Need REAL Stock Footage Resource

[Greg Ball]

Getty Images is probably your best bet. However their prices are very high.

[Ned Miller]

Getty bought iStock so I believe they are now one and the same. Here is what I am emulating, at 10000th of the cost of course, this is the style I am going for:

https://www.apple.com/your-verse/#video-your-verse

Searching takes much longer than planned but I am enjoying it. Very frustrating wading through all this fake, pretty people material.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Walter Soyka]

[Ned Miller] “Getty bought iStock so I believe they are now one and the same.”

iStock is to Getty like Chevy is to Cadillac.

[Ned Miller] “Searching takes much longer than planned but I am enjoying it.”

Getty provides research assistance.

[Ned Miller] “Here is what I am emulating, at 10000th of the cost of course, this is the style I am going for:”

As Greg mentioned, Getty is pricey — but good stock costs money.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Todd Terry]

iStock is indeed owned by Getty, but they are not at all the same nor have the same catalog (although yes there is some overlap). So just because you didn’t find it in iStock, doesn’t mean you might not find it at Getty.

But yes, Getty is much much much more expensive.

Did I mention more expensive?

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Ned Miller]

Yes looks high quality but still has the same problem: Models, Models, Models. If only they would hire some real looking folks. Lots of pantomime.

However, their non-people stock looks great.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Jeff Breuer]

Check out Videoblocks.com. It’s not the highest quality footage, but they have some real construction stuff in there. If you see a few clips you like you can just created a free seven day account and download all the stuff you want (it’s a retainer based, download all you want model). If you want to quit though, just be sure to cancel before they hit your credit card.

[Mark Suszko]

There’s another alternative; there’s a web site out there where you specify the stock you want, and what you’re willing to pay, and someone bids to go out and shoot it specifically for you. The idea being that there are shooters everywhere and one or more of them must live near something you want shot. And they do it for cheap, relative to Getty. Now, I’m trying to remember the name of the web site and am drawing a blank at the moment. Does anybody else remember the name I’m forgetting?

[Ned Miller]

Thanks Mark, but I am a cameraman so I could easily do it myself. It’s just that their budget wouldn’t allow that. I have $150 average for each of 20 shots and no decent cameraman would go out for that.

I do wish there was an aggregator site where I could put in the search term and it searches ALL the decent stock footage companies for me. I have a 27″ and 22″ monitors up and about 10 browser windows open trying to compare. My main problem is their look of fake models pretending to be doing the work at hand. Perhaps it’s my documentary background I see the shots as phony.

Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com

[Mark Suszko]

I totally understand what you mean.

Though in this economy, you would be surprised at what kind of freelance shots you might get thru such a service. Sure, the quality will be all over the map, but, you could just a well come across incredible bargains bid by people just trying to get a toe in the door. There’s a lot of undiscovered talent out there that may not want to be full-timers but can delver an awesome shot every now and then.

The COW is has their own stock catalog, still relatively small… but you know, it might be a great idea to add this sort of “bid to get you a specific shot” feature to it. Maybe call it “on the hoof”. (TM) I think I’ll mention it to Tim. It could be a great way for COW members to help each other out.

[Mark Suszko]

Ned, what about searching Youtube for the shots, and contacting the uploaders of the shots you like, to get a high rez FTP?