Pushing to the next level

For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?

No matter what level you are at with your stock footage business, if you are reading this blog you probably have the desire to push to the next level.

It is true of many things in life, and it has been very true in my experience with stock footage, that growth never happens in a straight line.  You will make progress, then you will plateau, then something will cause you to push through that plateau and on to the next level.  It can be extremely frustrating to be stuck at a plateau.  I will share some experiences from my personal stock footage business, and how I have broken through plateaus in the past.  I am confident that you will find something in my experience that will help you to push to the next level.


In 2007 I met a photography student who had some frustrating experiences with trying to sell stock photos on iStockphoto.com.  When he found out that I shot a lot of video, he said I should give it a shot, that they had just started excepting video and it payed way better.  That year, I decided to give it a shot and I posted a couple dozen shots of random things:

Let's call this  - Stage 1) GROWTH - I was hard at work shooting, processing, and posting.  I was putting time and effort into expanding my Stock Footage Library with no immediate rewards.  No one pays you to go out and shoot stock footage for your own stock footage business.  My rational was, "Well, if nothing else, it is good practice for my videography and I enjoy being outdoors and shooting things." however, after a couple months of this, I had pretty much fizzled out.


Stage 2) PLATEAU - I wasn't giving up, I just didn't have the energy to shoot anything new, and I wanted to see if there would be any payoff to all the work that I had put in. Even if it was a Dollar!  Then, in the beginning of June, I made my first sale for 23 cents profit.  It happened to be a still image of my Wife's Feet at the tide-pools (she was a girlfriend back then, so contrary to popular belief, shooting stock footage does not ruin your chance of having a successful relationship)...

It wasn't until August that I sold my first video clip, for a whopping profit of $2.00. These small deposits to my iStockphoto account meant nothing to my financial situation, however, they were the catalyst that helped me into Stage 3.

Stage 3) THE PUSH - With a new energy generated by a few dollars that materialized out of thin air and the hope and possibility they represented, I expanded my clip library from around 25 to 85 in a couple months. In the month of October, 2007 I earned $47.  All of a sudden, there was an amount of money each month that was measurable in real terms... $47 a month was about what my cable bill was.  So, I figured, well at least I'm getting free cable out of this deal.  What would it take for me to pay my rent??

This is a section of my crude google spreadsheet that I use for keeping track of my monthly stock footage sales. Notice that the monthly sales numbers aren't growing in a straight line, but they are obviously going up rapidly over time. 

"What If" thinking has really propelled me through some stock footage barriers and helped me come up with some creative ways to push to higher levels. After my push through the initial Plateau it was much easier to find energy to shoot, and I could see my sales going up each month.  I started the cycle again...

This 3 stage cycle will happen over and over again in your stock footage adventure.  You have to just accept it, enjoy the Growth, wade through the Plateaus, and look for the catalyst to create the Push to the next level.

The Catalyst is really the key to pushing your stock footage business to the next level.  The catalyst is the thing that gets you re-energized about your stock footage business. Below are some catalysts I used to break through the plateau:

• Expanding to Multipul Outlets - I got to a point where I was working full time and didn't want to spend my weekends shooting new stuff.  It was the source of a major plateau for me in my stock footage business.  I finally figured out that if I expanded my stock footage sales to a lot more outlets (rather than just using iStockphoto), I could grow rapidly without going out to shoot a lot of new footage.  And the work I had to do to grow this way fit better with my schedule, I had to spend more time keywording, and I had to do a lot mor uploading.  I was able to leave my computer to upload before I left for work, or over night and I was able to do some keywording in between other activities.
  
