Footage Links

[Steve Gibby]

It would be helpful if nature and adventure travel shooters that have footage collections online would post links to their collections. I think some of the best homework is to check out the results of our contemporaries work. Post links to your footage!

That said, I'll put some links up. I shoot tons of adventure travel, nature, POV (helmetcam, etc.), aerials. I've shot in over 60 countries worldwide. I use the F900, Varicam, HVX (soon!), Z1, XL2, DV500, DVX100A, VX2000, and lipstick cams. I have custom water housings for some of my cameras, not for diving, but for shooting watersports on the surface. A lot of my HD and SD stock footage is represented by Mammoth HD online. Here's some links to some of my collections. I have a giant library of footage. Besides these links, you can find more of my footage, and frame grabbed from it, on my web site at: www.cut4.tv

Links:

Cut4 Media Group
Central Coast Stock Footage
Offered online at mammothhd.com

High Definition Collections – 1920x1080 (HD/HDV)

Kite Surfing
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1186/MHD_C1186.html

Vineyard Vol. 2
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1184/MHD_C1184.html

California Coast
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1182/MHD_C1182.html


Sony Z1U HD Demo Reel (Contains several Cut4 Media shots)

http://www.mammothhd.com/MHD_Demo5.html


Standard Definition Collections – 720x480 (DV)

Sharks
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1181/MHD_C1181.html

Kelp Forest
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1180/MHD_C1180.html

Beaches: Sunsets, Vol. 1
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1131/MHD_C1131.html

Beaches: Sunsets, Vol. 2
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1132/MHD_C1132.html

Coastal Evening
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1135/MHD_C1135.html

Coastal: Lifestyle Vol. 1
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1136/MHD_C1136.html

Coastal: Lifestyle Vol. 2
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1137/MHD_C1137.html

Big Breakers
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1134/MHD_C1134.html

Beaches: Sea Birds
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1130/MHD_C1130.html

Beaches: Seals
http://www.mammothhd.com/XCat/X1133/MHD_C1133.html


-----------------------

[Bob Thompson]

Steve, a very nice website with a lot of great material-thanks for sharing.

One question, how did you make your web pages and search? I have all my shots logged in excel (20,000 shots) but don't know how to go to the next step of putting them on the web as you have.

Thanks for any advise.

Bob

[Steve Gibby]

Bob,

Glad you like the web site (s). Are you referring to my own web site (www.cut4.tv), or the web pages on the Mammoth HD web site that house my footage collections? If your question is about Mammoth HD, you might want to ask Clark Dunbar of Mammoth. If you're thinking of stock footage representation, Mammoth is excellent! They represent collections of standard definition and high definition footage.

Contact info:

Email: clark@mammothkd.com
Phone: (303) 670-7973

In answer to your web development question, if you put your footage clips up on your own site you'll want to:

- make sure you have lost of backend server space on your hosting plan
- make sure your web hosting company has servers that can serve up the type of compressed file you want to use (QuickTime, Windows Media, etc)
- find a efficient compression utility. We use Sorensen Squeeze for QuickTime, with real good results
- frame grab representative JPEG frames from each video clip to use a s thumbnails
- if you have a decent budget for web development and have a lot of video clips to post, you might consider using a CGI script to database your inventory
- then simply get MS Front Page, Adobe Go Live, Dreamweaver, or other WYSIWYG software and construct the HTML pages.
- place the thumbnails for each clip on the appropriate page and hyperlink the JPEGS to the appropriate video file on the server

Any web site should satisfy these three functions: 1) be aesthetically pleasing 2) be easy to navigate 3) keep users there for a long time

My Cut4 web site is more advanced than the Mammoth site. My site has a Flash opening movie (logo), then each other page is HTML in frames with a looped Flash movie top left, and a Flash band of rotating JPEG frame grabs across the bottom. All of the video clips are housed on the Demos page.

I've produced the development of a lot of high-end web sites, usually in tandem with video production for clients.

Hope this info helps you!

[Steve Gibby]

correction on Clak Dunbar's email address.

It's clark@mammothhd.com

[Bob Thompson]

Thanks Steve for the in depth answer, the mammoth HD site is what I was originally refering to.

As I have everything in excel and I believe that you can paste quicktime clips into excel I was trying to think of some how going this way.

