Hey, my name is Matt Johnson, and in this video
I'm going to be showing you how to get started
filming a stock footage for passive income.
So if you want to make money selling videos online
but you're not sure what to film for stock video or how to film it, resolutions
you should film in frame rates, model releases, etc.
This video is going to cover everything about filming stock video.
Also, please subscribe
if you want to see my next video in this series,
which is going to be all about how to easily and quickly edited
stock footage and have it ready to upload that video is coming soon.
And lastly, to save you time, I've put together a free stock footage
Jump Start guide that's going to show you literally everything you need to know
to get your first stock footage clips uploaded online
and have you making money in your first 30 days.
So if you want to take a huge shortcut to making passive income,
you've got to check out this jump
Start guide, which I will link to down below, starting after the first thing
that you're going to want to do when filming.
Stock footage is film in as high of resolution as possible.
Most stock footage sites will still accept footage that is ten ADP HD,
but they all ideally want higher resolution footage if you have it
such as 4K, six, K, eight K, etc.
and some of these stock footage sites are actually going to charge people
more for higher resolution video, which means that you could potentially
make more money if you sell higher resolution clips.
So film in high resolution.
Next, closely related to resolution, you have frame rate.
And while the frame rate that you film in
doesn't matter as much from a sales perspective, personally,
I always try to film at 60 or higher and I recommend that you do two.
Filming in slow motion is going to give people
purchasing your clips more versatility when they're editing
because they can speed up the footage if they need to and for you by filming
and uploading your footage in slow motion, it's going to make your clips smoother
and remove any shakiness you may have when filming, which means the footage
is far more likely to be accepted by stock footage licensing sites.
All right.
At this point,
you're filming in 4K or higher if you can, and you're also filming in slow motion.
But should you film in a flat log picture
profile like Slug three or Sea log or vlog?
In most situations, the answer is yes, but you don't have to if you don't want to.
Let me make this decision easy for you.
Every single stock footage site out there is going to want you to upload
your video clips.
Color graded meaning that everything is saturated, contrasty, and colorful.
So if you want to save time or you don't feel confident
filming in log, just film in a standard picture profile.
This already saturated in contrast and you're good to go.
But that said, if you want to make more money
and you want to maximize your stock footage revenue,
it really is in your best interest to film in large because not only will
the dynamic range of your footage be better, which can result
in your footage looking prettier and more people wanting to buy it.
More importantly, there are certain stock footage websites
that also want you to upload your footage and log as well.
For example, stock footage sites like Art Grid prefer
if you upload two versions of your stock footage,
video clips that are log and untouched from your camera,
as well as those same clips that have been color graded as well.
This gives their users more versatility and choice when they're downloading clips
and it gives you twice the opportunities to make income.
Because if someone doesn't like the color grade
that you applied to your video clip, they can just download
the unedited log video clip and color great things themselves.
Lastly, in regards to filming in log or not,
I also want you to be aware
that certain sites will also accept raw footage as well,
meaning that if you film with an external recorder like an ATOMOS,
or if you film with a red camera, certain stock footage sites will want you
to upload that raw footage in addition to color graded footage.
This is just another way for you to offer more variety and make more money.
Next, you're probably wondering
how long your clips should be when you're uploading to these websites.
Most stock footage websites have a minimum clip length of 3 to 5 seconds.
So in general, I try to target my clips to be around
5 to 10 seconds in length at minimum.
As far as the maximum length for video clips go,
all stock footage sites do have limitations on how long of clips
they will accept with the vast majority of sites
limiting you to one minute long clips at most.
While some sites will allow you to upload up to 92nd clips
because of this limitation, I would always target a maximum
length of 60 seconds for your video clips.
And keep in mind that if you're filming in slow motion,
you really don't have a ton of time before you're going to need to stop
recording and start recording another clip.
This clip length limitation leads us into general filming techniques
for stock footage because we've covered a lot of the technical nitty gritty,
and now we need to talk about how you should specifically be filming.
The main thing I would keep in mind when filming stock footage is that your goal
should be to get as much variety of whatever you're filming as possible.
