Re: Selling Stock Video Footage.
 

Well the other day I submitted 4 more clips for approval to Shutterstock, including one that was classified "editorial" just to try it. Again, I followed all of Doug's suggestions on importing clips, editing, grading, writing the description, creating metadata, uploading via an FTP site and submitting for final approval. To be honest, if I had not taken this course and just went at it myself I would have received so many rejections that I would have gotten frustrated and dropped the whole idea. However, by following Doug's methodology I received notice that all of my clips were accepted by Shutterstock, including the Alaskan fishing boat that I submitted under the classification of "editorial" because you could see the boats name on the bow. This is fantastic. Thank you Doug. Bob

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Congrats, Bob. You'll have to let us know what your numbers are at the end of the year.

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Thank you Gary, I will.

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Nice job, Bob. Now keep going. I think a lot of people put a few clips out there, they don't see immediate results the next day, and then they lose interest and forget to submit anything new. I know you're not the type to fall victim to that way trap, but I want to encourage you anyway to keep uploading right away. You are planting seeds and you have to keep putting more seeds in the ground even thought the first seeds haven't even sprouted yet. That's my pep talk! Now get out there and sell one for the Gipper!

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I'm coming up for retirement in a couple of years time. So I've got time to build up a portfolio of clips that I could submit. But will be exceptionally lucky if I could catch up on Doug's nest egg. Bought the course anyway, loads of useful information even I can understand and follow. Thanks Doug.

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Doug, thanks for the encouragement. Donald, glad you signed up. After you retire think of all the places you can visit and video. Doug, quick question. After you upload your finished clips from Resolve to your hard drive, and then upload them to Shutterstock and they get approved, what to you do with the clips on your hard drive? Since you still have the original clips, do you delete that file? Bob

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I observed a strange phenomena with Shutterstock. My 4k, 422, 10-bit clips stay in the review cue for about 2 weeks. However, 4k, 420, 8-bit clips are reviewed within about 2-4 days.

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Right now there are 88 posts in this thread -- there may be fewer than that in just a few hours, but first I have to sharpen my pruning shears.

"Edit Member Ignore List" as previously mentioned is a great way to stay happy in the meantime.

More to follow (actually, *less* to follow). Thanks to all who stayed on track -- your posts have permanency!

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You better believe that is the forefront of my motivation as I build up my portfolio. I intend to plant enough seeds that stock footage royalties will be one of the pillars of my retirement income long after I stop shooting and am confined to a wheelchair with a nurse feeding me soup. :-) Thanks for signing up, and please let me know if you have any questions I don't address in the workshop.

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I save two copies of all the rendered clips permanently in my archives. For one thing, hard drives are cheap so it's not a big burden, and for another thing, at some point you're going to want to submit a lot of those clips to other stock footage agencies as well. So keep them organized and ready to upload. You don't want to have to re-render them.

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That is strange. I never submit 4:2:0 8-bit clips so I can't tell you how long those approvals take, but lately I've been getting approvals in anywhere from 2 hours to 2 days on my 4K 4:2:2 10-bit clips. As far as I know, my clips do not get any special attention or service from Shutterstock.

I'm uploading 225 4K clips right now and I hope to have them all submitted by Friday before I leave for NAB so I'll try to report back how long it takes them to go through. My damn internet is slow slow it's taking 3 days to upload the clips. But at least I don't have to watch it chug away at it so no big deal really.

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Great, thanks for the clarification on maintaining all my edited clips. Don't forget to strap that Sony Z280 to the arm of your wheelchair! Bob

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I'll have the orderly do it for me.

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Doug, I have been adding video clips to Shutterstock. I have been editing and grading clips, uploading them to Shutterstock, then adding the metadata. Once I have about 5 clips ready and everything looks good I then submit them for review. This method works great for me. Have fun at NAB. Bob

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I submitted 225 clips to Shutterstock on Friday and all 225 were approved today, so that's a pretty good average!

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I would say that is quite impressive. I was feeling good because I submitted 13 yesterday.

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Bob, the more you do, the faster you will get. Plus it helps that this batch of mine were all from the same location/event so they could share a lot of the metadata. I'm looking forward to getting home from NAB and shooting some different kinds of shots that I suddenly thought of on the flight out.

