By Nels Johnson, July 15, 2008
How has digital technology changed the video industry? Dude, next question, please. So let’s expand the proposition to include global broadband networks to which high-quality packetized video is just another data type available for high-speed transmission to (and utilization by) everyone from indie filmmakers to corporate creative departments.
What we’re talking about here is digital stock video, a growing market and online community in which practitioners are finding serious retail opportunities and fresh ways to supplement their income — if not change the focus of their businesses. One top purveyor of the stock video revolution is iStockphoto (an independent subsidiary of Getty Images).
iStock started the micropayment category in stock imagery in 2000, and began soliciting video artists in 2006. It now boasts near 100,000 clips, adding several thousand a month. They are created by artists all over the globe and sell for between $10-$50 per clip. iStock is a user-generated content site, with three million plus members. iStock sees a file downloaded from its site every 1.4 seconds, and shares 20-40 percent of the royalties with the artists who created each file. iStock paid out more than $20 million in 2007 to its artists and states that many make a solid part-time or full-time living from their portfolios.
iStock contributor Chad Anderson.
Here, key iStockphoto contributor Chad Anderson speaks about the opportunities for dedicated shooters and DV technicians to enjoy and prosper in this emerging market.
DV: In business and workflow terms, what’s the difference between traditional stock video production and Web-based video wrangling? Who does the indexing of your work on the iStock site? What time drains did you NOT expect?
Chad Anderson: Ten years ago, I produced CD-ROMs with 30 broadcast-quality stock animations. I was the animator, the representative, the packager and the delivery guy. I sold a few of them on eBay for $200 but it didn’t make sense for me to spend so much time on the offline parts. I might make a thousand dollars, but it would take me maybe a month.
In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, you would get phonebook-sized catalogs from stock photography companies. They were beautiful but not cheap to print. Going through them was a real pain — not quite the same as big clear images on the screen faster and with search capability. The same goes for video. On iStock, I do all the key wording and descriptions of each file when I upload them
One thing that can still be time-consuming, depending on how you approach it, is uploading different-sized video files when dealing with multiple gigabytes, even with a very fast Internet connection. The process that iStock has for uploading finished clips that are then available online, keyworded, ready for sale and download, is the most streamlined system I’ve seen. Another nice thing the iStock technology will do if I upload a clip at, say, HD 1080p, 30fps per second, is automatically create a corresponding group of down-sampled clips at various resolutions and file formats, including Windows media and MPEG-4, for example.
The iStock home page.
I’ve found different perceptions about the nature of stock video online just because customers have an easier time getting what they want and searching through it first. Do you think they appreciate what they’re actually getting in a different way than with traditional stock video on tape?
There are still people out there that like time-coded preview tape. They enjoy going through it and creating a log and sending in the log and getting back the DigiBeta or HD Cam production tapes
. But contrast that process with, for example, working on big video screens at award shows in real time. Even in that world you have a limited amount of money to spend, which is where online stock comes in very handy.
Last year, I was in a trailer at the Academy of Country Music Awards with 11 performances that needed background video. First I would make a light box for George Strait, or another that would say Josh Turner. Then I’d cruise through iStock online for ten minutes. I’d put 20 or 30 images into a light box. Then I‘d iChat the link to the various light boxes over to the producer in the next truck. He’d look at them and reply, “I like where you’re going with this theme,” or “looks good — finish it,” or “you’ve got a couple of images of a graveyard in there. Let’s take those out. But all the rest of the images of like the small town type stuff is good.” Its just one example, but you end up not only with an efficient workflow, but also with better work overall. Not everybody can afford such a setup, or has the skill set to pull it together and work under pressure, but it’s possible. And one day it’ll be pretty common thanks to all these online, indexed and pre-sorted assets.
What sort of auditing — objective or subjective — does iStock use for uploaded video clips?
They have more than 110 inspectors around the world. The inspectors work when they want to as contractors. They’re all people judged and hand-picked by iStock as good shooters themselves. They check for technical integrity and adherence to specs but also for legal and trademark issues. Every photo and video clip with a face in it has a model release attached.
Do you carry multiple cameras with you at all times?
I’ve got a little point-and-shoot Canon SD630 that I take with me most often. I also have a 12- megapixel Canon G9 and a Canon 35mm that I shoot with for fun. On the video side I’ve got probably five cameras, but the two main ones are a little Canon HV10 that shoots HD 1080 and a Canon XH A1for when I’m shooting for real. Even though I keep upgrading I’ve got to shoot least $12,000 worth of footage to justify a new $12,000 camera. Of course what I really want is one that puts QuickTime movies on a flash card.
How much attention do you pay to audio in your regular work acquiring stock video?
Most of what I shoot, outdoor scenes, natural panoramas, city shots, has no specific audio requirements. Many customers don’t even want sound, so sometimes I don’t include it with the published video, but it will always be on my master tapes.
Here’s the big non-technical question. Let’s say somebody is inspired by your story and decides to quit his or her day job to do this full time right away. If they learn how to utilize all the powerful technology that iStock has to offer and they truly know what they’re doing with the proper guidance, could they get into this business and support themselves in a few months? Is the system set up to enable them to do so?
I was wearing my iStock shirt the other day, and a guy I met said, “Hey, do you upload stuff to them? I have always wanted to do that. How much money can you make?” I basically replied that, aside from encouraging him to try it, I couldn’t give him a meaningful answer. I’ve been doing what I do since I was a kid, drawing and doing graphics and logos and all that stuff since I was 9 years old.
That being said, iStock itself is very welcoming. You have to get three images or videos approved before you get certified as a contributor, but after that you are part of their community (even though each new picture or clip needs separate approval). So don’t quit your day job first. People who are most successful at selling stock images or videos have been doing it for years, but I believe that iStock really does earn the percentage that they take off a sale.
|