5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Stock Videography

By Dennis Radeke Stock footage appears in Hollywood features films, network television, commercials, and even humble student films. Our appetite for content consumption is at an all-time high. It’s no wonder companies are looking to stock video agencies to fill footage gaps. If you’re a videographer, or even a photographer curious about video, stock is a new opportunity on the horizon to tap for additional revenue and portfolio diversification. Here are five reasons why you should consider adding stock video to your repertoire.

1. Inject new life into old reels

Diving into stock for your first time may seem like a lot of work. But chances are, you’ve probably already done some of the work. Remember that old footage you have of your summer vacation, or the b-roll left over from an early commercial shoot that never saw the light of day? Brush off the dust and give them new life. You’ve already put in the hours producing; why not show them off? You likely have hundreds or even thousands of clips scattered across various hard drives and cloud storage. They can not only be preserved by you, but made available around the world through Adobe Stock. All you need to do prior to submitting to Adobe Stock is add some keywords/search terms to help other creative people find your clips. Once you have your video working on a stock site, your content can be generating sales potentially for years.

2. Take advantage of the opportunity to experiment

In stock videography, you have total flexibility and control in how and what you want to shoot. Adobe Stock video contributors Kevin and Pascal of Wundervisuals started out in wedding photography and dabbled in stock on the side. They ultimately found weddings put them under a lot of pressure to produce beautiful images under stressful conditions and less-than-perfect settings. "After a while, we discovered the freedom the stock business offered us and now we’ve been a 100% stock company for two years,” they explain. These days, the duo is taken with slow motion and drone footage, and have been exploring this fascination through their stock videos. They credit these technological advancements for keeping “ minds fresh and stock footage in the spirit of the time.”

Footage by Wundervisuals

3. Diversify your portfolio

Stock is a great way to complement your primary source of income. In most cases, you can seamlessly integrate stock into your existing business. Adobe Stock contributor Helen Fields runs a corporate and advertising production company. She saw the growing need for stock footage for internal projects and started shooting stock video in-house. "At the same time, we realized there was a wider market out there and with the rise of the stock agencies, it made sense to supply them with the same footage,” she explains.

Footage by Hotelfoxtrot69 (Helen Fields)

Many contributors, be they photographers, illustrators, or videographers, start out in stock as hobby or a means for secondary income. Over time, some contributors choose to switch to stock full time because it better suits their creative aspirations, revenue goals, or need for flexibility than other genres. The stock footage business is like any other business - you get what you put into it.

4. Video explosion = earnings opportunity

The amount of video consumed per day by the world is 100 million hours with 8 billion video plays per day on Facebook alone. The world is fascinated by video and consumes a staggering amount. The YouTube phenomenon has spawned a whole new industry and as a result, there is more need for video content than ever before. It’s a booming marketplace, and because video production usually takes more work than photos, you can expect a higher royalty rate when licensing your clips.

5. Shoot what you love

Everyone has a hobby or passion that drives, enthralls, and inspires them. A stock videography project can help pay and fuel those passions. If you love to travel, then when you plan a trip, be sure to spend some time shooting the places you visit. On-location shoots are highly valuable to a wide range of buyers. Suppose you happen to capture a sloth enjoying its natural habitat while on holiday in Costa Rica and upload it to Adobe Stock. A budgeoning non-profit organization working on a video that highlights the vast rainforests of the world comes across your sloth, a direct beneficiary of their charitable efforts. They may not have the budget to travel to Central America to capture the fauna and flora on site, but they can tell their story in a comprehensive and authentic way with your footage found on Adobe Stock. After all, at its core, stock is creative helping creative deliver experiences.

Footage by Stock Video Factory

To find out more about becoming a stock video contributor, visit contributor.stock.adobe.com.