Timelapse of big city traffic at night. A wind farm back-lit by the setting sun. People in suits pointing at flip charts. Attractive people eating salad…and so on. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of trawling through stock footage libraries, you’ve probably (definitely) encountered these things on your travels.
Stock footage has been furnishing the corporate video world with cliché after cliché for what feels like forever. And for many, it does the job it needs to do. People rely on stock video for many different reasons and this difficult COVID climate it’s perhaps being used more than ever; with reduced budgets, limited travel, filming restrictions and time being of the essence to get your brand’s message out there. But what if you’re serious about making standout video content? How can you use stock video and avoid being bland and generic? Yes it can be creatively limiting and awful to look at, isn’t necessarily cheap and hours of your life can be lost to finding what you’re looking for - but it doesn’t have to be this way…
In this post we’re sharing our TOP 5 TIPS for getting stock video right, helping to steer you away from people in suits shaking hands and instead of guiding you towards an authentic and successful piece of video content.
Tip 1: Creative is King.
With any piece of video content, it all begins with a clear brief and creative idea. And this is particularly important if stock footage is the route you’re taking. Before diving head-first into your creative treatment it’s worth considering the limitations that come with stock as well as its strengths, to avoid forcing a square peg into a round hole when it comes to the execution of your idea.
Let’s imagine you’re creating a brand film with all the usuals: voice over, music track and of course stock video. Finding the ingredients for your edit can bean overwhelming and lengthy process, so what you want is freedom and flexibility when scrolling through those stock libraries.
Nailing that script is key - too specific or prescriptive and you’ll be trying to find a needle in a haystack. And being overly functional will inevitably lead you to predictable, drab content to work with.
A more abstract and emotive approach to scriptwriting will broaden your options for the edit and ultimately makes for a more interesting and impactful film. So embolden your creative with metaphors and the unexpected, and indulge in stock’s variety of offerings to set the tone and deliver real feeling.
And lastly, consider making your film no longer than 60 seconds. You don’t want to require scores of clips to fill your timeline, which will suck up more of your time and budget. More on this later…
Tip 2: Which libraries?
These days there’s an increasing number of stock libraries to choose from, so it can be handy to know where to look and what you’re getting. For us, the less it looks like ‘stock’ the better. Here’s a short breakdown of the libraries we’re most familiar with…
- Film Supply: Cinematic material, large library, premium quality, supplied by top filmmakers, clips often come in collections for multiple options of the same scene. ££££
- Dissolve: Mixed styles, v large library, medium-high quality, excellent search filters. £££
- Getty: Mixed styles, v large library, ranging low-medium-excellent quality, ideal for archival/editorial material but therefore expensive. £££££
- Artgrid: Mixed styles but leaning towards cinematic, medium-sized library, medium-excellent quality, subscription available for unlimited downloads makes it very cost-effective. ££
- Raw Film: Cinematic, small-medium sized library, premium quality, clips grouped in scenes, single clip purchase or subscription. £££
- Vimeo Stock: Mixed styles, medium-sized library, average to excellent quality, ££
- Pexels: A very small library, average to v good quality. Free!
- Mixkit: A very small library, average to v good quality, great for aerial footage. Free!
Tip 3: Use your budget wisely
Generally speaking, when it comes to stock footage, you do get what you pay for and if you’re lucky enough to have a bottomless budget you can pick and choose from the top libraries with at will. But in the real world, you’re likely going to need to think carefully about how you spread the cash across your assets - you don’t want to get to the edit scrambling for options because you maxed-out on two hero shots.
One way of avoiding this is to firstly identify your ’go-to’ libraries, ranging in quality and price, and make a rough estimate of how many clips your budget will stretch to for each. Then highlight the most important moments in your film and reserve those for the higher quality stock websites. Perhaps you need these shots to land a key message in the film, or maybe they simply need to be visually beautiful. The remaining scenes or shots can then be covered by the ‘less acclaimed’ libraries. However as mentioned above in Tip 2, this doesn’t mean you have to settle for sub-standard footage…there’s plenty of affordable good stuff out there. Just remember to keep a record of your shopping list as you download preview clips so you can track your spending.
And lastly, you may want to consider some of the subscription options out there to really maximise your budget, especially if you know you’ll need many clips for your edit. Some allow you unlimited downloads and others let you accrue credits each month, which means you can cash in when your next stock-only project comes along.
Tip 4: Quality control
Using stock footage comes with the risk of your film looking disjointed; a random mix of content that clearly derives from different sources/filmmakers/cameras etc. And even if you intend to create an eclectic edit for your film, there’s a level of cohesion to strive for, which can be achieved if you apply some quality control to your clip selections. Here are some technical things to bear in mind…
- Cameras: You’re unlikely to know what specific camera has been used, but there are some clues to guide you in finding footage that’s close enough to match later in your edit. Look out for things like aspect ratio, depth of field and dynamic range as common factors.
- Codec/Gamma space: Closely linked to the type of camera used is the video clip’s file type and information contained within it. Favour the less-compressed codecs like ProRes, over H.264 for example. Look out for the option to download ‘log’ or ‘raw’ clips, to give you more flexibility when grading and matching clips later.
- Frame rates: Be aware to conform your timeline to favour the lowest timebase from your media pool. A clip that’s 30fps will conform better to 24fps rather than the other way around.
- Image Resolution: 4k doesn’t necessarily mean great quality. Unless you’re needing to project your output on a big screen, re-framing shots or need the resolution for visual effects, 1080p should be fine. It’s also cheaper.
- Style of filming: Is it handheld and immersive, or more deliberate and composed? There are no ‘rules’ to this, but try to judge whether the clips you’re using belong together, or if they clash stylistically.
Tip 5: Colour grading trickery
A pro colour grade can really make the difference in bringing cohesion and identity to your film. Of course, it elevates the production value overall, and in this context, it can also help disguise mixed formats that were unavoidable in the selection process. You could take this a step further again by introducing animation and motion graphics, creating an added layer of branding and creative thread. Below are examples of this from our award-winning piece ‘Story of Tomorrow’ for Accor.
This film was a mixture of our own footage, lots of stock video and animation. With so many elements at work, it was important to ensure the brand was consistently present throughout. The colour-grading brief was ‘blue and gold’, Accor’s brand colours, and with layers of animation working over the top, we were able to make the stock footage live in harmony with the rest of the film. All of the images below are from stock footage.
See the film here:
Conclusion
Next time a brief arrives on your desk that reads “stock-only”, fear not - there is a way!
We hope our TOP 5 TIPS for getting stock video right… will help you get it right.
If you’re trying to keep video rolling then virtually get in touch to discuss your brief.