  For me, each stock footage site is like a retail outlet.  I want my product in as many retail stores as possible, although non performing outlets will not get as much service as performing outlets.  Below are the outlets I choose to use for my stock footage business. It's a no-brainer to sign up, it's free, and only takes a few minutes.
  
  iStockphoto, Pond5, Shutterstock, Clipcanvas, Revostock, Canstockphoto, Fotolia, 123RF

• Recording Audio - In order to mix things up a bit, I took a few months off of shooting video and bought a professional digital audio recorder to start recording audio sound effects.  It was refreshing to work with audio, I had a new curiosity and new subjects to start capturing in a brand new way.  The great thing about sound effects is that because they are inexpensive and there is high demand they sell more frequently than video.  It turned into a great catalyst because every time I logged into iStockphoto, I had a new sale.  Even if it is a small amount, that is energizing.  So if you are stuck, try mixing it up and shoot some stills, or record audio, or make some illustrations, whatever it takes to keep it fresh and keep you excited.

• New camera - One big catalyst for me was buying a new camera. I shot with the Panasonic HVX200 for a long time (a fantastic camera), but I felt like technology was passing me up.  I loved the shallow depth-of-field look of the 5D and 7D cameras. Also, for brining the camera with me all the time, the size of a DSLR camera was much more convenient.  I feel that the most important part of your camera set-up is the lens so I chose the Canon t2i because it has the same image sensor and video functionality as the popular 7D, but it's half the price, that way I could couple it with my dream lens, the Canon 70-200mm f2.8, since then my collection of glass has grown.  But looking through that lens, the world looked so cinematic I wanted to shoot all the time, just to look through the lens.

Another great camera for shooting stock footage would be the Canon Cameras 5169B003 EOS Rebel T3i Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55 Lens the main difference with the t3i is the nice flip out screen, it's particularly handy when shooting video.  But I don't mind crawling on the ground or laying on my back to get the shot I want.

• Mathematics - Scaling up. Another very important catalyst for my stock footage business has been theoretical Math.  I keep close track of my monthly sales and if you like to write down numbers it is easy to sit with a calculator and get excited about the future prospects of your stock footage business.  Stock footage sales are consistant enough that you can do projections.  In 2009 I remember thinking, if I can consistently earn $500/month with about 400 clips, theoretically I could expand my clip library to 800 clips and consistently earn $1000/month.
  

  

  My actual stock footage earnings and 2012 estimated income.  Based on the size of your library and your average monthly sales you can figure out (on average) what your sales/clip should be. If I do $500/month in sales with 400 clips then my sales/clip each month is $1.25. That is a fun number to play with because it allows you to do predictions based on how many clips you think you can grow your portfolio to.

  Theoretically, if I shoot/upload 20 clips per day for a year, I will have 7,700 clips in my library. Which means I would be able to earn $9,625/month or $115,500/year.  That would replace many people's household income.  The obvious benefit of stock footage income over traditional income is that stock footage income is relatively passive.  Once your stock footage library is set up you earn money with very little work, you only have to put in significant time if you want to GROW your income.  Imagine a $115,000/year passive income... what kind of freedom would that give you in your personal life? or in your professional life? It is easy to get motivated if you are creative with a calculator.  Could you realistically shoot and upload 20 clips per day?  Probably not, but if you shoot for that, how far COULD you get?  Anyways, that kind of creativity with the calculator has helped me break through plateaus on more than one occasion.

Whether you are just starting out, or you are earning $10,000 a month, I hope this adds a few tools to your repertoire that will help push your stock footage business to the next level whatever that means for you.

Happy Shooting!
HDCineman

Emulate, Don't Duplicate

For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?

It is immoral and destructive to the stock footage business to duplicate/recreate another producer's top-selling shots and post as your own original stock footage.  However, looking at the top selling shots and emulating those topics respectfully and with your own creative angle can be the single most effective way to shoot stock footage that sells.

In a recent post I talked about ideas on what to shoot as stock footage.  This is a related topic but deserves its own section because there really is a fine line between plagiarism and emulation.  Below are my thoughts on what you should do and NOT do to stay on the right side of the line.

