What is Stock Footage
Stock footage, more commonly known as file footage, archive footage are film or video clips that can be used again in any other film as a substitute. Stock footage is beneficial for filmmakers as they don’t have to shoot new material. A single piece of stock footage is commonly called a “library shot” or a “stock shot” among the film industry. Stock footage is an excellent resource for film or video creators to save money and time in realizing their actual vision.
If you are related to filmmaking, video production, or some other fields you may have already heard about it before but even if you haven’t heard about stock footage before, you might have already seen it hundreds of times in a single day because the whole internet, audiovisual productions in TV, and film are using it on a regular basis.
This article is all about stock footage so, keep on reading if you are interested in this kind of stuff.
What Kind of Clip is Called a Stock Footage, Exactly?
Stock footage are also known as stock video or b-roll, Usually it is a short-length clip, less than a minute but there are exception, that someone else has shot and put them on sell, stock footage are mostly available to buy at some database either purchasing it by a piece-by-piece basis, where you only buy a single piece of clip or having an overall subscription service, like RawFilm, where you can get as much clips as you like for one cost.
Most of the clips are taken from archive shots or other projects. But lately, a lot of people are creating this type of footage with the only purpose of selling the rights for video creators to use them in there content or in larger productions.
These stock footage creators shoot clips with a common perspective, footage will fit an extensive range of styles and concepts, and then sell licenses to use the clips. And that is stock footage.
Buying Stock Footage
In the film industry Stock footage is mostly referred to as the “b-roll”, because these shots are secondary, but still a very important part of creating a seamless flow for the project’s storytelling.
You can easily buy as many sock footage clips as you need from a stock imagery agency. Some stock footage companies and micro stock websites offer even a single stock video in their offer, some stock footage websites offer you a subscription to buy as much as you need by just paying it once for the subscription. RawFilm is a great source of Stock footage. All you have to do is search to find the type of content you need and then buy the license to use a stock video clip. You just buy the rights of clips to use in your visual project but will not be able to buy the clip itself from the website.
There are different types of stock footage right license that grant rights for different usage. Stock footage agency that provide rights for a very cheap price mostly work with Royalty Free and Rights Managed licenses for video.