Thursday 10 May 2012

Stock footage tips





Researching stock footage for a corporate video or a television commercial can be a long-winded and sometimes fruitless process. It’s very difficult to get it right the first time around. Particularly as there are far too many sites to get through and the correct search terms aren’t always obvious. So, thought we’d run you through some approaches that we’ve picked up here at Toast

First off, do a bit of research and write a list of the search terms that you think are suitable. Then methodically run through them on your chosen selection of stock footage sites. It sounds simple, but if you don’t do your research on the terms and run through your results in a constructed way, then you’ll end up missing out on potentially useful clips and just end up browsing.

If this straightforward approach isn’t working, look at how you can make your search terms wider or narrower in order to expand or contract your results. A good start is to look at synonyms of the words that you are using, in case you’ve missed something out.

If you’re still stuck for ideas, run an Internet image search on your keywords and see what comes up. Let’s say you’re looking for skyscrapers under construction, perhaps there’s a skyscraper that’s due for completion in the next few months. Run a search on its name, architect and surrounding area. Chances are that someone has covered it recently, because skyscrapers tend to be newsworthy.

This is the point where you might well want to call the stock footage company, an expert, your client, or a friend who works in the field for more information about the search that you’re conducting. For example, if you’re making a film about specific types of flowers, they may be able to advise you on places where you can find these flowers. It sounds odd, but even just asking the person sitting at the desk next to you might give you some new ideas for related search terms.


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Further resources

4 comments:

  1. Hi, this is a really helpful tip for finding the right stock footage that you need. If you're looking for high quality affordable or free stock footage, you can go to The Stock Footage Company.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great tips! If you'd ever like access to any of our Free Stock Footage clips just visit our site.

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  3. VideoHive is pretty good as it's cheap and there is some great stuff on there however you just have to do a bit of trawling! ;)

    My overall favourite is Revostock as it's a good compromise between price and choice. I have also written a blog post about my top 5 stock video websites as well. Check it out

    http://creatureproductions.co.uk/5-stock-video-sites-source-quality-video-content/

    ReplyDelete
  4. i was just read your article that was really superb got much pleasure to read that post. please keep sharing post like that.thanks for share with us for this post.good bye.

    ReplyDelete