Also, don't make the same mistake that I used to do by letting a bunch of stuff stack up in the pipeline. Since the first of the year I have tried to upload new clips within a few days after I shoot them, and that is working so much better. I used to let a few hundred stack up and then it was a real chore to get through them all processed at once a couple of times per year. Plus the sooner you upload, the sooner they can start earning.

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Doug good advise. I submitted 13 and 12 were accepted. Not bad for a beginner. Right now I am reviewing stuff I have shot in the Pantanal, Alaska, South Africa, Kenya, Chile, Argentina and several other photo safaris I have been on. I have three road trips (all back roads), planed for the next few months and will be shooting video with a new mind set. Bob

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Yes, that's a very good percentage. I was probably at 50% or less when I started.

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Well lets just say I had a damn good instructor. Bob

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Bob,
Just out of curiosity I looked back at my early Shutterstock records this morning. In my first few months I uploaded about 500 clips (from my archives) but I had $0 sales until the 3rd month. Then it jumped to $265, then $345, etc. My point is to keep uploading right now. Don't wait to upload more until if you see results form the first few. Keep uploading good clips with good metadata and the results will come later.

Just food for thought.

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Doug, thanks for that information. I am still uploading clips and hope to have the same success as you have. I have lots of time on my hands. As a matter of fact I leave Monday for a week in the Okefenokee swamp to do some videoing. Now I will be shooting with a different mindset.

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I just finished watching the last chapter of the course. I am super busy lately so I did it a few chapters at a time over several weeks. First, I want to say thank you for putting so much work and detail into the course. This has got to be the most complete information package I have ever purchased about any subject in my lifetime. A few years ago I opened a Pond 5 account and dumped in a couple hundred clips to test the waters. I sold a few clips over time but considered it chump change compared to my time and effort. I have barely touched the account since then. Now I understand why my test failed! Because of your course I will approach stock with a brand new system to use and a greater understanding of the process.

Doug, I have a couple of questions for you.

I have been to both of your websites and can't find a couple things you mentioned. I could be wrong but I think you said there is a link to set you up as a referral when I open my Adobe and Shutterstock accounts? I am sure it can be done through their process too but I want to make sure it happens?

Did you say there is a way to download some of your forms to use as templates?

I am real big on professional etiquette. Sometimes that means understanding unwritten rules. Can you explain how to deal with the "pick your own price" approach at Pond 5? It seems to me if I am going to submit to three agencies then the price of the clips should be in the same ballpark. Otherwise it could upset buyers if they see my stuff dirt cheap in the cutthroat pond and twice that at Shutterstock. Am I overthinking that? It makes me wonder if Pond 5 is worth the effort because price competition is so tuff there? Editors know we submit to multiple agencies. It is no secret. But each agency uses a different strategy in how they deal with contributors. Now that you have tested the waters over at Pond 5 would you mind sharing your thoughts? I really appreciate your candid approach to sharing information and your experience!

Thank You for the great course!

Steve

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Hi Steve, thanks for the really nice compliments. I can't tell you how happy it makes me when I hear that my training has really made a difference for someone else. That's what it's all about. I wish you great success and I hope you start to see some results. Bet patient, it takes time, but once the snowball gets rolling it is nice to sit back and watch it gather speed without hardly any effort.

Here's my referral link for Shutterstock. Adobe does not have a referral program.
http://submit.shutterstock.com?rid=1113473

Yes, I have a zip file with about a dozen files for you to download. There's some sample database templates and cheat sheets that help when doing metadata. I know I give the link a couple of times in the workshop but I can't remember which chapters. If you send me a private message at Vimeo I can send you the link.

As for Pond5, I purposely didn't talk about them too much in my video because they are still a work in progress for me. As I said, I've had some positive results there and I would love to snap my fingers and have my whole portfolio instantly appear there, but I just don't have the time to deal with it yet. I have done nothing at Pond5 since I produced my video, so there is nothing new to report, It is on my schedule for July, but that may change if something more pressing comes along. I may even decide to do a new chapter for the workshop -- if I think there is enough information/tips to warrant it. We'll see how it plays out.

