Mar 4, 2021
A major benefit of stock media in general is that it makes your life easier. And that has a direct impact on video production quality, no matter if it’s a job for a client or your passion project.
As a filmmaker, you probably don’t have unlimited budget to buy any piece of gear or any specific shot you need. (Not many of us get to enjoy that experience, sadly.) You also don’t have unlimited time to get every shot or browse online for the perfect shot.
That means you need to get as much as you can out of the gear and tools available to you.
Stock footage meets that need in a big way. When you bundle those benefits into a subscription service, you can finally start using “unlimited” when you talk about your work. A stock video subscription gives you access to an entire library of clips and content right at your fingertips.
No expensive licensing agreements. No negotiations. No worries about royalty fees.
Just the footage you want, when you want it. And all it takes is a couple mouse clicks.
There are a lot of ways that stock footage can simplify your production process. But for now, let’s look at the six most popular ways that a video subscription will save you money on every single video project you work on.
Filmmakers are always on the lookout for the latest, greatest equipment. You may want to upgrade your boom mic, or try a new dolly, or pick up a lens that’ll let you get more shots.
But chances are you don’t have thousands of dollars just lying around.
A stock video subscription gives you a place to find the footage you want without buying or renting new gear for every shoot. And since you don’t have to worry investing your budget into camera rentals, you can cycle that money towards other areas of your production.
Also, you could stitch together an entire short film using nothing but high-quality stock footage. That just goes to show that you can get every shot you need through a good stock video subscription. And by using it as b-roll to supplement your own footage, you’ve got an ace up your sleeve that you can always rely on.
Speaking of supplemental footage, let’s talk about b-roll for a minute.
I won’t refer to it as “that person you always forget about until you bump into them somewhere,” but you know how it is. Once you’re on set, it’s easy to forget about the shots that frame your story. B-roll ties everything together, and it makes editing so much easier.
Having a stock video subscription is a great way to replace b-roll that you forgot about on location. It’s easy, instant access to thousands of options that you can test out in your project.
And who knows, you might even find a clip that does more for the video than the b-roll you actually shot on set.
One recurring nightmare we all experience is sitting down to edit after a shoot and discovering you didn’t get a shot you wanted. Or maybe, after reviewing your footage, you think of a transition or establishing shot that you wish you’d gotten.
Well, stock video has you covered. Instead of arranging a second shoot (renting gear, hiring help, traveling to location, etc.), you can use your stock video subscription to find clips that fill those gaps in your project.
Is it a perfect solution? Well, no. Chances are that the shot you see in your head doesn’t exist as a stock clip. But when you’re in post-production, it’s going to be much easier to utilize stock video and save yourself the worry, time, and hassle of organizing a second shoot.
Think of this as a two-sided coin. On the one side, getting your stock video footage from a single source means you can be confident that every video will meet the same bar of excellence.
But the other side of the coin is that that standard makes your editing process easier. Instead of having to spend hours on some clips but only a few minutes on others, licensing videos from the same subscription will give you the peace of mind that the clips are coming from reliable filmmakers.
So yes, that means you’ll save yourself money because you won’t need to purchase LUTs and other coloring templates to keep visual consistency. But this is also an example of how stock video saves you from wasting time, and for a freelance filmmaker, “time” and “money” are both important currencies.
Some stock video sites lock content behind “premium” tier memberships. You can’t even browse the full catalog unless you’re a paying member, and that’s before you start looking at single-clip licenses for footage. That can make it difficult to find what you need, especially if you want to keep tabs of new footage as it becomes available.
As a result, a lot of stock video sites can feel as easy to navigate as your local library. Finding footage that works for your project can take hours of work; finding footage that looks good is even harder; finding footage that you haven’t seen before starts to feel like it would take a miracle.
So toss luck out of the equation here. A stock video subscription will keep you in the loop, updating you when new content becomes available. And any good stock media subscription service will curate its library, making it easy for you to find things you actually want to use.
Okay, so this one is a bit on-the-nose. But the truth is that after everything we’ve covered, it should be obvious that a stock video subscription just makes sense.
It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for extra b-roll, technical shots you can’t get with your gear, or footage to replace reshoots, signing up for a stock video subscription just makes sense. You’ll get to spend less time, money, and effort trying to find a solution that already exists online.
Once you see just how helpful this resource can be, you’ll want to keep it on hand for future projects. Any tip or tool that makes your life easier is worth keeping around, especially as a filmmaker working with limited resources.
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