Anyway I will do some more research in it

Thanks

Bob

[Meryem Ersoz]

excellent footage and a great idea for kicking off the new forum. also, thanks for all the good info.

i'll post this link. it is to a short trailer for my first-ever documentary, which now in retrospect, i can only ever see the flaws in it, so i can't show it anywhere. it's like trying to publish poetry you wrote when you were fifteen. i still like the trailer, though i think of the full-length version as a big sprawling mess that needs re-cut, if i ever find the time. the theme fits this forum nicely:

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/43574

[Jim Montgomery]

Throw in my little bit of stuff

http://sightseeingfishinggroupproduc...es/Page350.htm

[Meryem Ersoz]

okay, i'm going to try to jump-start this link a bit--send it back to the top. i'd like to see other footage links. more sharing of wildlife footage, please!

i'll throw this one out--i shot this last week:

http://www.ourmedia.org/node/177048

this was shot with a still camera, but to keep it relevant to video, it was shot with a canon 70-200mm lens. i will have some pelican video next week. i'm in love with these amazing birds.

[Brendan Marnell]

Lovely detail on the pelican Meryem; worth going to the Yucatan for that alone: Looking forward to more of your bird shots + video.

And thank you for reactivating this link to Steve Gibby's Mammoth shots + video + list of How to prepare for one's Webpage. His shots + clips were beautifully presented. Webpage must cost a packet, Steve. Gave me great pleasure? Is there a mini-version of the Mammoth site? Do they host the operation for a fee? Not that I have any clips to offer yet but it's no longer impossible.

Thank you both for making things a bit clearer.

[Brendan Marnell]

Hello Steve
Now I'm all wound up by your encouragement please tell me what else my pc requires (at the back end? or up front?) to accommodate a website with facility to show my clips and reduce the audience to tears or worse ... your stuff is too good. Go on, tell me what to get and just trust me to bring down the standard ... it'll make your footage look fantastic, I promise.

Present Computer Components:

1 :AsUs P4P800E DELUXE MOTHERBOARD (iNTEL 865 CHIPSET)
2: INTEL 3.2GIG 800MHZ CPU (INTEL PRESCOTT CHIP)
3:1 GIG (2 X 512MB) PC3200 DDR DIMMS.
4: ASUS N6600GT 128MB GRAPHICS CARD (NYIDIA CHIPSET)
5: SEAGATE 120 GIG SATA HARD DRIVE
6: SEAGATE 250 GIG SATA HARD DRIVE
7: LITE-ON DVD+/- RW BURNER
8: ATX MIDI TOWER WITH 42OWATT P.S.U.
9: PC RUNNING WINDOWS XP-PRO SP2

My cam is a mere Canon XM2 & I'm getting the hang of Premiere Pro 1.5 and Windows Movie Maker. Also got Canopus DV Storm & Edius 2.5, but I don't know why. What version of Quicktime do you recommend?

Help!

[Brendan Marnell]

Originally Posted by Paul Doherty

I've got some Hi8 originated material which I want to replace. It means a foreign trip which will cost about the same as an FX1. I could do it on DV and accept that I will want to redo it in the not too distant future, but it seems to me the safer route is to do it on HDV and hope it gives me the necessary future proofing. Again it all comes down to your budget and the type of work you're doing.

<<< from DV or HDV thread

If I'm guessing correctly then "the type of work" you've done included "The Raptors of Britain & Europe" video guide, which I've been studying to learn raptor identification from plumage and flight detail. I'd be lost without it particularly in distinguishing smaller eagles from buzzards from harriers. Any chance of some more footage Paul? What's your current camcorder?

[Steve Gibby]

Thanks for the kind words Brendan. It sounds like you’re on the right track. Someone can have the finest footage library on the planet, but if they don’t know how to market their footage, they’ll never make a viable living from their library. If you’re a good shooter, but a poor marketer, nobody will ever see or use your footage. That’s where stock footage firms like Mammoth HD come in. Letting experts in stock footage marketing get your footage to market makes a ton of sense! There are a lot of stock footage firms out there. I’ve found Mammoth HD to be my favorite to represent my collections.

Originally Posted by Brendan Marnell

Is there a mini-version of the Mammoth site? Do they host the operation for a fee?