I'm 99% sure I will not take advantage of Pond5's offer to pay higher commissions in exchange for giving them exclusivity to some of my clips. That is my deal with Getty and I don't like it. I'd rather spread my work around at multiple agencies and hope to make more in the long run. I suppose if I have a bunch of similar clips of the same thing maybe I could give them exclusivity to some of them and send the others elsewhere, but that might be prohibited. I'd not want to break any of their rules about what constitutes exclusivity. I mean, if I have a shot that pans right and another that pans left, technically they are not the same shot, but they might be similar enough to break the rules.

As for the custom pricing aspect of Pond5, I'll probably go for low-ball pricing on my 4K clips. I think 4K is way over priced and I think I'd make more total earnings if customers could buy 4K at just a little bit more than what an HD clip would cost. 4K should only be 10-20% higher than HD, in my opinion. Not double the price. There's no reason for it.

That's my thoughts right now, but I reserve the right to change my opinions when I get deeper into Pond5 and experiment with a few variations! :-)

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I successfully added another 380 4K clips this week to my portfolio at Shutterstock. Review times used to be measured in hours and now it took almost 5 days. I hope that is not a trend.

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Well if you will sell tutorials and encourage others to send clips. Then, of course, Shutterstock will have more clips to review which all takes time.

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That would be cool to think I could have that much influence, but I am not that stupid to think so.

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Hey Doug, still happily loading clips to Shutterstock. Now it is all second nature. They were reviewed and accepted in 3 days. I recently upgraded to the Canon XF-705 (I know, your a Sony man) so now I will be uploading in 4K. Heading up to Cades Cove, Tennessee next week. Hopefully I will get some good clips of Black bears.

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Hey Bob, I'm sure the XF-705 will prove to be a very capable camera for stock. Good luck with the bears and try to come home with all your fingers.

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Hey Bob, be prepared for the traffic thru the park. There are certain days and times when traffic is better https://www.facebook.com/groups/6069...2340455951863/

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Doug, thanks, I really think I will enjoy this camcorder, operationally it is similar to the XF300. Mark, that looks like a bear-jam at Yellowstone. I hope it isn't that bad. Ill be there during the week. It is one of my favorite places to go. Last year I got some great bear clips. I'll let ya'll know. I leave Monday morning.

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Right after Doug released his course I bought it. Smart move, great course with tons of good info.

I also got super busy busy at that time and had "stock' on hold until now. I am digging into it this week.

As Doug suggests I looked at a lot of video from contributors to learn more about what is going on. Here is something I don't understand. I must be missing something:

As I understand it Shutterstock is very clear you must be the rights holder of all clips you submit. I believe you are supposed to be the sole rights holder? There are contributors with tens of thousands of clips in their portfolio they could not possibly have shot or even have the rights to. To me it looks like they are culling the internet for public domain shots or possibly just stealing clips. Look up a contributor named Rick Ray to see an example of this. Tens of thousands of clips in his portfolio. If a historical event took place from 1930 until present day he has a shot of it. News footage, celebrity footage, TV and movie footage, aerial and underwater footage, military footage etc. Its all there and almost all of it is listed as HD. I don't know if this guy has ever shot a frame, but I am sure he was not recording Hitler's speeches in B&W with a HD video cam or riding on the exterior of the space shuttle during launch ;-)

So what am I missing? If it is public domain why is shutterstock licensing it and selling it through a contributor? Maybe these guys have a small stock agency of their own and have curated these massive collections, I don't know? And then to look at some collections you know the same guy could not possibly have shot half the footage they have posted?

The Shutterstock rules are pretty simple and supposed to be stringent. I'm sure they are. But it looks like they could be creating a massive market for piracy. From the outside it looks like someone could become a major contributor and never shoot a frame or leave an office.

I am not accusing anyone of doing anything unethical. I suspect there is a valid answer for how this happens. I would like to know how. I am curious.

For me, I am going to work hard and have fun with this. Last weekend I spent three days in the desert shooting the first of my new stock images. I am using the stock thing as a way to get my passion for shooting back. I have been shooting for so many years I started to loose the MoJo. Shooting stock makes the game fun again in many ways. I am going to have a blast!

Kind Regards,

Steve

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Quoted for emphasis.

Hmm... I sure would like to get a clarification about this from ShutterStock.

