I know this seems like an obvious question I'm about to answer, yet the nuts and bolts involved with each stock video site I contribute to has their quirks, if you know these before hand then your ready for the disappointment's or elation.
Lets do a quick overview for any newbie stock video contributors, most of the sites who accept video stock footage will not accept footage from a point and shoot camera. The reason is that even though they all shoot high definition, some at 1080 and others at 720, not all HD footage is the same. The problem with point and shoot cameras like the Canon G12
even though it is a high end point and shoot, capable of producing still photos that can sell as stock photographs, the sensor size for stock video is too small and the compression of the files too aggressive.
even though it is a high end point and shoot, capable of producing still photos that can sell as stock photographs, the sensor size for stock video is too small and the compression of the files too aggressive.So here are some uploading observations from the popular stock video footage sites for you to be aware of.
Footage is uploaded to most sites by File Transfer Protocol (FTP), so you need a FTP software program to do this, I use CrossFTP, there are lots of others, I know a few users who swear by Cyberduck once you have your FTP software configured you are ready to upload and yes this is going to take a long time compared to photographs.
Pond5 has to be the easiest stock footage site to deal with and to upload too, they have multiple servers and most of the time the uploads go through without problems. Occasionally they do have server problems and did last week but they try their hardest to minimize contributor grief, by taking ownership of these "outages" and nearly every time if your upload does not go through and appear because of a glitch or all out crash of the server, they run scripts and get back all the footage that is in limbo. Pond5 also accepts all footage for content provided it's not offensive or illegal and that the quality settings are correct.
Shutterstock is another site for stock footage and should be on your list to upload too. This said they are different to Pond5, they do not accept everything, they do over review content and miss out on very saleable footage that they have rejection reason "limited commercial value" or "Unstable footage / excessive camera movement", even when you have a camera on a tripod. I had a flag on a flagpole rejected for this because the flagpole was moving in the wind even though the camera was on a tripod.
If Shutterstock has a server problem then tuff, you have to re-upload even though you have labelled your footage correctly, the email response from their contact us, always has a tone of blaming you. There is no running a script to find your footage in limbo, it's another overnight upload marathon for you chewing up your bandwidth. After uploading footage to Shutterstock, you will need to wait sometimes up to 48 hours before you see the footage on your homepage and then keyword and push into the que for review. The footage uploading at Shutterstock is quite buggy, with thumbnails sometimes not showing up and other technical issues
iStock has two ways to upload, either an upload page on their site for one clip at a time, or you can apply for FTP status. Normally the upload process is very straight forward, sometimes the web uploader page needs to be closed and then open again for another clip to start uploading. I have taken a bit of a vacation from uploading to iStock to evaluate the impact of reduced commission on footage sales, as I can get higher commission elsewhere.
Clip Canvas has been a surprise recently, with increased sales.........makes you want to just upload like crazy. Clip Canvas has a web page to upload with, it's a piece of software you download or you can FTP. The upload process is straight forward, I have never encountered problems uploading clips to them.
Revostock has not been doing well for me this year and I have not been uploading much. They can be another site that over reviews clips, I also did not like the rating system they had that put other contributors ahead of others based partly on how many forum posts they made. Revostock has an FTP upload, that puts your clips into a folder on their server, then on your home page at Revostock you access the clips one at a time to keyword and put into the que. Once again very straight forward, I have never had technical problems with uploads.
As always be prepared and do not get upset with rejections or technical issues, that just life with stock video footage
2 comments:
Hi, it's Roger again..... Thanks for the info. I see you have 1455 clips at pond5, does this collection actually pay you well? I mean, what can one expect to earn with this gig? :-) thanks
I'm full time with stock photography and stock footage. There are so many variables such as content and commercial value, it's certainly a worthwhile venture.
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