Things TO DO:

• Review top selling video files from iStockphoto.com and other stock footage sites so you know what videos are in demand.
• When you are writing keywords, search for the clips that look like yours and already have a lot of sales.  Use some of their keywords.
• Review top selling photos and get some ideas for shooting video of a similar topic.

Business is always a popular selling theme, this top selling photo would make a good video clip because 

there is an action that the actors can perform. (putting the puzzle pieces together)

• Look through the top selling videos when you have a mental block on what to shoot.  Sometimes you can get inspiration, and new ideas.
• Look at top selling clips to see trends in style. If a lot of the top selling clips are using a tilt-shift lens, maybe you should go rent/borrow a tilt-shift lens and play around with it on your next shoot.
  
  
                                

• Look at the producers that have top selling clips and try to figure out what they are doing with their overall portfolio that helps them achieve such high sales. (one thing you will notice time and time again is that the top producers are ALWAYS posting something new.)

Things NOT to do:

• NEVER try to use footage that you didn't shoot and incorporate it into your video.  You would be surprised how fast these people get caught.  And it's just bad Karma.
• Don't try to copy someone's top selling clip and re-shoot it exactly. Up the ante a little, put your own spin on it.
• If you are going to emulate top selling clips, don't do it often.  Buyers really are looking for unique shots, and they don't want 100 of the same clip to come up when they do a search.

You can create a few great clips by emulating some of the top sellers... still, the vast majority of your stock footage portfolio should be your original ideas and experiences.  Which is far more rewarding.  One of the great things about shooting stock footage is the complete freedom you have to go out and shoot whatever you find interesting, or beautiful, or unique.  It is a creative outlet, that somehow manages to pay pretty well too. (relative to other creative hobbies).

That's all for now, thanks for reading...

Happy shooting!
HDCineman

Case Study - Roadside Time Lapse

For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?

I've been eyeing this spot for a night time lapse. It's just off of the freeway, on my commute home. A distant view of Downtown Los Angeles through the beautiful hilly city of Eagle Rock.

It can be tricky to get an unobstructed view of an entire city that is accessible and there is a place to park your car. Somehow the stars aligned and I was able to get to the right spot, although I felt a bit like a fugitive in the pitch dark hopping guard rails, ducking through holes in fences all the while worrying I would step on a raccoon or a homeless man at any moment.

I had my camera set up in the car ahead of time so that all I would have to do is level the tripod, turn the camera on, find my shot and click on my time lapse controller. Once I started shooting I glanced at the time. 7:10. I knew I had a little time to kill so I did the math:

My time lapse controller was set up to release the shutter every 3 seconds. One image every three seconds = 20 images / minute. If I stayed for 20 minutes I would have 400 images. 400 divided by 30 (frames / second) means I would have 13.3333 seconds of video. Most stock footage sites require 5 - 30 second clips. 13 seconds is a pretty good target.

There really didn't appear to be a lot of movement in the frame as far as cars driving, planes flying overhead, etc. but sometimes subtle Mise en scène can make for a dramatic time lapse.

Camera Body: Canon t2i
Lens: Canon EF-S 17-85mm @ 28mm
F-Stop: 5.6
Shutter: 2sec
Interval: 3sec

Here is a still image from the final time lapse

In processing the time lapse I realized that I made one huge mistake. I want to make a point of this because it can be a common mistake, and can completely ruin your time lapse. The lens I was using has an image stabilize feature on it that MUST be turned off to shoot time lapse shots. The stabilizer is fantastic for shooting video. Without it shooting handheld is nearly imposible. However, during a time lapse it makes subtle movements in the framing and you end up with a jittery time lapse that looks like it was shot with a k-mart tripod during a stampede.

If you have this problem, Adobe After Effects' "stabilize footage" can do a fairly good job of stabilizing your shot after the fact so that it is sufficient for stock footage. However, it can be time consuming and it will NEVER be as good as it could have been with a truly locked frame originally. Don't make my mistake! When setting up your camera for the time lapse, make sure to turn off the image stabilizer.