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Steve, thanks for signing up for the course. I appreciate your support and I hope you sell a ton of clips.

If you could find some examples of any contributor portfolios that have "modern", non-public domain footage in them, that the person clearly could not have shot themselves, then I'd be a little concerned about piracy of my own clips but I don't think you're going to find any examples of modern pirated footage being sold at Shutterstock. In my opinion you are concerned about a non-issue. Even if we assume, just for the sake of argument, that all that old B&W footage of Hitler and space shuttle launches DOES violate Shutterstock's rules. So what? That is between Shutterstock and the contributor. What difference does it make to the rest of us one way or the other? A non-issue and not even worthy of a second of my attention.

Where would they get copies my footage, or your footage, to pirate anyway? I watermark just about everything I put on Vimeo and Youtube so they couldn't really grab it from those places. So they'd have to buy the clips first at Shutterstock and then re-submit them with no assurances of making a single sale. That would be financial suicide.

I earned $3751 in October just from Shutterstock, which is an 88% increase from October 2018. What am I going to do, stop contributing and make $0 next month just because someone got hold of some old Nazi footage and decided to upload it? That would be crazy. :-)

My advice is to focus on building your portfolio and don't worry about what other people are doing, especially when their subject matter has no overlap on your own.

And don't be so sure that I wasn't at D-Day with a 4K camera! I'm a lot older than I look.

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/c...n-paratroopers

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/c...to-battlefield

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Hey Doug,

I'm sure you know I always have been and still am a big supporter of you, your work, and your programs. Mostly because of all the time and effort you put into participating in this community by sharing your knowledge and expertise. I am not knocking Shutterstock or it's contributors. My post was about my observations as I begin to dive into the world of stock footage. It is not up to me to try and identify piracy, nor do I care about what other contributors do. However, I do think my post was was valid because it raises a lot of questions. Not the least of which is, if it is all being done legally and ethically than I will maintain that people are making a lot of money without shooting a frame. So, I asked, "how is this happening?" For me, I really don't care much. I will never be the guy sitting in front of a computer culling footage I might be able to sell. It sure does "appear" there is a lot of that going on. No big deal.

As I have just begun to get my feet my feet wet in stock I am having a blast. Two weeks ago I gave myself my first assignment. I had a few days to go camping by myself. Researching Shutterstock I had noticed there was not a lot of footage of the new Trump Border wall being built. For such a hot news topic I wondered why. I headed to Yuma and San Luis Arizona to shoot stock of the new wall. Now I know why the stock agencies are not flooded with it!

Don't worry Chris, I will not make a political statement here. I am not an activist of anytype. I will stick to what I did and saw. I went after the subject matter purly for stock video reasons.

When I approached the wall for the first time (there is many miles of it) I saw an active construction site. Perfect, exactly what I wanted to find. As I approached the site I was met by two guys in an unmarked desert tan chevy blazer. It was unmarked until they blocked me and lit me up with red and blue grill lights. These guys were in full dress battle uniforms from their helmet to their boots. The driver front slung his AR-15 and came to my widow. He had 5 spare P-Mags on his chest over his armor and of course a side arm as well as the long gun. The passenger stayed at the truck 20 feet away holding his rifle. They didn't even have name tags or insignias other than a shoulder marking that said Alliance Security Services or something like that. On a long sleeved yellow shirt that looked funny under all of BDU and gear. These guys were not messing around. What I ran into is a private security force hired ether by the US government or the contractor to protect the workers and work being done down there. These guys are not Border Patrol. I have to say, as much as I wanted a shot of them I am NOT the idiot you see on YouTube that pushes a video camera into the face of an armed authority and and says "I am recording this in case you shoot me and I know my rights!" I have never owned a camera that will stop a bullet and that is a stupid way to deal with the situation. They were not nice but they were professional. I'm sure they were both former US Military, they were not mall cops. They had a job to do and that was to get me out of there. I wasn't going to argue. The guy at my door informed me I was on land restricted and controlled by the government and that I must immediately leave the area. I tried to chat him up for some access information and of course he would have none of that. All he would say is the entire wall area is a restricted construction zone and that I needed to leave immediately. I left.

