Selling Stock Video Footage.

[Doug Jensen]

Steven, those are couple of great posts and I agree with almost all your comments and observations. Especially the part that it is good news for us that Shutterstock is getting more selective. The less crap customers have to wade through, the better for everyone. And as professionals we ought to be able to submit clips that are above average quality.

I think that both of your editorial clips should have been approved, but that's Shutterstock's choice. I guess one is hate speech and the other is advocating for change. I think that is a difference and a line they may not want to cross. However, I think you should submit them again and see what happens. Sometimes rejections can be just because of the whims of a single reviewer. Send a couple in again and see if they get through a second time. One thing I do when I resubmit something (only if really think it could be a good seller) is to change the name just in case their system will recognize the old name and automatically reject it or give it closer scrutiny. Change the names on a couple of them so they have no history and then resubmit. I'd love to hear if they get through on another try. Good luck.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, those are some pretty impressive statistics. Thanks for sharing. In addition to uploading new clips I have been going back into Shutterstock and editing the metadata on my earlier submissions. I could not believe that know that I know about what I am doing I was able to really beef up the descriptions as well as significantly increasing the number of keywords that I was able to generate. Again, thanks for putting it all together for us. Bob

[Doug Jensen]

It is always a good idea to go back and revisit the metadata with fresh eyes. Occasionally when I'm on a boring phone call or something that doesn't require my full attention I will start surfing through my clips and making improvements. Sometimes I am really surprised at how many good keywords I didn't think of when I originally submitted them. Then I go down this rabbit hole of looking at more clips and before i know it a couple of hours have elapsed. Also, while you're in there, make sure your thumbnails are truly the best "book cover" for what the clip is all about.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, I am happily uploading clips to Shutterstock. Question, under "catalog Management" do you create sets? If so, how do sets benefit you? Is it because if someone say looks at one of my clips of a shrimp boat them all clips I have of shrimp boats will come up regardless of when I posted them? Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Bob, creating sets for clips is a feature that Shutterstock just added this week so I have not had a chance to use it yet. I am right in the middle of submitting 550 new 4K clips this week and I don't have time to get distracted by that new feature . . . yet. I think it sounds like a great feature , though. I like the idea of being able to put related clips into a group where customers can see them all together. They've offered this feature for photos for a long time and have just opened it to videos. Which is ironic, because I think video editors are much more likely to purchase multiple images than photo buyers. When you think about how editors often need to build a sequence of shots this could be a great feature. I look forward to giving it a try in the near future. Hopefully it won't be too much hassle to create the sets or else it won't be worth the time it takes. If anyone else tries it before me I'd love to hear what they think.

[Bob Safay]

wow Doug, 550 4k clips is quite impressive. I went in and created a couple of sets of clips. Supper easy. Just check the box of the clips you want in the set, click cerate a set, name the set and that is it. Also, you can delete the set without deleting the actual clips out of your catalog.

[Mark Williams]

I tried that feature also and it worked pretty well.

[Doug Jensen]

Thanks for the info. It's good to hear that the sets feature is easy to use and I look forward to giving it a try as soon as I can. Only time will tell if it will be effective or not. Out of all the "improvements" Shutterstock announced this week for contributors this is the only one that actually has any potential value.

I gotta say I am just about burnt out on submitting these 550 new clips. It is too much to tackle in a few days and I'm sure my metadata will suffer due to my boredom. I just want to go outside and shoot. :-)

[Doug Jensen]

FINALLY!!!
The contributor account dashboard at Shutterstock now shows the location of the buyer when someone purchases a clip. They've had that feature for photos for a long time but now it works for video. On first glance I'm really surprised to see how many of my buyers are from Europe. It is a much higher percentage that I had expected. Ultimately, I'm not sure if this new feature will actually be useful to increase sales or decide what to shoot, but it does satisfy some curiosity.

[Charles Newcomb]

Doug:

May I suggest you spend less time on the clips and put that effort into updating your information videos. I've been out of the loop for a couple of years because of illness, so when I got a new camera recently I naturally did what I did in years gone bye... I bought the Vortex videos (I'm on my 5th one, now). I've had some difficulty grasping the editing process because you have given conflicting information on things such as how to import media. In the one for the Z150 you stressed not "digging into" the Sony files. When I kept having problems (with Catalyst on my Mac) I posted for help here. A gentleman suggested I use the files on the card straight into FCPX and forget about Catalyst. Doing so did not make my camera or computer explode. It actually worked. Just fine, as a matter of fact. There have been several instances where I got information that turned out to be not so (because of time aging the data, I'm guessing.) I won't go into all of them, but I will tell you as a very long time customer of yours (over a decade) it is frustrating to spend hours trying to work around issues that could have been avoided if you had updated your guides. I'm not talking about things going back to the DSR 250, but rather two current information guides (Z150 and Selling Footage). Sheesh. I spent a couple hundred bucks and made myself nuts trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. Doug, if you're going to sell those videos please give updates or take them off the market. If asked who I thought was the best in the biz for this sort of thing, I would not hesitate to say it's you. But I feel a little neglected and I'm letting you know. By the way, one of the things that bothered me is your endorsement of Pond 5. I sold some stock through them several years ago and I finally wound up having to threaten to take them to court to get paid. And I wish I had spent more time researching the camera than I did. I relied heavily on your video and shortly found out it's almost impossible to see what you're shooting in daylight. I wound up buying a Hoodman loop and gundecked a mount for it. It's also a pain in the butt to use the menus because my old, fat fingers with neuropathy can barely work the thing. I'm glad I didn't sell my Canons and L lenses. I don't think the Z150's going to get used much. All of this blather aside, my original posting is your should take time to watch your videos, then come up with a way to update us buyers. You can work on your submissions later. Peace, Charles

[Doug Jensen]

Hi Charles, thank you for your feedback. I'm not sure why you chose to barge into this thread to bring up a totally unrelated topic, but I'll do my best to answer you. I have not given conflicting or outdated information in my Z150 video.

