First Stock Video: Lighting A Match

I decided to try my hand at some cinematic stock video. In the past I’ve thought about it, but shrugged it off since I had my hands full with work and bunch of other projects. Seeing so much out there already also made me shy away from creating stock video. With the HDSLR video boom it’s incredibly easy for anyone to get their hands on an HD camera and create endless loads of visual crap.

But then I noticed that people still buy it, regardless of the lack esthetic quality or technical skill. There may be a saturated market of stock photo and video, but there’s also an ever-increasing amount of bloggers, content marketers, and film makers sprouting up all over the internet. So I thought, why not try to add something decent?

Before I attempted uploading some stock though, I had to overcome this issue of “being an artist” and not “selling out”. There are many pros I respect and look up to, and almost none of them create “stock” anything. I finally faced the problem and understood that producing stock video doesn’t have to label me as a “stock video” producer. I’m not even sure what my “calling” or “purpose” in my career is yet, so why not try out a variety of outlets? As James Altucher says in his article Living The Counterfeit Life “Purpose is a man-made fiction. Nobody on their deathbed gets a plaque that says ‘he focused on only one thing for his entire life!'”.

One thing I do know is that though there are many things I love to create spanning across many skill sets and markets, they all have one thing in common: excellence; Excellence to the point of inspiration, or wonder, or emotion, or movement towards changing something for the good of others. I suppose I should just keep heading towards that and I’ll land wherever I’m supposed to be at the moment.

Anyway, by no means is this video anything special. It’s just a simple concept shot in a cinematic way. When I have time, I’ll create more. I’m choosing to use VideoHive as my stock video outlet of choice. I’ve really come to enjoy the Envato Marketplaces, having a positive history in dealing with ThemeForest for WordPress Themes. I also don’t feel it’s as saturated of a marketplace as is say ShutterStock and others like. Granted the take on clips is much smaller (usually $2.50 – $5 for shorter, simpler clips), but the percentage is higher, even if you non-exclusive, and at a cheaper price ($5 – $10+ depending on length, content, quality…) it can be easier to start selling for a non-experienced stock video producer. Exclusive authors start at 50% and have the potential to earn up to 70% depending on the total sales threshold the author is at.

So we’ll see where this goes. I’ve got some ideas I want to try in the near future, time permitting.