Stock Footage

I realised I haven't really mentioned the stock footage I have used in the film and trailer. Stock footage was a bit of a new endeavour for me. I always like to personally shoot or record every element of my films/project work. I like to know everything in there is custom and unique. It has a more personal, imperfect feel that gets a human, caring tone across.

I always endeavour to make sure that I create every element of my projects. However, in filmmaking in particular, that sometimes isn't possible. Even in the professional industry at the highest level it isn't possible. Stock footage is widely used in the industry regularly. It is a huge time saver and can often yield better results that filming something yourself.

Stock footage is basically footage shot independently of your project by someone else and then put up for sale. It can be purchased and comes with licenses for use in personal or professional projects dependant on cost, quality and location purchased from. The terms of use are different on every stock footage marketplace.

Things like helicopter shots of environments or footage from underwater are typical things you'd expect to find and use on stock footage sites. These are shots that are very specialised and costly to capture. Your average film crew wouldn't have the budget to hire the equipment necessary to capture shots like that however, there would be room in the budget to buy someone else's shot of it.

Professional stock footage is really high quality nowadays and can be quite a lucrative business for the people capturing it. It's quality and polish are all key factors as they can make it easier for the director/editor to blend it seamlessly into their project.

For me I wasn't after anything too high quality as I only needed the one shot of waves for the credits and for the trailer. The actual crispness or quality of the image wasn't too important as I would be adding sharpening and grain. All I wanted was a correct environment, smooth motion and a clear composition. Luckily I found exactly that and the video actually had good quality as well.

I found it on http://www.videvo.net which is a free to use stock footage site. The quality isn't perhaps as good as can be found elsewhere but the quality was still, surprisingly high. After a quick search through their search area I found a perfect video for my requirements. (The video I used can be found here: http://www.videvo.net/video/puget-sound/3449).

It was great to have this footage as it was a shot I couldn't have feasibly captured myself. The stillness and calm of the shot was perfect for the chord I wanted it to strike as well. I couldn't be happier with it and it was the cherry on top of everything.