Stock Footage Trading?

[Richard Alvarez]

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm married to one...

(Which is another thread entirely!)

It seems to me, the thing to avoid is re-inventing the wheel. There are several stock-footage companies on the web. You go there, puruse the footage, sign the agreement, download what you need. and you're off an running.

For those wanting to post and pay, or pay and dowload, who want their work protected... this is the way to go.

The power of this board, is the established user base. Seems like a new forum "Footage wanted" (Under the marketplace heading?)
would pretty much start the ball rolling. Posters would say - "I need a wide shot of the golden gate bridge at night" - And I would contact the poster and do the deal. Just like we buy and sell equipment on this board.

Make sense?

[David Levine]

Personally I think compensation is a bad idea. I think the compensation offered should be contributing to the archive and having access to it.
As far as bandwith goes, full sized clips maybe difficult, but certainly we would wish to see what availbe. Perhaps a smaller compressed quicktime clip of teh video available, with a link to request the full sized from the provider?
I do think keeping it free as a resource would be important. I think having a few folk contribute financially could help, and I would certainly be willing to do something within reason there

If we are talking compensation and formal contracts, those of us who are hobbyists are not going to be interested. -->>>

[Roger Moore]

<<<-- Originally posted by Richard Alvarez : I

It seems to me, the thing to avoid is re-inventing the wheel. -->>>


http://creativecommons.org/

Publish
license your video
Creative Commons helps you publish your video online while letting others know exactly what they can and can't do with your work.


Need a Place to Publish your video?
Here is a place that will host your video for free with Creative Commons licenses:

Publishing your licensed video at the Internet Archive

[Pete Bauer]

Roger,

I looked over the CC web site. Very interesting, and certainly looks legit. Has anyone had experience with it, or otherwise have solid knowledge of the site's real utility? Any indications whether a CC license has faced a courtroom, and if so, how it fared?

On the downside, the affiliated archive.org web site didn't really look to be of much help to us-- at least at first blush. On a quick look, I didn't see any full-rez DV clips; what I saw looked like 512K or less WMV, etc. Not quite what we're after here.

If Creative Commons turns out to be a good rights solution, I MIGHT consider at least temporarily building a page in my personal web site for links, brief descriptions, and perhaps a frame grab to other DVinfo folks' shared clips. Just to get the ball rolling.

My work schedule is pretty hectic, though, so that's not a promise at this point...and if anyone who is more tied to the internet than I am is willing to do it, that would be great.

[Richard Alvarez]

Roger,

Exactly my point! And what I had in mind. Creative Commons, as well as the other stockfootage sites are already set up to do this. Contracts in place, fees set, methods of storing and exchanging, etc.

If what everyone seems to be interested in, is a less 'formal' less structured forum of exchange - then it seems to me a simple listing of "Footage wanted" "Footage offered" - in the same vein that we buy and sell equipment here, is the way to go.

[Greg Boston]

Some good ideas here. Just wanted to say that unless I am wrong, full resolution mini DV format footage uses 4.7GB to capture 17minutes and 55 seconds.

I came to this solution by remembering that before I switched my drive to NTFS, that's how much my NLE would capture before stopping at the FAT32 4.7GB filesize limit.

I don't think most stock footage shots are going to run that long so bandwidth consumption might not be as bad as was suggested earlier in this thread.

I also think that in the spirit of the original idea here that the supplier of footage should give full release and claim it to be original work. Compensation should be in the form a a screen credit and possibly a copy of the finished work. What better way for all of us to increase our video resumes.

Thoughts, ideas, criticisism?

regards,

=gb=

p.s. I will, of course be happy to participate and contribure to this venture.

[Rick Bravo]

There is nothing wrong with someone burning a dub to tape or dvd and sending it to the person in need.

Anyone can contact a stock house and buy footage, I feel that this board is more about people helping each other out, especially when there are no budgets to speak of. I really think that compensation would really complicate things.