1) Where did you get the idea that my video would teach you how to import the footage into FCPX, Premiere, or any other NLE? That topic is never covered at all in my video -- so how could I possibly give you the wrong information? There is NO information on that topic in my video. In fact, I just did a search through the script and the only time I even use the words "Final Cut" is to say that all the codecs that the camera can shoot are fully compatible. Which they are.

2) I never said Catalyst Browse should be used to import your footage into FCPX or any other NLE. It is not designed for that and I never said it was. Go back watch chapter 21 again. Catalyst can be used to review your clips, check the metadata, and make your archive HDD backups but it has NOTHING to do at all with importing into FCPX. You are confusing the process of ingesting footage from the memory card to your computer -- with importing the footage into your NLE. Those are two entirely different steps that have nothing at all to do with each other. I offer some advice for one (of many ways) that Catalyst Browse can be used for the first step -- getting footage from the card to your hard drive. But I don't say anything at all about how to get that footage into FCPX, Premiere, Avid, or any other NLE. The purpose of my video is not to teach you how to edit. You have to do that on your own. Don't blame me if you don't understand the FCPX workflow. Go back and watch the video to see how I say Catalyst can be used to review clips, check metadata, and do backups, but it has nothing to do with editing. BTW, that chapter is called "Ingest and Archiving". Note that "importing" and "editing" are not even in the title.

3) The workflow and steps I recommend for Catalyst Browse are just as valid and correct as they were when I produced the video. I wouldn't change anything today because there is nothing that needs changing or updating.

4) My experiences with POND5 have been nothing but 100% positive. How could I possibly anticipate that you have had a problem with them? And even if I did, would it make a difference? No. I cna only speak about my own experiences. If I ruled out doing business with every company that had a customer service problem someplace in their history I'd have to go live in the woods and eat berries for the rest of my life. Besides, in my opinion, your problems with POND5 may be as unfounded as your complaints about my video. Why don't you start a NEW thread and share your experience with POND5 so we can understand what your complaints are. I'd be curious to know how they tried to cheat you. Please share the story on another thread.

5) What am I supposed to do about your having trouble seeing the LCD panel in bright light? How is that possibly my fault? I didn't make the camera. And why would I even think to warn about it in my video? Obviously an LCD panel on any camera is going to be hard to see outdoors. Duh! It is a non-issue. This is why the camera has a great VIEWFINDER. No, I'd go so far as to say a fantastic viewfinder. So why would anyone use the LCD outdoors when it has a great viewfinder? It would never cross my mind that a user, such as yourself, would ignore the viewfinder and try to shoot outdoors with the LCD. And then have the nerve to blame someone else because it didn't work. USE THE VIEWFINDER -- problem solved without spending a penny on unnecessary accessories.

6) I will consider updating the video when I feel there is anything new to say. For now, I stand by the video 100%.

You are right about one thing though, my time is better spent on other stuff than this.

[Charles Newcomb]

Okay. Due to illness I'm beyond conflict. You're absolutely right about everything. Perhaps I should have blamed chemo and radiation, or possibly my just being old and cranky. In any case, you shall not be troubled with my snivelings again. Best of luck to you and your enterprises.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, you were right. I sold another clip. To all those that think it is to late to get into stock video or that the market is saturated listen. I took Doug's course, I followed his advice and I am actually selling video clips, not many right now, put I am selling clips! Like Doug said the market is not flooded, they are always looking for new content. I posted a little over 100 clips. Clips I shot last month in 4K and clips I shot almost 7 years ago in HD. Guess what, the old HD clips I shot of bears in Alaska are selling! There are over 1,000 clips posted on Shutterstock of bears eating fish in Alaska and yet they chose mine. It is not to late. Believe me, if I can make sales anyone can. Take the course, learn from Doug, post clips with good metadata and start making money! Plus, it is so much fun going through all my old stuff and finding clips worthy of posting. Thanks Doug!!!

[Doug Jensen]

Thanks, Bob! That I appreciate the nice comments. All I have done is point you in the right direction and given your canoe a shove out into the water. Everything else is on you and I'm really happy to hear it is starting to pick up some momentum. Sooner later you'll get a few best-sellers that will provide a nice foundation of earnings.

So, I've been submitting a backlog of of 600 4K clips during the past week -- and two drone shots that I uploaded on Dec 12th already sold today just six days later. I can't believe it. Amazing turnaround speed. I have never had any footage sell faster than 5 or 6 weeks, and even that was a shock.

So I got the drone last June -- used it for a couple days -- and was too busy to use it again until last week. I'm having a blast learning to fly it and so any footage I sell will just be icing on the cake.

I shot this gator footage yesterday on the last 80 degree day in Florida for awhile. It has dropped down to 54 degrees today. I like it but my wife says winter has arrived.

YouTube (Short URL)

[Bob Safay]

Doug, great shots. I'll bet your having a lot for fun with that. One of these days I may get the nerve to buy one of those and hopefully not crash it on the first. The shots of the gatter from above is quite impressive. Have fun with your new toy. I can imagine how this will boost your sales. Bob