With that said, after processing this clip a few different ways, I decided to poop-can it. The quality just wasn't what I had hoped for. You can't win them all.

From a business perspective, this clip was not marketable enough to spend a LOT of extra time on, and my time could be better spent on other more valuable activities like shooting new footage, or processing and uploading footage from my back-log of raw footage. From an artistic perspective... I just didn't like it as much as I thought I might.

On to the next one!
Happy Shooting,
HDCineman

What should I shoot?

For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?

What stock footage should I shoot?
The short answer is, shoot anything you want! That is what is so great about shooting stock footage, anything that you find interesting has the potential to make you some money.

IMPROMPTU INSPIRATIONS
In my experience the most successful shots have come almost by chance, I see something in day-to-day life that inspires me to capture the moment. I always have my camera with me and I always keep my eyes open for unique shooting opportunities. Unique in one of two ways, either something rare (not a lot of people can shoot it) or something unique in its aesthetics (looks really cool). All of a sudden something strikes me as unique so I pull over to the side of the road, or stop what I was doing and get my camera out.

Once I identify something I want to shoot I take some time with it. As long as its not a unicorn or leprechaun (in which case I'll whip the camera out and hit record) I will sit for a few minutes and think of the best way to shoot. Here's my mini checklist:
- what is the main subject?
- would the shot be better as a wide or close-up? Or both?
- what lens/focal length should I use?
- walk around a bit, what is the best angle to shoot from?
- is the shot "stock friendly?" (will I need to blur logos, get releases, etc.)
- are there multiple angles I could shoot and have different stock footage clips?
- would it be worth doing a time-lapse shot?
- is the lighting good or would it be way better at a different time?
- will I be able to stabilize the camera properly? (with tripod,on the ground, on a rock, etc.)
- is this shot worth shooting?
- are there other subjects here that I should shoot?

Sometimes I go through the list and realize that the shot would suck. So I don't shoot it, I move on.

CONCEPTUAL TARGETED ACQUISITIONS
Other times I will go out to shoot something specific. I usually set up shots in my home studio or go out with a topic in mind to a location I know I can get the shots. During these types of shoots I can decide ahead of time what my shots should look like, when I should shoot, what equipment I will need to shoot with, etc.

Example
Let's say I want to capture "relaxing at the beach." I have a unique opportunity to shoot this topic because I live near some of the most beautiful beaches in the world (Manhattan Beach, Huntington Beach, Santa Monica). I wouldn't say the beach is rare, but it isn't accessible to most stock footage producers like a freeway, or a kitchen might be.

I know around sunset I will be able to shoot some great silhouette shots that obscure people's faces and I know there are all kinds of subjects to shoot down at the beach along the topic of "relaxing at the beach" here are a couple of shots I have from the beach.

SHOOT ON DEMAND
Sometimes you can drum up some ideas for what to shoot by researching what topics are in demand.  So, how do you find out what topics are in demand?

Google it. One way to get some leads on what stock footage will be popular and translate to sales is to look for the "Top Searched Terms" on Google.  If you can generate footage that relates to the top Google searches then your footage is likely to get a lot more traffic which will translate to more sales per clip.

I found a list of "Top 5 most popular topics searched on Google" from a site called SEO Desk that have given me some ideas on topics to shoot.  The 5 topics from that list are:

1) Technology
2) World Events
3) Celebrities
4) Sports & National Events
5) Regional Results

Many of the obvious shots that would relate to these topics may not make good stock footage, however, if you are creative in the way you use this list and other information from the web you can come up with some successful stock shots and increase your sales.

These are some of the ways I go about coming up with ideas on what to shoot as stock footage.  Hopefully by sharing my thoughts you will have some new tools in your idea toolbox for the next time you go out shooting stock footage.

Happy Shooting!
HDCineman