Servers, bandwith, hosting, administration, etc. costs money. Who's going to pick up the tab to maintain and operate the site?
What will be their compensation...a percentage of whatever money changes hands? Will this be taken out of the cost of the clip or tacked on? How will the finances be handled? Etc., etc., etc!

Let's not over-engineer this thing. It really is quite simple.

Chris, if you're reading this, my suggestion is that a new category be created, something like a "Shots Wanted" type. This way people can communicate directly with each other as has been the spirit of this board without involving the evil $$$.

RB

[Yi Fong Yu]

rick, @least pay for shipping right? ;).

[Rick Bravo]

The person requesting the footage must be responsible for providing a blank tape in the appropriate format (the format being used by the provider), and a self addressed, stamped envelope.

I honestly think this is the way to go. We should all be on this board helping each other out whenever possible instead of trying to turn a buck off of each other.

RB

[John Lee]

It would be nice if we could implement this via the internet, but I think most of you have brought up solid points and the reality is it just won't work out that way.

I think the actual trading of tapes sounds like an excellent way to go. But a separate category specifically for these types of requests would be a necessity. Also, maybe we could have a generic agreement form which clearly outlines the terms for usage/trading? (I'm sure there are plenty such templates on the 'net we could modify and adopt.) And even a thread which includes a list of all the people who are willing to participate along with their locations?

I am really excited about the potential of this idea, and I hope we can all work something equitable out.

[Yi Fong Yu]

ok. so it's settled.

now, who is making movies? who needs what scenes? etc? i'm not doing anything @the moment, just lots of writing. i'm sure there are people making short movies now, but they probably won't even get to read this thread cause they're so busy doing the scenes themselves out there =).

PS, although establishing shots can be had, what do ya'll think about compositions? meaning have a landscape shot of Netherland lakes for example and then comping a human into that. i've always felt that DV is 2 low res to make it look as good as film. this is related cause the footages will primarily be used as establishing but not bluescreen comp templates right?

PPS one thing i've found is that landscapes can be modified with CG buildings/environ. i think those types are the best.

[John Lee]

I actually desperately need some landscape footage of desert dunes, deserts, and ancient desert towns...if anyone has that sort of thing, please let me know.

I'm working on a "spare time" project set in the ancient Middle Eastern region.

Thanks...

[Bob Costa]

Well, here are my thoughts.

Stock footage houses are great, but expensive. It is often hard to find what you want.

Lots of us live in different parts of the world where our back yard is someone else's exotic location. beaches, big cities, mountains, whatever. So while it would be cool to have an online resource of free footage, it quickly becomes an issue of management and bandwidth.

Why not just create a geographical directory of videographers willing to help each other? So when I need stock footage of someplace, I can log in and contact the people who either have or are willing to go get me some footage that I need in an area. I can then negotiate separately for what I want. I may pay someone $50 to copy some existing footage onto a DV, or $100 for them to go spend 30 minutes shooting building exteriors in South Beach and send me a raw tape. I would also be able to post requests and connect that way. I could see where this might lead to some real work too.

It seems simple enough to me, and could be hosted cheaply if no video samples are posted (or SMALL ones). The database work would probably be quick to develop also.

Good idea? Bad idea? Fair idea, but needs improvements?

[Jeremy Peterson]

Not sure if this thread is still active, I’ve been out of the loop for a while.

I think tape trading is great, and ideally that’s perfect, though practically I don’t think people are motivated on both end to arrange and actaully do it. (Correct me if I’m wrong)

While not ideal, if were talking on a free level, I think torrent files with a creative commons license would work well, though for many people it would take days to download footage.

I’m willing to host a site to track and host the torrent files (which takes little bandwidth) but there would have to be enough interest for people to seed (share parts) of the files, meaning a number of people would have to leave the torrent client open with a number of clips in it for people to download from, and have the footage available on there computer (take up a lot of space).

If there were enough interest I could also write a program to automatically make the torrent and take a couple of screenshots for the website from the footage, but wouldn’t bother if no one is interested.

Just my dumb idea.

[Mark Montgomery]

I'd definitely use it.