Huge Sales week! making money on holiday.

Ok this is good stuff this week, I have made 5 sales, I have never made 4 sales in four days, and it was two videos I made whilst travelling round India, thus proving this is something you can make whilst travelling around the world. I asked permission to film one of the shots of people building on the side of road and the good thing about Indian people is they seem to like being filmed, I mean they actually came up to me and asked have their photos taken. Whilst I'm not saying every single person in India wants to be filmed or photo taken, it was definitely different.

When I was in Delhi, people asked to have their photos taken with my girlfriend which she assured me was Ok. I wasn't that keen but later on I was walking along in a market in Kasawli when people asked to have their photo taken with me, as they never get white tourists or tourists for that matter.
They took it in turns to each use a different camera and different combinations standing next to me, I felt famous to be honest like a D list X factor contestant. I have to admit my ego liked it, it liked it a lot.
On this page you can see a film of my travels http://martinellerbeck.blogspot.com/p/documentaries.html



WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE OF MAKING STOCK FOOTAGE OVER TRYING TO SELL VIDEOS TO PEOPLE?

1. You don't have to spend hours in meetings.
2. You don't have to spend hours phoning and emailing people to meet them.
3. You just film and edit.
4. You practice filming your shots.
5. You learn what is fashionable to sell.
6. It's easy.
7. Its addictive.




Stock Video Footage: Builders in busy street, Delhi India

This video is quite unusual and if you want to capture the chaos of India, there is nothing like this on Pond5.












Stock Video Footage: Crowded Delhi street


This shot is one I was most proud of, it just shows mayhem with all the cables hanging down. I love this shot.








Stock Video Footage: Commuters drive through rain.



This shot has only had three views and after that has sold, I shot it out of my window when it was raining, a lot of my sales have been from my window, you don't need to go all the way to India! The other shot was some builders behind my flat in London who were making a right racket so I thought I should film them.



My Other sales were




Stock Video Footage: The Classic London Underground Sign

2 sales for this, I think London Underground use this shot in their adverts.





Stock Video Footage: Crowds go shopping


This always sells 3 sales now, I have tried to get similar shots in cases people want variety but this is the shot that sells, if a video has sold then it is more likely to get promoted.


OK well I hope you enjoy the videos and if you fancy starting up on Pond5 here is a link


Addiction to Pond5
I find it is quite addictive to sell stock footage, every time you get a sale you get a beautiful email which tells you, you have free money, I mean technically you did film the footage and edit it, but that could have been last year and you've forgotten the work you put in. You always hope to see that message in your inbox, and the more work you put in, you will always get more money- beautiful.


best


see you later

Martin

Pricing of videos on Pond 5

I want to talk about how to price the videos on the website Pond 5, when you first join the site you have the choice of putting HD videos up for anything above 10 dollars, now the temptation is always to go low, this is because you can compete with other members who have a similar shot at 50- 60 dollars, however what is interesting here is that normally these shots won't sell very well. Imagine you work for a TV company who has a budget of 500 dollars for some filler shots, perhaps you are doing a piece on London Underground, which instead of going out and getting a crew (which would cost a couple of thousand) you have 500 dollars to buy stock.




Stock Video Footage: London Underground Time Lapse- Piccadilly Circus


You see a shot for 10 or 15 dollars would you buy it? When you buy some speakers for your computer would you pay 5 or 15 dollars when you have budget of 20? The 5 dollar speakers are bound to be of low quality, so why buy the cheap one?
It's the same with video, Companies have money and they would rather pay for a quality video, so always price the video above 50 dollars.

Remember you only receive half of what the customer pays and Pond 5 will only send you the money if it is over 25 dollars.


Pricing High!!!
The average price of Pond5 footage is 50 - 60 dollars these also sell the most, but lets look at stockage that sells for more.


150 dollars
4 Sales
1321 views
since 2008



This works if you have an exclusive shot which is hard to come by and very well shot like this, now there is a risk, you could be selling more of these at 50 dollars but you would have to be selling 12 sales to get the same amount of money surely if you have shots like this its worthing charging more.


Now this is the same Pond5er his name is Vadervideo and he knew when he was filming this that there wouldn't be many similar shots

399 dollars
1098 views
5 sales
since 2008



He may have of course increased the price over the years as you can change the price of the video at any time. But he may have decided that this is the best price where it keeps selling at,its also a handy 200 bucks every time it sells, now thats better than 25 dollars! Now this stock provider has more than 7000 shots up there, at that point you can really start playing with price, but when you start out you need to start with 50 and go up from there, raise it 5 if it still keeps selling raise it again. I started with all of my videos at 40 but quickly increased them to 50 as I noticed the average price is 50- 60.

There is more to discuss here, but what is interesting is that with confidence and more videos you can keep on increasing the price with exclusivity you can increase it more and if you have something peculiar which will only sell once why not raise it more ? Please leave comments on your thoughts..

Crowd Shots - The joy of the Crowd, how to sell stock footage on Pond 5- The best crowd shots on Pond 5

Crowd shots sell theres no doubting this.
But what is it that sells the most?
1. The Crowd are anonymous/unfocussed -This is one of the best ways to shoot people! Not because people are ugly necessarily but because then you can use this for any subject matter and no one will complain because no ones face is visible. In pond 5 it says if you can see people in a crowd then it can only be used for editorial or documentary purposes, but if you cant see the faces it could be used in music videos, films- the opportunities are wider thus you can sell more.
2. It's a beautiful shot, the artistry of a shot is always important, So filming on a bright day, getting a nice depth of field, nice shot of cabs in the background is important, you are competing against every single other Pond5er!
3. Its New York! OK you can't get away with this anymore but this was made in 2009, when anyone wanted a shot of one of the most famous Cities in the world this is it! Now 100s of people have seen this and shot it there are 1577 crowd shots of New York.

65 Sales 3342 view 45 dollars





Anonymous city or not anonymous city that is the question.

Look at this beauty.

1. It could be anywhere(it's New York) as before people are obscured, so an American TV company company could use it about anywhere in America, without people getting too picky, but also a News company in poland could use it talking about a generic place in America or over population
2. It has thousands of people all shuffling about endlessly it looks packed congested thats what people want when they buy a crowd shot! - Crowds. Not a few people milling around we want 100s of the buggers and the more unpleasant and claustrophobic the better!






Look at this, this is London!
Maybe now there are too many crowd shots of New York go abroad and if you live abroad (well its not abroad for you,)go to your famous city, theres only 610 crowd shots of London compared to 1577 of New York and only 153 of Paris.

1. So be specific have a big Red bus in the background for London.





Make them different, say your going to film in India and you know there are lots of crowd shots of people crossing the street get some mayhem from something weird or unusual to the country, look at one of my new shots, in England we wouldn't be allowed cables all over the place too much blooming health and safety for our own good so this shows people something different from the norm.






So there are a few hints on making crowd shots, one of the best things about them is you don't have to do anything, they are all there for you, just turn up and set your camera up! Here are a few below to get you all excited.
and if you want to please just click on any of below and buy one you know I will give an extra big smile if you do!
Have a good Christmas and if you don't celebrate it enjoy watching a lot of stressed people buying presents for people that don't want another book on film making!!