Any interest in a Stock Footage Co-op?
 

Has anyone ever started a cooperative stock footage group, where each member contributes a certain amount of clips, then has access to the whole library?

I realize there are some obstacles that would have to be hurdled, but I'm thinking it could work.

Would love to!

There's so many people on here from so many different areas....

The one tricky thing I would worry about would be releases, maybe a good digital footage release would help?

I also like the thought of invite only, or somesuch, just people that we know on here sharing clips as needed...

Carl

I would be very interested in the idea... if SD footage would be acceptable until I upgrade [looks down, shuffles feet].

I don't think it could be totally free to members though. There would have to be at least a nominal fee, if for nothing else than to cover the cost of hosting the site. That is until/if there was sponsorship of the site.

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help get the idea off the ground...

Kevin

Well Kevin, for the price of a few clips from a stock house, you can buy and HDV camera. Actually, my motivation is the lack of affordable HD footage.

Carl, that's certainly a good point, but warranties and releases are common with anyone that's in the stock footage arena.

Aye, which is where it seems the host would have to be, just covering thy bum :D Release forms would need to be a serious issue, so that whoever is hosting the site doesn't end up liable for something.

If you need anything swampy or north florida oceany, give me a holler :D I think this idea is definitely worth some thought, but the web design aspect of a site that actually hosted these clips, let alone bandwidth issues, may be a downer.

It might, however, be much more simple to design a bulletin board type system, and share files using yousendit.com or some similar service.

Or.... we could talk to CH and see if there is enough interest to have a bulletin board here specifically for sharing clips as stock footage?

Carl

I love this idea. It will give me a reason to go out and shoot more. I have a bunch of stock footage of buffalo I'd love to share with people, and anticipate taping more this winter. I hope this happens!

This is an idea I had. There would be a central website with a search function that would host stills and listings database. Links would be to the owners' sites who would be responsible for hosting clips in order to spread the bandwidth around. Orders would go through the central site so that members would not have to handle transactions. Members would be responsible for delivery of media. Central site could act as an escrow agent, if needed.

Could you not just sell your footage to a stock footage company, and use that money to buy stock footage you need? That may or may not be a better model.

this idea seems to float to the surface every so often....

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=69307

it would need a dedicated person to orginise it all.

Andy.

I was wondering about this idea with a twist.

If I understand correctly, stock footage is used in cases where it's not economical to shoot actual footage. eg - couple gazing over a lake at sunset -I can shoot the couple on the front of any porch, I just need footage of the lake for the reverse. OR .. our hero flies off the London (I need footage of plane taking off and landing with a Heathrow sign in the background)

What about 'stock footage' on demand? we have members from a great variety of locations, while it might be hard for me to shoot a cold rainy view of a park in the middle of summer - it's winter somewhere else. If someone were making a film in the middle of a New York winter and wanted footage of Sydney Harbour and the Opera House - one of the guys here could do that.

I hope I'm explaining this properly, I don't have any need for footage - it's just an idea that occurred to me, maybe I'm just blowing hot air - what do you think?

Sounds like a interesting idea. I am certainly interested in being involved.

I have released 20 hours of footage of interviews under a Creative Commons License. I upload a low rez version to Google Video. If anyone wants it, I send the high-rez version of the file to them directly through the mail or if the clip is small enough, through the Internet.