motion zonehd dot com has closed!!! where can i got to sell my HVX stock footage??

[FREUDENBERG_FILMS]

I got an email today from the owner of motion zonehd dot com and has stated the webiste has now closed. His email follows:



Hello Michael,

I have had technical problems with my ISP....
We cannot come to an agreement with them.
I have searched for a better way the past
six months to serve up the videos....

To make a long story short......
motion zonehd dot com is off-line and
will cease operations immediately.

I thought I was close to coming to a solution.

Without spending tens of thousands of dollars
we cannot proceed forward. Thank you for
your trust and faith in us to allow us the
opportunity to represent your great work.

If we owe you money it will be paid by
the end of this month.

I trust you will be able to market your footage
elsewhere, there are plenty of outlets available.

Sincerely.



Its a shame I liked the site but the question is where does everyone else around go to sell there stock footage ?

I make stock off my HVX and do 3D animation backgrounds ( for dvd menus and stuff like that )???

Id love to have someone where I can load my stuff up, or send in DVD format but be able to check my sales online.... if there is a site.... Does anyone else around here sell stock to websites? and where is the best ?
Chers Mike

[mainstreetprod]

I stockphoto advertises in banner ads here, but I don't know much about them- except they get pretty high prices for clips. I use Revostock, have about 500 clips on. For a 720 clip I get 60% of $29.95, which in the stock world, is not a lot , but something. Strange thing about it- as I progressed from a few clips posted to 500 over about a 4 month period, my sales never went up much - stayed at about 10-20 clips per month.

Their uploading system is great and you can even load them into a spreadsheet and upload 50 or more clips at once.

[FREUDENBERG_FILMS]

Thanks Fred ill head over there now ;0)

still 10 to 20 clips a month is a pretty decent sale rate. do you know of any others?

[Domis Entertainment]

If you REALLY want to get into making money through stock footage...take the extra money and invest in your own website. Make sure you add plenty of tags so search engines can locate your stuff. I had a friend of mine sell 20 seconds worth of stock footage that was sold for around $30. He did it through a site that allowed him to get a certain percentage of what they sold it for. It isn't worth it. If you think your footage is good enough to be paid for (in order to be in someone elses film) ...create your own website geared towards your professionalism...and sell the footage for more $$$...60% of $29.99 is NO way to make a living.

[RWM]

Revo is a good choice! Try it!

Cya there!
Rudi

[FREUDENBERG_FILMS]

Thanks RWM, I signed up and will put my stuff up here...

cheers guys and girls

[RE1000]

On RevStock, do you just upload the edited quicktime files from FCP?

[n8ture]

Domis has a good point. If you're looking to only make beer money every now and then, a micro stock agency is the way to go. In order to make any real money in micro stock, you need a thousands of clips. It's a volume numbers game.

It's to bad about Mike cause he had a fair deal going and you could set your own price.

I'm not real sure why micro stock houses are hot right now. I can see from a buyers standpoint getting clips for $35 but not really sure why producers would be willing to sell their footage for peanuts.

I guess it all comes down to how you feel about your footage. If it's pretty generic then maybe that's ok selling it for $35.

But if it's not, I'm not sure why you'd want to sell footage that could sell for $400 to $1500 or more a clip for $35 though.

[RE1000]

I wouldn't think anyone would sell their good-great footage to a stock site. I wouldn't.

[n8ture]

Why not?

I'd never put any of my work in a micro agency but you can make a ton of money putting your best footage in with a major stock house.

If your footage is good enough that someone wants to buy it, why do you want to give it away? That's the part I don't understand.

Sure, I don't sell as many clips as a micro stock provider may, but when Disney buys 4 clips this quarter, it would take me a really long time to equal that sale in micro stock sales.

So, I guess I really don't understand the mentality that, a few bucks is better than no bucks when you could be making allot of bucks.

[RE1000]

Why not?

I'd never put any of my work in a micro agency but you can make a ton of money putting your best footage in with a major stock house.

If your footage is good enough that someone wants to buy it, why do you want to give it away? That's the part I don't understand.

