There are many websites where you can find high-quality video footage and clips to use in your own projects for free or at a low cost. This is known as stock video and can add a polished quality to your video.
What Is Stock?
Stock, stock footage, B roll. It goes by many names, but whatever you call it, stock is made up of generic images that are used in video to support the story and provide atmosphere. Stock footage is usually less than a minute long and is inserted between the main subject footage. Shots of the landscape and nature, people walking, or buildings are common stock images. Drone shots are very popular at present.
Why Use Stock?
Using stock in your video projects can save you time. You can focus on shooting the footage that is your main focus and use stock as B roll. For example, if you are filming an interview, you can use stock footage around the interview to give viewers an idea of where it took place. You don’t have to spend the time shooting environmental scenes.
Stock footage can also save you money, especially if you rent your equipment. Because you aren’t spending time shooting B roll, you don’t have to rent the camera equipment for as long a time. Drone footage is a good example of where stock can save you money. You can let someone else buy and maintain the drone, and you can simply order the stock footage for the area you want to feature.
Another advantage of using stock is to fill in when you get into the editing process and realize you didn’t get the footage you needed. It is easier to fill in with stock instead of scheduling another video session. Shots you wouldn’t be able to get yourself like underwater or drone footage are available as stock.
The companies that curate stock collections purchase high-quality, professionally made images and sell them under license. You can use the footage in many different ways depending on the license. Stock is routinely used in social media videos, advertising, segues in interviews, artistic content, and backgrounds at conferences and events.
The best reason to use stock in video projects is to support and strengthen the story you are telling. Whether you are building and strengthening a brand or presenting a narrative, video is a powerful way to tell a story, and stock footage can be a big help with this.
Some Issues With Stock
There are some things to watch out for when using stock. Depending upon the license, anyone can use the images, so the footage is not unique. This isn’t a big problem if you are looking for something short and generic, or if your project is not likely to get a huge number of views. But if the footage is easily recognizable, using it in a film or television program is a risk.
Sometimes stock can be too generic. Choose images that support the story you are telling with enough detail to give the viewer a feeling or an idea of where it is. If the footage could really be anywhere, that is not specific enough.
Sites Offering Free and Low-Cost Stock Video Footage
There are numerous sites offering free stock video that you can use, even in commercial projects. Some of these listed below have a premium option that allows you more downloads for a monthly fee. The last one on the list does charge for video, but it is a special situation.
- The Digital Public Library of America has a collection of over 45 million videos, images, texts, and sounds from all over the US. There are primary source sets on different topics like John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry, the Black Power Movement, and the Beginnings of the American Red Cross. There are also user guides to help you search.
- Pixabay has over 2.4 million stock videos, images, and music suitable for use in video projects. This is shared, copyright-free content that can be used in commercial content when you join Pixabay and accept the license agreement.
- Videvo has more than 500,000 clips, motion graphics, video templates, sound effects, and music tracks available to use for free. The content is licensed under Videvo’s Attribution License or Creative Commons 3.0, and you can use them in multiple projects without having to pay again. Many of the clips are free, although there are premium levels that you can subscribe to.
- Coverr has good-quality stock video available. It is organized into easy-to-search categories and you can subscribe to get new videos weekly.
- Pikwizard has a collection of over a million high-quality, free stock videos that are safe for commercial use without attribution.
- Mixkit has free stock video footage and also offers a premium subscription service. Their offerings include some darker fantasy and realistic images, which would work for horror, sci-fi, and documentary projects.
- The Beat is a blog from PremiumBeat by Shutterstock. This post lists many sources for free 4K video footage.
- Pond5 has free HD and 4K stock footage and music tracks available.
- New York’s Prelinger Archives offers over 60,000 films from advertisements, to educational films, to amateur movies that are available to be repurposed in new works. This is part of the Internet Archive which offers millions of free books, movies, music, software, and websites.
- The Library of Congress has a collection of both still and moving images in the public domain.
- The Open Video Project is a collection of digital videos from TV commercials to NASA footage.
- Videezy has free HD stock video and 4K footage.
- Cinestudy is a non-profit devoted to the study of film editing.
- Pexels Videos offers completely free videos. All videos are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means you can edit or change the videos and use them free for personal or commercial projects.
- You must attribute the creator to use videos fromFreestock.
- Desktop Documentaries is a collection of films in the public domain. This site is also a good place for B-roll.
- NASA videos and images are available in the public domain.
- Distill is organized a bit differently. Videos are listed by the creator, so if you have a favorite artist, you can sign up to get free HD video from them every ten days.
- Beachfront B-roll has a free collection of HD video stock footage and animated backgrounds that can be used for any purpose.
- This one isn’t free but it is worth the money. Editstock has footage of various types for student projects that can be used to create a portfolio. Footage like sports events and weddings can be hard to find but Editstock has it.
Learn Video Editing
If you are thinking of pursuing a career in video editing, it is a good idea to take some classes to learn where to find and use the material effectively. While you can watch tutorials and work through trial and error, the quickest way to learn video editing is by taking a class.
Some people prefer in-person classes when learning new information, but that isn’t always available. Live online classes have a similar set-up with a real-time, remote instructor who can answer questions and take control of your monitor—with permission—to show you how to do things. Training is part or full-time and available weekdays, weeknights, or weekends.
The best way to prepare for a career shift to a technical field like video editing is to enroll in a bootcamp or certificate program. These are intensive training courses that run for a few weeks to a few months and will cover video editing in much more depth than tutorials can. Another plus of training is that you will leave class with a professional-quality sample video portfolio that you can show to prospective employers.
Video editing is a rapidly growing field with many career opportunities, so check out Noble Desktop’s video editing courses. Choose between in-person sessions in NYC at Noble’s location or sign up for live online video editing courses and attend from anywhere. Use Noble Desktop’s Classes Near Me to find other courses in video editing in your area.