Take, for example, this footage that I filmed of my brother fishing
while we were vacationing in Colorado at its most basic, when you think fishing,
you may think a guy casting a rod into the water and then reeling in a fish.
But there's so much more that you can film when it comes to stock footage,
film the ambient area, the trees, the pond,
the weather overhead, multiple wide shots, multiple tight shots,
casting the rod from multiple angles, reeling the rod in, moving around the pond
to different locations, catching a fish, reeling in the fish, holding up the fish.
From this one video idea of a man fishing.
I recorded over 40 video clips that now have for sale online a stock footage.
So don't be afraid to go crazy and film a ton when you're filming for stock footage
because you need to remember that most people
are going to want more than one video clip to edit with.
They're going to want multiple.
So if you can offer them multiple clips of the same thing occurring,
the odds are that they're going to want to buy more than one clip from you,
which can make you significantly more money.
I want you to notice two things about these clips, too.
First, there's no audio in any of them, and that is intentional.
The vast majority of stock footage websites are not interested in you,
including audio with your footage.
So I would pretty much always remove it.
The only time that you would not want to remove
audio is if the audio was absolutely integral to the video clip
at which point you can upload it and make a case for why it should be included.
But otherwise, for the vast majority of stock footage, video clips,
I would not include audio.
The next thing that I want you to notice about this stock footage is arguably
the most important, and that is that there is a person in this stock footage.
Yes, any time you include people in your stock footage, you need to be very mindful
of the exact people that you are including because
if you include a person in your footage and they are recognizable,
then you need to make sure that they sign a moral release form.
Now, every single stock footage site out there is going to have different model
release forms that they want you to fill out.
And if you're planning on uploading
to just one stock footage site, like, let's say art grid, for example,
you can just download that site specific release form, have
whoever is in your video fill it out
and then upload that release form whenever you upload your stock footage.
But where things can get complicated, is that just because you have a person
sign a release form from one website, that doesn't necessarily mean
that that release form is also going to be usable on other websites.
And this is really annoying.
So my recommendation to you is that if you are going to use a release form,
you instead should use a more generic release form that will be accepted
by multiple websites.
Personally, I've had good luck using the model release form from Getty Images,
which I will link to down in the video description next.
Closely related to model release.
Forbes You also have property release forms.
Yes, most stock footage websites are also going to want you to include
property releases for any recognizable property in your footage.
As for what property is, that definition is pretty broad,
but in general, if you're filming, say, an iconic structure
like the Golden Gate Bridge or a custom built sports car, a car show
or a painting at a museum, if these things are super recognizable,
then you're going to want to get a property release
from the owner of the property, which is a form
that's going to be very similar to a model release.
It's just going to be for an object instead of a person.
Now, I realize that this may discourage you a bit because you're thinking,
Dang it, all this paperwork and release form sound annoying and I get it.
But if you are creative about what you film, I promise you
that there is still a ton of stuff that you can film that doesn't require
a release form and you can make money from it.
Guess what?
My most popular, most downloaded clip that I ever filmed
is it's a drone shot that I filmed of some pine trees in a forest.
There was no model release or property release required
because there's nothing unique about these trees.
So get creative.
You can do it. Okay.
At this point, you now know how to get started
filming stock footage, but we're not done yet.
I'm now working on the next video in this series that's going to show you
how to easily edit your stock footage in a way that will be accepted
by all of these different stock footage websites.
And I'm going to show you how to add this footage very fast.
So please subscribe if you want to see that video.
I will link down below to my other stock footage videos, including a video
all about exactly how much money you can expect to make from selling stock footage,
including hard numbers that I personally have made from selling stock video.
Lastly, if you're interested at all in stock video
and you want a shortcut to selling it,
you need to check out my selling stock footage.
Jump Start Guide.
This guide is going to walk you through the exact
steps to take to not only film stock footage
like we covered in this video, but also how to edit and upload it.
It's also going to share with you the exact sites that I recommend to use
right when you're getting started.
And if you follow the steps in this guide, you'll be making money selling
stock footage in no time, oftentimes within a month.
And also, did I mention this guide is completely free.
You can download it link down in the video description.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.