Sure, I don't sell as many clips as a micro stock provider may, but when Disney buys 4 clips this quarter, it would take me a really long time to equal that sale in micro stock sales.

So, I guess I really don't understand the mentality that, a few bucks is better than no bucks when you could be making allot of bucks.

Ah sorry, what I meant was I wouldn't sell any great work to a micro site like the one's mentioned before. But to a major stock house that will pay you good-great, yes.

[n8ture]

Got ya. :)

Yeah, micro stock is great for seconds or if you're just doing it for a few bucks.

If you have thousands of clips, you can probably make some good money at it.

If your serious about making a living at it though, you really need to get in with a traditional house. Not saying it can't be done by going micro, but the odds are against you.

[mainstreetprod]

On RevStock, do you just upload the edited quicktime files from FCP?


Revostock requires Photo Jpeg format. So you drop the file into FCP, tweak it to under 15 seconds, and export as a photo jpeg around 75% -85% quality. It is full size and hard to discern from the QT version. Then you make a thumbnail Jpeg and upload them both, filling in the description.

Some of my stuff:
http://www.revostock.com/SearchResult-Empty.html?SearchResultPagerPage=2&SearchResultPagerOrder=&SearchResultPagerFilter=&SearchResultPagerQty=12&text=&FormatNTSC=&FormatHDV=&FormatHD=&FormatPAL=&CatType=producers&catID=&FreeEnabled=&ID=4321&cat1%5B%5D=1&cat1%5B%5D=16&cat1%5B%5D=47&cat1%5B%5D=78&cat1%5B%5D=79&username=&Loopable=&Sound=&Codec=&Frame_Rate=&Rendering=&length_from=&length_to=&Free=&color=

[wgzn]

ive kind of wondered about the whole microstock thing for a while. coming from well over a decade in the graphic design business, i VERY rarely used stock photos (corbis, gettyone, etc...) because their prices were borderline extortionate. using any ONE of their rights-managed photos could often be 2 grand or more - for ONE USE. im sorry, all but the biggest dollar advertisers simply dont have the budget for that.

what microstock represents to me is a greater variety of photos and a much more reasonable price. i assumed that istockphoto and other "volume pricing" models would work out in the wash - kinda like, do you want to sell 10 photos for $1000 each or sell 200 photos for $50? whats kind of sad is that they may be (IMO) negatively affecting the illustration market in the fact that in the past it would cost $2000 to have a custom, PERFECTLY suited illustration done, but now the variety of microstock sites, you can get "close enough" for like $20. in most cases that is a fine tradeoff for the buyer at large and in this case the work, and the market suffers...

telling some newbie to create their own stock-image website is totally ludicrous! one single person with no marked history of work or representation simply is NOT going to be able to drive enough traffic to their own personal gallery site without dumping a ton of money into advertising - unless they are just so freakin awesome that their work becomes viral in nature.

BTW, what kind of penny-pincher thinks that istockphoto is expensive?!?!? their stuff is PEANUTS! even their expensive stuff ($50?) pays for itself in time saved on a single use...!...!...?

[Justyn]

I like what Kevin has said about this in the past..
I think that selling yourself proves to be more financially beneficial in the long run. I sold a clip to the Maury Povich show.. and it aired twice and I ended up making 2800 bucks from just the one 18 second clip. Again, a buddy of mile sold a 16mm sunset shot for 1500 and 2000 for an underwater collection. You'd have to sell quite a lot of 25 dollar clips to make that up..

[mainstreetprod]

BTW, what kind of penny-pincher thinks that istockphoto is expensive?!?!? their stuff is PEANUTS! even their expensive stuff ($50?) pays for itself in time saved on a single use...!...!...?
http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/images/statusicon/user_offline.gif

I said that relying on my feeble memory as to their pricing - thought it was around $150 for a clip. Obviously they are in the same league price wise as Revostock. I don't believe they pay anywhere near 60% to the photographer though. Can't find that info on their site.