There is no mini-version of the Mammoth HD web site. There is no additional fee for Mammoth to host the operation. See their web site for details. Basically, it works like this: 1) You present your footage collections to them for evaluation 2) If they want to represent you, and market your footage, they confirm that 3) You negotiate and sign the non-exclusive stock footage representation contract 4) You send your footage to them 5) They edit the footage into short collections of clips, and create the JPEGs, info pages, and QuickTime video clips 6) They install the info pages, JPEGs, and QuickTime clips on their web site.

There is generally no additional fee charged by Mammoth HD to edit the footage into JPEGS, QT clips, and info pages. Their fee is simply the non-exclusive, contracted percentage of the funds they raise from the licensing of your footage to their clients.

Originally Posted by Brendan Marnell

Hello Steve…please tell me what else my pc requires (at the back end? or up front?) to accommodate a website with facility to show my clips…

Your PC system seems quite capable, but there is no reason to purchase your own “server farm” in order to host a bunch of stock footage clips. I could have easily coded the QT clips myself, hosted them on my server, and uploaded them to my own company web site (www.cut4.tv), but then I’d have to take the time and expense to do the specialty marketing that Mammoth HD does in order to license the footage effectively. Instead, I’ve given up a percentage of the revenue from the licensing of my footage to Mammoth, in exchange for Mammoth doing all the coding, hosting, marketing, and licensing. That frees me up to do what I love best – getting out in the field and shooting footage. Analogy: If you’re hungry for fruit, a slice of watermelon is a lot more fruit than a whole grape!

Originally Posted by Brendan Marnell

My cam is a mere Canon XM2 & I'm getting the hang of Premiere Pro 1.5 and Windows Movie Maker. Also got Canopus DV Storm & Edius 2.5, but I don't know why. What version of Quicktime do you recommend?

Good camera skills are good camera skills, whatever camera you’re using. Proverbially, practice makes perfect. Every time you shoot, push yourself to learn new skills and to maximize the performance envelope of the camera. For certain standard definition stock footage acquisition, your Canon will do just fine. Since you’re based in Ireland, and you would probably want to market your stock footage in Europe, your standard definition footage would most likely be 50i and 25p. When you can upgrade to a camera that will also shoot high-definition, the marketability of your stock footage will be much higher. 24p, 25p, and 60i footage, in high definition, should be your target. It can always be effectively “down-rezzed” to standard definition if needed. In answer to your question, we upgrade to each new version of QuickTime and Windows Media as they are released. Our favorite encoding utility is Sorensen Squeeze. It codes QT and WM quite well, and has the added advantage of being able to code Flash Video, which we’re starting to use a lot of.

Cheers

[Brendan Marnell]

Holy God (as we old folk say here), that's marvellous guidance in several positive directions, Steve. I'll be reading it again and then some. Thank you, a thousand times.

You'd think I have a string of classic clips clamouring for exposure to eager viewers but, since my cat got conjunctivitis from watching all them blurred birds without wearing shades, the world will have to wait a while.

Just thinking that I now know what I have to do gives me confidence. I'll keep practising with XM2 and when I have improved I will go HD. Yes I will. Stand back, stand back an' let the lady see the monkey.

I'm on fire here ...

[Paul Doherty]

In response to Brendan. Yes the raptor video is mine. A DVD version is in the pipeline, but there's a lot of filming to be done before it's ready.

I've recently migrated to the XL-H1. It's a bit early to post significant comment about the footage, but I will say the viewfinder is really poor.

Apologies for the short reply, but I'm out of the door shortly.

All the Best

Paul

[Brendan Marnell]

This is my lovely day
This is the day I shall remember
'til the day I'm dying etc any minute now etc

- not Mozart, i know that ...

Now I wonder is there any chance Paul would be interested in putting up some footage, somewhere, anywhere ... fancy me introducing Paul to Steve ... could not have happened without DVInfo, sure .. but 'twas good to be around when they met ...
- not unlike the driving force Haydn shared with Mozart when they met

I am looking forward to your DVD Paul. Will it include some XLH1 clips?
Do tell us when it becomes available ... it could become one of the Wildlife Wonders of the World or at least a prelude thereto ... (is that a possible title that just went by ... mmm .. WWW ... I dont know,