I'm not going incriminate myself on a public forum and tell the whole story but I can say I went back to the wall and got a few shots that have been accepted by Shutterstock. I got back to the wall by going far out to the middle of nowhere and 4WD in on soft sandy two track trails where I thought I would be the only one around for miles. Wrong again. At one point on my way back in to wall the trail became lined with signs every 20 feet on both sides for 2 miles. Photo below. That part was not fun.

When I did get back to the base of the wall I hastily began to shoot. What an amazing opportunity. There I was all alone in the middle of nowhere, so many angles I could work! This was going to be great! My glee and my opportunity lasted less than 10 minutes. When I saw the trail of dust coming my way I hoped it wasn't the guys from the security force. It wasn't. It was the US Border Patrol. He was not happy finding a guy out there with a video camera. My camera was on sticks and pointed at the wall. Again, I am not stupid enough to swing it around and immediately be confrontational with a guy that is about to decide if he is going to arrest me or let me go. In fact the very first thing he said to me was "Turn that thing off!" He ran my plates and drivers licence. Then told me he was escorting me out of the restricted area by following me out on the proper dirt road I had intentionally avoided to get in.

As for the footage I only got a couple of angles in the short minutes I had. I have admitted mistakes here several times on this board to remind others not to do it. The biggest crime I committed was a rookie shooting mistake and I am no rookie. In my haste I did not notice steady shot was turned on! Of course that ruined my pans as I could not pan and hold! Kicking myself for that dumb mistake. Shutterstock accepted 9 clips and rejected 11. The rejections were for "similar content". I should have been shooting and moving instead of shooting multiple takes. But hey, I did not expect to get busted so fast. It turns out I was undersurvailance the whole time. But if I go there I would have to move this thread to Area 51.

So yes, for me this stock thing is about having fun and challenging myself to be a better shooter. Eleven clips is a long way from Doug's thousands, but maybe I will get there someday.

Here is one of the clips:

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/c...9-construction

Here is the frendly road signs I passed: Sorry .jpg would not attach.

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Send me your .jpg Steve, I will get it attached to your post.

chris at dvinfo dot net

Edit: Done.

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Steve, that is a great story and I really enjoyed it. Man, I wish I had been there!! Everyone has their own tolerance for confrontations when out shooting, but I gotta say I love it when someone challenges me. I can't say for sure what I'd have done in your situation, but I like to think that I'd given them a lot of shit. Done it before and never regretted it. I would have been ready to record the whole thing on my phone. In fact, just last week I was shooting in a sensitive place where I thought I might get questioned, even though I was clearly on a public road. In anticipation of that I already had my phone strapped to my camera and set to discreatly record audio should I get hassled. A Suburban came up and stopped about 100 yards away and watched me, but never approached. Good for them. That is exactly what they should have done.

Just like you did, I checked out what was already available on Shutterstock and I saw there was a gap in coverage of this subject that I could fill with something better. I'm not going to say what it was because I haven't even processed the footage yet, but it is amazingly close to the same subject matter as your fence.

Anyway, at least you took the initiative to go out and look for some footage that other contributors won't have of a subject that is in the news. That is exactly the right way to do it and I hope you make some money from it.

Why did you submit your clip as editorial? I see no reason that it wouldn't be approved as commercial, which would open it up to a much bigger market.

Your metadata looks pretty good, but you might want to add . . . border fence, trump, immigrants, crossing, illegal entry, DACA, drug runner, mexican border . Just thinking out loud.

My only critical comment is that there is no real motion in the shot. No pan or no tilt or any action within the frame. Just a straight-in mechanical zoom with no other camera movement. It looks a lot like a still photograph with a keyframed zoom. So a video buyer might just choose to buy a still photo at a lower price. We are selling motion pictures and the footage needs action. A straight-in servo zoom is not desirable in 2019. Just something to keep in mind next time when you don't have armed guards coming down on you!

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All true, Doug, but at least Steve was able to get what he got, considering the circumstances.

None of us want to find ourselves on the evening news... not in *that* way, at least.

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Yeah, that's why I said everyone has their own tolerance for confrontations and nobody knows what the situation was really like except someone who was there. I hope the clips do well!

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Reading the posts above. I think Doug has a good play of words for the metadata which in turn will bring viewers (buyers) to the video. Even less quality videos (unlike Doug's) will get viewed with the right wording.