[J P]

Wonder why MotionZoneHD doesn't just find another ISP?

It's a shame, I've had good experiences with them.

[J P]

This is wierd. Why does it say artbeats.com in my previous post. I didn't write that. I wrote Motion Zone HD.

[n8ture]

There was a falling out here with Motion Zone HD.

Whatever happened with his ISP, it sounded like it was going to be a ton of money to go somewhere else with it.

It is to bad because I thought he had a good ratio on price/commission for both provider and client.

[FREUDENBERG_FILMS]

Hey kevin, how does people like disney find your stock? Do you send them a show reel or do you have an agency to move your stock around?

I want to start using my HVX more, its sitting on my bookshelf doing nothing and since I live in Brisbane Australia ( theres heap around here to shot/capture) id like to make it pay itself off... i bought it for short film making which ive almost finnished getting script, actors and loactions sorted out but I like the idea of flooding stock onto a stock clip site so they sell your stuff while you sit back doing other things and god willing get a cheque in the mail every so often for it......

Whats the most sort after stock anyhow? I have heard that if you specialise into a certain field it can be more rewarding money wise. Like building fire stock for eg.....

[mainstreetprod]

Time lapse shots sell well. Watch some of the reality shows and look at the inserted shots that were obviously not shot by the show. Like the home shows that go to a city to rehab a house - you will see fast moving clouds to show time passing, sunset at the end of the day, etc. Some shots that sell well that I don't do are model release shots - guy text messaging, girl walking with briefcase, etc.

[Jim Kinsey]

Well I just signed a 5yr deal with art beats to sell my entire fire footage collection and seeing that it has been 18 months since I sold a clip from my library and it was shot in 4x3 DV I thought some money is better than it sitting around so I said what the heck.... They market in 38 countires and if I wrtie much more i could get whacked with the confidentially agreement so i better shut uP. But Kevin has a point that the kind of quality footage produced by our beloved HVX200 in the right hands can make you some good money... Although I haven't landed Disney yet I plan on Launching a 10 second High def website where all the clips are... you guessed it 10 seconds... www.10HD.com

Anyway this is where I will sell my HD to the world and maybe other filmmakers who would like to sell theirs. The site is in its infancy so dont laugh yet....

Jim Kinsey

[n8ture]

FF,
I have my work with two stock agencies as well as selling stock myself.

My sales to Disney this current quarter were from one of the agencies. I've been lucky in that I haven't had the time to do much of anything with my own site yet business keeps having a way of finding me.

I got an email last week from a museum in California wanting to do an exhibit. I asked them a bunch of questions and they realized they hadn't thought things through. Long story short, if things work out, not only will they use my footage but I'll edit the entire production for them.

I'd love to go to Australia to film some stock! :) I keep telling Barry and Jarred they need to do a Bootcamp there and invite me along! :)

Both agencies I'm with sell all my footage only as rights managed. It took about a year to get the footage circulating around the system before I started seeing a return. But now I've been lucky to get checks every quarter now.

It's totally a numbers game. The more clips you have with someone, the more sales you can make. I have about 700 clips from my last trip to Yellowstone to send out this week.

My business partner and I have a few things we need to finish up before we can officially open shop. Once that happens I'm hoping to see more sales go out from our own site.

Jim,

I can talk about Artbeats as they sent me a contract and I wound up not going with them because I didn't want to go RF.

Back then I think it was like $60 a collection I would have got in royalties. Not sure if that's accurate anymore as this was a while ago.

They're a great company but like I said above, I only sell rights managed so I had to pass on AB.

At least you have some clips on your site Jim! I haven't had time to add any on my site yet.

[Jim Kinsey]

Kevin,

I Just recently returned from Tanzania and Argentina as my producing job affords me the chance to travel all over the world. I am working on getting that HD footage ready to sell. Yeah I have a few clips but not even a wisper of my HD library. I plan on selling mounds of stuff when I get caught up with the productions I am currently editing.

What did you concentrate on in YS? From the looks of your stuff I would venture to say wolves... Predation during the spring? I live 3 hrs from Yellowstone but never make down that way... Can you believe that.

