FS7: Stock footage with my FS7 MK2

Paul Cronin

Paul Cronin

Well-known member
I have been selling stock footage for close to 20 years. Some years were just ok, but most did not do well. I have never concentrated on stock just added clips when I had time or releases.

So I decided with a lot of travel coming up this year to add more to my stock. That had me look for the avenue to learn all I can to make the most of my time and up the income. I am happy to say 3/4 of the way through Doug Jensen's new tutorial on How To Make Money Shooting Stock Footage, has adjusted my path and opened my eyes to a few mistakes I was making. Looking forward to taking the lessons on the road and seeing how I can grow that aspect of my business.

And Doug offers a 18 min free trailer that give a great overview. Might be worth a look, I am expecting some positive results from the time and money well spent.

https://vimeo.com/323480465
 
Yes Paul, I purchased Doug's rental and it is excellent. Beauty shots, travel, wildlife or any shots of opportunity I would never want to ignore, but I am thinking about something more basic and less exciting, before and after shots, happy/sad, frustrated/confident, overweight/weight-loss, overloaded/relaxed, bad-sleep/rested etc. I don't have to venture anywhere to shoot those. Hamburgers and chicken on the grill, slicing tomatoes, sprinkling seasoning, pouring drinks, who knows what. Like Doug said, shots of people doing healthy things, shots of people doing just about anything. Doesn't really take a lot of imagination and to think, advertisers will always need this, they are our customers.
 
Hey Paul and Tom, thank you for taking a chance on my stock footage class. It was something I was thinking about doing for a long time and I'm glad I finally did it. I really do hope it helps you guys and other people get started in stock footage. Paul, as you are learning it is not just about the shooting, it's about the whole workflow and running the business side of it. I'm glad the workshop is giving you some help in that area. Tom, I love your ideas. I can tell by your comments that I got you started brainstorming but you are going beyond my suggestions and coming up with your own that sound even better to you. PERFECT!! That is exactly what I wanted to happen. I don't want to give people a list of WHAT to shoot or we'd all shoot the same stuff and who says I have all the ideas anyway. I think I pointed you in the right direction and you're taking it from there. That is exactly how I wanted it to work. Cool. There is huge opportunity out there. March is shaping up to be my best month ever.
 
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HI Tom,

All great ideas, the options are endless. I shoot what I love, that way I will keep doing it. Getting deep into it with all of your ideas I bet will pay off. Enjoy and so nice we both were sparked and educated with Doug's expertise. Thanks Doug
 
I love this business. I had real fun time shoot about 400 clips last Friday at a prescribed fire near my house, and then culled them down to about 275 shots on Saturday that are are worthy of submitting for stock. Some will be be submitted as commercial and the rest will go as editorial. I brought the F55 and 300mm lens and the Z280 with me, but mostly used the Z280. It is an amazing camera and great to have a zoom lens for quickly banging off a lot of different shots when movement is limited. Based on how other fire footage of mine has sold, these clips should help me hit my $30,000 goal at Shutterstock this year and $40,000 in 2019.

I threw together a quick and dirty highlights video this morning for the firefighters.

 
Tom Roper said:
So how the H3LL do you get access to the front lines of a prescribed burn like that? Amazing footage!
Click to expand...

Well, you gotta treat people like animals. You work your way slowly around the edges with long lenses, then you drift in a little closer, but never in a straight line. Maybe put on some camouflage so you blend in, such a yellow safety vest or something. Maybe even a hard hat if you want, but not necessary this time. You slink around, being careful to not make too much eye contact, but don't look away either while you slowly blend in with the herd, especially when there are many species roaming around from many different agencies and nobody quite knows where you fit in to the grand scheme of things. You never show fear and never back away. You move with confidence like you belong there and have done it before, and besides, with a camera like that, well, maybe you're from a local a TV station or something. And before you know it, you're on a first name basis with the animals. You bag your legal limit of stock footage, and then take it home to skin it, cook it, and serve it on silver platter to Shutterstock who then feeds it to their guests who gladly pay a la carte for whatever they eat.

Seriously, one time I came across a fire department doing a practice burn on an old house, and about an hour later I was INSIDE the house shooting. Amazing. If that Chinese lady down at Mar-a-lago had thought to ask me for some tips on infiltration, she'd have all our state secrets safely sent to China by now.
 
