking for diverse stock footage content featuring people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and abilities. Create a stock footage shoot with a focus on diversity. Start by hiring some friends or family members that you have access to, are comfortable with you, and also comfortable on camera.
Know what customers are searching for
Keep an eye on what’s trending in the visual content world, and know what is selling on Shutterstock. The Shot List is a great place to start. Each month, we gather themes based on keywords searched by customers in the year prior to tell you exactly what customers are going to be buying soon.
Quick tips on shooting stock footage that sells
Don’t assume that people will want a longer video. Quick clips are sometimes more valuable than longer-form video when it comes to stock content. For example, an aerial video of waves can be looped for as long or short as the customer needs.
How to Make Great Stock Video Footage (That Sells)
Filmmakers, whether amateur or professional, are always on the lookout for quality, affordable stock footage. Creating stock to sell can also be a great way for filmmakers to earn a little extra cash, or even build up to making a living at it! Let’s look at some of the things you’ll need to consider if you want to start selling stock footage.
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How to Use Stock Video in Web Design
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1. Match Elements When Selecting Stock Footage
Imagine grabbing an awesome piece of stock video, placing it on your timeline, and realizing it looks quite different from the rest of your video. How do you make it work with your other shots?
3. Choose Believable Stock Footage
Even if you match color temperature, frame rates, resolution, and composite a bunch of things into it, there’s a chance that the footage might still not be believable in the greater context of your project.
Bonus Tip: Save Your Favorite Clips
One of the worst parts of working with stock video is just trying to find the right clip to begin with. It can be incredibly frustrating to wade through everything just to find the right one.

What Is Stock Footage?
What's The Use in Stock Footage?
- Some filmmakers call these shots the “b-roll”, referring to all the shots and takes that are secondary, but still necessary for the project's storytelling flow. For example, your story might be centered in a house's living room, but if you are placing the whole action in Venice, you will need a clip of an iconic Venice location in the final edit, to contextualize the whole storyline. Instead of …
Buying Stock Footage
- You can buy stock footage clips easily at a stock imagery agency. Some stock and microstock agencies include stock videos in their offer, in addition to stills and other media types. And some agencies specialize in the footage. In any of them, you can search, find, and buy a license to use a stock video clip. You don't buy the clip itself, but the rights to use it in your project. There are diff…
Using Stock Footage
- From the examples mentioned above, you now know the purpose of stock footage, green screen video, and how filmmakers and video creatives are using it. And you can use it too! Think of all the secondary, transition or contextualizing scenes your project has – and all the ones you could add now that you know you don't have to exceed your budget to have them. Some of them are using …