AB get a majority of the sales as expected but I still can sell those clips myself but not to another AB/ RF house.

JK

[FREUDENBERG_FILMS]

Well Kevin if you and Barry Green want to come to australia ( brisbane ) ill happily set two beds up in my house and ill be your tour guide.
We have so much to film here and no one doing it. Once it stops raining here I will be going out looking for our wild Kangaroos for my stock footage. There is a small colony of them near me on the beach and there always there in the morinings then return just before the sun goes down.

mike

[Barry_Green]

I was just down in Sydney last month... :)

[n8ture]

Thanks Barry! :)

[n8ture]

Jim,

We'll have to go shoot in Yellowstone sometime. It's my all time favorite haunt.

I shot some great footage of three coyotes chasing a wolf in Lamar Valley.

Normally a wolf will kill a coyote but this one must have felt outnumbered.

Was driving in the valley very slowly with my windows down and heard a wolf howl then heard the coyotes starting to yip. Stopped and set up and waited.

Must not have been more than twenty minutes and the wolf crossed the road right in front of me followed by the coyotes. Filmed them till they all ran out of sight.

Was funny because at one point one of the coyotes about tagged the wolf then realized his two buddies were a bit farther than he want so he checked up and waited for them to catch up. :)

The best part of the trip was a coyote sat down next to me and we watched the sunrise over the Yellowstone river one morning. I didn't move a muscle and eventually he took off. That was when I swung the camera around and filmed him.

I didn't want to scare him but I also didn't want to encourage him either.

On a sad note, they removed one of my favorite grizzlies there, Hollywood Star also known as Blondie. She had been relocated but returned because she was used to people feeding her etc. She had spent so much energy coming back to where people were she only weighed 140 pounds and would have most likely never survived the winter.

Wow, I sure have digressed from talking about Motion Zone HD closing.

Sorry about that!

[DCSensui]

The best part of the trip was a coyote sat down next to me and we watched the sunrise over the Yellowstone river one morning.

The coyote is telling the rest of the pack, "The best part of the morning was the chance to see one of those HVX-200's up close. The guy never even moved a muscle!"

:-)

[ProfessorU]

So if I find myself shooting the shot of a lifetime, what's the best format to shoot it in? 1080p30? 1080p24?

[n8ture]

I shoot mine in 720p/60 So I can savor every moment.
About the only time I shoot in 1080 is to do time-lapse stuff. And that is usually at 1080p/30.

Yeah, the coyote was awesome. I didn't even realize it was there at first because I was so intent on watching the sunrise.

[FREUDENBERG_FILMS]

dam barry as soon as your name is mention on these boards you jump onboard. Do you have some alert system going like the BAT phone.

What where you doing in sydney? more Panasonic stuff or where you on a holiday?

[Barry_Green]

I was presenting at the SMPTE show. I took an extra week beforehand as a vacation.

[AlwaysHD]

Hi All. Jarred, Barry, if you'll give me this one indulgence . . . AlwaysHD.com. We've recently been featured in Post Magazine and Studio Monthly (among others). I'll be glad to discuss marketing footage with you, just shoot me an email.

I don't "self promote" in forums, but I've been dealing with the fallout from Motion Zone's closing for the past few weeks and wanted to chime in.

[jaypass]

Hey all,
Still new here, but I'm pretty much sold on purchasing a HVX. I'll actually be in NYC tomorrow, so I plan on stopping by B&H, hoping to get a test drive :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG), which will be the deciding factor. (They allow that there, right?)

Anyway, I didn't realize stock footage could be such a big sell, sounds like a great way to learn my new camera and maybe even have it pay for itself...my question would be, are there rights infringement issues with that sort of thing? For example, being from New Jersey, I'd try shooting in state forests such as the Pine Barrens...would there be issues with copyrighting or something, using footage from a government owned area? For those of you that shoot nature stock on a regular basis, ever run into situations where forest rangers and the like give you a hard time about filming?