The Factors You Cannot Neglect While Purchasing Stock Footage

By Author: Erik Jonason
Total Articles: 34
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If you are going to incorporate stock footage in your film or documentary, there are some important factors that you have to keep in mind. The article talks about the same and will also focus on the several benefits of using the stock footage.

Nowadays, stock footage is extensively used by the filmmakers in their films and documentaries. Besides that, they can also be used in television shows, advertisements, and news, etc. The stock footage is turning out to be the best alternative instead of shooting the entire sequence, which help in saving a lot of time. They not only save the filmmakers from wasting unnecessary time but are also very cost effective. To shoot a whole scene will turn out to be very costly for anybody, but stock / video footage can save a lot of money, as they are very cheap and many of them are royalty free.

There are a number of online sites selling royalty free stock footage. You can get them by giving one-time licensing fee and there will no need to give royalty to anybody after usage. So, always try to look for a royalty free stock footage to enjoy many benefits. Talking about the categories ...
... of the stock footage, they include sports, technology, people, business, nature, war and disaster, wildlife, etc. The major advantages of using stock video footage are that they reduce the carbon footprint and you can also do test editing with them to see whether they can be incorporated in the final project.

The certain things that should not be neglected while purchasing stock footage:

Quality: Make sure that the quality of the footage is up to the mark. It should match to the quality of your project, else it will look weird. In other words, the pixels of the stock footage should be similar to the pixels of the final project. Otherwise, it will break the flow and people watching your project will lose their interest.

Legalities: There are some stock footage that are royalty free and there are some that are not. If footage is royalty free, you can use it a number of times for the same project in all media, worldwide. On the other hand, 'rights-managed' footage has certain limitations, as there is a specific time-period that you can't exceed. You might also not have the right to use it in all media, as it is there in a royalty free footage.

Authenticity: It is one of the important factors while looking for a stock footage. Although the stock footage is real, but there are many that do not look authentic. Due to some factors like low lighting, bad location, etc the footage do not seem to be real. So, go for the footage that possesses authenticity.

Delivery Format: A scene can be shot in a number of formats. There are standard definition such as NTSC & PAL, High Definition such as HD 1080P & HD 720P, and multimedia such as 320X240 & 640X480. These delivery formats affect the resolution of the stock footage, so choose the one depending upon the requirement of your project.

The above factors are the few essential factors that should be keep in mind while looking out for a quality stock footage. Besides that, composition, motion, focal length, and compression are some other important elements that also can't be neglected.

The author of this article is associated with MrFootage, a leading online distributor of stock footage.