People often wonder if it is acceptable to cut stock footage into their videos, and the answer is ‘Yes’ with some qualifications. If you pay attention to licensing requirements and editing techniques, you can use stock to improve your video projects.
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.
While using stock footage can save you money in some cases, the opposite can also be true depending upon the license. Buying exclusive rights to the images can be very expensive.
Understanding the Contract
When you sign up with a company that offers stock images, you will need to agree to their terms of use. Read the contract carefully. Some companies limit the use of stock images altogether or to a certain number of views. Some prohibit the commercial use of their images. There are three common types of licenses for stock and it is important to understand what their limits are.
Public Domain
Material that is in the public domain is essentially free for anyone to use. It is more the absence of a license than a type of license, but it is important to understand the limitations of public domain. There are three ways for material to enter the public domain:
- Copyrighted material can enter the public domain when the copyright expires, but this can be difficult to check on because the laws are not consistent from country to country.
- Video or photographs shot by a federal employee as part of a job assignment are in the public domain.
- The creator of the content can designate it as public domain.
You can find stock video in the public domain through libraries and collections like the Library of Congress, NASA Media Archive, BBC Worldwide Learning, archive.org, and the Open Video Project.
Royalty-Free
Many of the companies that provide stock video, like Shutterstock, Getty Images, or Adobe Stock, use royalty-free licenses. Payment of a flat fee gives you non-exclusive rights to use the footage in multiple ways for as long as you want, but there are restrictions. Some companies limit use to projects with a budget under $10,000. There may also be a restriction on the number of views, such as a limit of 500,000. This can get tricky if your video goes viral. Sometimes you can buy an enhanced or extended license to remove these limits, but one restriction remains. Stock images are available to anyone, so if you want exclusive rights, you have to pay for them.
Rights Managed Footage
With this type of agreement, you get exclusive rights to the footage. This can be expensive but it is worth it if your project will be very visible, such as a TV show or feature film.
How to Use Stock Video
Stock footage is useful for B Roll and transitions in your video projects, but it is important to match the stock to your original shots as much as possible. Find stock that is close to your footage through keyword searches. If your video was shot in an urban area, search for footage of street scenes, people walking, cars driving by, or buildings from the area where your original footage was shot.
Be careful to blend stock footage to account for different cameras, exposures, and white balance. One way to do this is through overlays. If you use an overlay for the entire sequence, you can match the feeling or mood of the piece. Be sure to match lighting and grade and correct the color. You can also use stock to give a sense of the passage of time with tight shots interspersed with time-lapse.
Learn Video Editing
If you are preparing for a career in video editing, it is a good idea to take some classes to pick up techniques like using stock footage 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.