If you’re looking for a source to find the best stock footages and images for personal or commercial use in Europe, then the best way to find those are through online sites. Video production, film making and many other related fields are the prime consumers of the images and videos from the stock footage sites. But if you’re a new fish in the sea, then it is imperative to understand and know what these stock footage images and videos and the idea of sites that provide services are.
What is the stock footage?
Stock footage is video content, a small clip or a shot whose duration is less than a minute, which is generally inserted into the large video production houses, for the sake of advertisement or other professional and business purposes.
In the recent times, may well-known photographers or even common men with a good camera and decent photography and videography skills are selling their work, with the sole idea of helping the ones in need or to make money.
These videographers create generic video content and fit into a wide range of subjects, concepts and styles. This entire concept bundled up in a site is called a stock footage site.
Uses of stock footage sites
- They’re used in the film industry and most of the filmmakers called them b-roll. Although these shots or video clips are a secondary piece of content for them, they’re still useful in the flow of story-telling for the customers.
- They’re used by bloggers to add certain aspects or element in their blogs or articles.
- TV advertisements use them. For instance, if they want to showcase a car company in Europe, then they make use of the stock footages of Europe and fit them into their ad films.
The primary objective of these stock videos is to run a visual flow of the final work or production. They are designed to fit into more massive production, seamlessly.
How to buy stock footages?
There are plenty of ways to buy stock footages – mainly through stock imagery agencies, that include the stock videos in their offers along with the use of media stills and other footages. Many websites, like video.net and others, provide videos of only European landscapes and backgrounds that are mainly royalty-free videos. They also offer images that are of high quality and with no strings attached to them.
However, there are community sites that allow the outsiders or the community members to contribute their videos to the site, for others to download and use. All you have to do is sign up on such sites, create a free account and upload all the videos you want to contribute.
In many of the online sites, you have to buy a license and use their stock video clips. This means you do not buy the clasp itself, but you purchase the rights to use the video clip in your work – either online or offline.