Doug Jensen said:
Well, you gotta treat people like animals. You work your way slowly around the edges with long lenses, then you drift in a little closer, but never in a straight line. Maybe put on some camouflage so you blend in, such a yellow safety vest or something. Maybe even a hard hat if you want, but not necessary this time. You slink around, being careful to not make too much eye contact, but don't look away

If that Chinese lady down at Mar-a-lago had thought to ask me for some tips on infiltration, she'd have all our state secrets safely sent to China by now.
Click to expand...

Ha! Too awesome
 
Doug Jensen said:
Well, you gotta treat people like animals. You work your way slowly around the edges with long lenses, then you drift in a little closer, but never in a straight line. Maybe put on some camouflage so you blend in, such a yellow safety vest or something. Maybe even a hard hat if you want, but not necessary this time. You slink around, being careful to not make too much eye contact, but don't look away either while you slowly blend in with the herd, especially when there are many species roaming around from many different agencies and nobody quite knows where you fit in to the grand scheme of things. You never show fear and never back away. You move with confidence like you belong there and have done it before, and besides, with a camera like that, well, maybe you're from a local a TV station or something. And before you know it, you're on a first name basis with the animals. You bag your legal limit of stock footage, and then take it home to skin it, cook it, and serve it on silver platter to Shutterstock who then feeds it to their guests who gladly pay a la carte for whatever they eat.

Seriously, one time I came across a fire department doing a practice burn on an old house, and about an hour later I was INSIDE the house shooting. Amazing. If that Chinese lady down at Mar-a-lago had thought to ask me for some tips on infiltration, she'd have all our state secrets safely sent to China by now.
Click to expand...

This might be my favorite post of yours, Doug, since I joined this forum. Good stuff.
 
I particularly love the 'camo' analogy of adding a reflective vest... If you look like you belong that may be half the battle! i'm just wondering whether long pants were part of the outfit?

Which reminds me of another of Doug's products -- the Vortex Media Warm Cards! It's always good to wear a set around your neck (even if you're shooting Log/Preset and not white balancing) -- from a distance it looks like you have a whole bunch of credentials, so you belong wherever you are!
 
Ha, ha. I tried to put on long pants but I just couldn't do it. I knew it might give away my concealment but that was a chance I was willing to take. Even when I lived in Utah and New England I rarely wore pants in the dead of winter. I only wear pants if the client insists or it is actually required for safety reasons. I have a very, very low threshold for heat . . . says the man who has recently moved to Florida.

Speaking of WarmCards, I saw a local photog at the last rocket launch at KSC using a set of tattered old WarmCards. His talent said they never shot a standup without them. So I took his business card and shipped him a brand new set the next day. Gotta reward that kind of loyalty.
 
I can confirm mountain bike riding with Doug in the winter being all bundled up and he is in shorts and shirt.

Your post reminds me of the movie "My Cousin Vinnie", "You blend". Fun and helpful post Doug.
 
Doug Jensen said:
I love this business. I had real fun time shoot about 400 clips last Friday at a prescribed fire near my house, and then culled them down to about 275 shots on Saturday that are are worthy of submitting for stock. Some will be be submitted as commercial and the rest will go as editorial. I brought the F55 and 300mm lens and the Z280 with me, but mostly used the Z280. It is an amazing camera and great to have a zoom lens for quickly banging off a lot of different shots when movement is limited. Based on how other fire footage of mine has sold, these clips should help me hit my $30,000 goal at Shutterstock this year and $40,000 in 2019.

I threw together a quick and dirty highlights video this morning for the firefighters.

Click to expand...


It seems disaster has always attracted peoples interest.

I started to go through the course (class 11 right now), frankly, I had no idea about how is easy to access to this business opportunity.
Thanks for building that course.

I'm in now in Europe, so not sure yet how is the market here. I'm trying to figure out if I should shoot at 25, 29,97 or 24 FPS to reach a lager audience.
 
I had another opportunity to shoot stock at a wildfire last week with my Z280. Last time I posted fire footage I got some questions about how much grading had been applied, so this time I've posted a short video that shows BEFORE and AFTER grading in Resolve. I find it interesting how much I can push and pull on the XAVC-I 10-bit footage. Yeah, some of this borders on being over the top but that's often what sells. With footage like this, where I have a ton of similar shots, I try to give potential buyers a range of looks so they can choose whatever fits their needs best. In fact, a few of the shots are actually the same clip twice, graded differently, and flipped. But most importantly, it was fun to shoot and fun to gr

 
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