MOVIE MATTERS USING STOCK
PLAYTHE STOCK MARKET Stock footage can be a way to cut costs on difficult-to-achieve sequences, while there’s also the option to sell clips to boost finances TAKE STOCK WORDS TERRY HOPE
I f you’re a creative filmmaker who takes pride in the originality of your production, would you deem it something of a personal failure to be using stock sequences alongside your own footage, or would you be more pragmatic and consider the potential benefits? If it’s the latter then you most certainly won’t be alone: more filmmakers than you might realise, even those working on high-profile productions, are looking to stock as a way of solving various issues that arise when budget is a priority. So in what circumstances might stock come riding to the rescue? Well, consider such things as a wide establishing shot of an iconic landmark, such as the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty, that firmly places the action in a particular city. The cost of travelling to such a place and clearing all the necessary licences could be huge, whereas a decent stock library will have dozens of options for you, including air-to-air shots that would have ratcheted up the challenges and your costs still higher.
Then there are the dramatic moments in a film that are full of impact but hugely costly to stage, such as a car crash, a building on fire or an explosion. These too can be sourced quite easily through stock, as can complicated time-lapse sequences that would take an age plus a fair amount of specialist knowledge and experience to put together yourself. Buy something off the shelf that ticks all the boxes and then take care in the grade to match it to the look you have for the rest of the footage, and you could be saving a huge amount of time, effort and expense, while gifting your film production values that might be way beyond what you could otherwise afford. “Think about whether you’re going to make use of stock options from the very start of your production,” says Kyle Trotter, director of creative video content at Shutterstock in Toronto, Canada, “and then factor this into your budget. We’ve got nine million video clips in our collection, so there’s a lot of material to choose from and a good chance that we’ll
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PRO MOVIEMAKER AUTUMN 2018
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