To live off the land as a camera man

Making stock footage.

It sounds like a romantic notion get on a boat, film the boat, film every nut and bolt, film the sea, upload it and sell it! Land in the Shetlands, film some nature hang out with the locals upload the clips, go to Iceland repeat, then land in Newfoundland,Canada repeat going through the States then to Mexico. That is the dream and what a beautiful dream always uploading and always selling clips. But could you?


Newfoundland, Canada



The experiment is to produce more and more on a weekly basis two days a week of work, till I have 200 up. I have however noticed that the people that live off it have 2000 clips up, that's allot of work but allot of practice to get your camera work really good.


My latest clip, this is one I did while up in London making a pop video, it was nice weather so I thought I would get some shots of crowds as this is a big seller, I increased the contrast and put it in slow motion. As it was in Late September, it was really nice almost Autumn Light. I have up loaded 8 of these, this one has shoppers in so could be used relating to Summer Sales/economy. Only another 121 clips to go, I will update you when/if I get any mores sales.(still only 5 so far)

What stock footage sells?

What stock footage actually sells? Below are the big hitters the ones you want if you want to make big bucks. I've taken these from Pond5 Stock Footage as they produce the best and most varied footage.

1.
The crowd shot!




Look at this ! First of all it could be anywhere, if a tv company wanted to talk about the general population here you have it. It could be anywhere in the world but it also happens to be in New York so any company talking about the bustling streets, here you have it.. Perfect.

What other reasons do you think this sell ?

2.
OK the next big hitter
and the one everyone can do (including me embarrassingly badly)


75 downloads!

Its the passing of time, it's the change of weather, people will always buy clouds, however we can all film it, but who can do it well, not me. below is my version, not one sale.




3.

Time Lapse




Buyers love time lapse, it always looks good it implies mayhem, hustle bustle or overpopulation.
I have sold 2 time lapse bit of footage, they are below.
If you can combine some themes even better, traffic also can be used for the environment or damage to the environment. Crowd shots can be time lapsed --- that should sell you loads!


only one sale but it's OK, it has people rushing about like maniacs going to work, and a shot of Tower bridge so it can't be used as anywhere, unlike the New York shot it is not as anonymous.



This one was a bit of luck I was just filming the post box and someone posted something, you can't see her face so its fine, the postbox is in the UK so it wont sell in America. There's even a zebra crossing, all we need is the queen to walk past it couldn't be any more English..

Another topic is anonymity we will talk about that another time, but the crux of the matter is America is the main buyer of footage on pond 5.. to be discussed right now...

4.
The American Flag!


Unlike the English who have something of a hangup about their flag for various historical and political reason (not going there.) The Americans love their flag , how do I know that? this has sold 32 times, so go grab an American flag and film it but there's a 100 other people doing exactly the same thing!



5.The world needs to be healthy! we need to stop using electricity! How can we make money out of this predicament!


Here we have the classic shot and the most successful with 40 downloads. We're all doing it though at 2351 videos of the wind turbines, maybe we should come up with an original idea ;And that will be my next topic.. The most original videos which sell..