Asked to sell footage. How much?

[Aerial Entertainment Studios]

This is for all the professional operators out there. I need your advise.

I've recently posted a video online that has garnered a lot of attention and I've been approached by a number of people asking if I would be interested in selling the footage.

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A few people have asked for exclusive rights to the ownership while others have asked for the extended footage associated to each clip. I need your help in understanding what is fair market value for such footage and what are my alternatives.

I have no commercial ambitions in mind and I don't want to be stuck with any licence obligations due to this situation. However, if there is some money that can be made from all this, why not look at options.

Would appreciate your thoughts on the above.

Cheers.

 

[ricklohre]

Where is this!?!?! I want to go now!!!
Have no idea what you should charge for this. Another good question that this sparked...if it's footage outside the US...is it "legal" to sell that since the FAA has no jurisdiction there? (not that they necessarily do here either / and / there are currently no "laws" against it here "yet") Sorry to go off on a tangent...just thought about that.

 

[Meta4]

It depends on how good the video is, how much work went into it, how important it is to the prospective buyer, how they intend to use it and how much they are prepared to pay.
There's no easy answer.

ps .. the FAA doesn't rule the world

 

[Acidsnow]

yeah that is great footage, before you jump to any descisions, check all your options . . . for example check istockphoto.com or potentially monetize your youtube page if you haven't already instead of just selling it . . .

btw, did you change the colors post production, or was that just normal color setting off the inspire?

 

[Peter Esteves]

Hey Patrice,

You can do multiple things here. You can sell the footage outright to whomever would like to purchase it at a negotiated price. Where you have to be cautious is in what type of rights or ownership of the footage you are giving the buyer. In TV/Advertising land we call it licensing footage. In this case the buyer licenses the footage from you for a particular reason, say TV adverts in a certain region, or web advert etc etc. Where they use the footage determines the price. So for example if they wanted to use this footage for a tv advert you are talking big bucks, as well as the buyer wanting to use footage for a documentary or film. Obviously web is the least expensive option. Further how long the footage is licenses effects pricing.

In my opinion your best option is to put the footage on stock footage sites. You can do multiple sites, and can then provide cost breakdowns that way. Go to any stock footage site and you will see the licensing breakdown next to each video. Then if you have a client come to you for pricing you can direct them to the stock site. Either that or just do the straight negotiation, but you will need to have contracts in place etc etc and this can get tedious.

On a final note I directed a feature doc where I needed some stock footage, and archival footage. Some of the stock we paid for was reasonable, with worldwide rights, say a 10 second clip for $500.00... generic stuff that we didn't have time to film ourselves. While some other footage was as pricey as $700 a second of footage, and that wasn't even the close to the most expensive stuff.

 

[Aerial Entertainment Studios]

Hey Patrice,

You can do multiple things here. You can sell the footage outright to whomever would like to purchase it at a negotiated price. Where you have to be cautious is in what type of rights or ownership of the footage you are giving the buyer. In TV/Advertising land we call it licensing footage. In this case the buyer licenses the footage from you for a particular reason, say TV adverts in a certain region, or web advert etc etc. Where they use the footage determines the price. So for example if they wanted to use this footage for a tv advert you are talking big bucks, as well as the buyer wanting to use footage for a documentary or film. Obviously web is the least expensive option. Further how long the footage is licenses effects pricing.

In my opinion your best option is to put the footage on stock footage sites. You can do multiple sites, and can then provide cost breakdowns that way. Go to any stock footage site and you will see the licensing breakdown next to each video. Then if you have a client come to you for pricing you can direct them to the stock site. Either that or just do the straight negotiation, but you will need to have contracts in place etc etc and this can get tedious.

On a final note I directed a feature doc where I needed some stock footage, and archival footage. Some of the stock we paid for was reasonable, with worldwide rights, say a 10 second clip for $500.00... generic stuff that we didn't have time to film ourselves. While some other footage was as pricey as $700 a second of footage, and that wasn't even the close to the most expensive stuff.

Thanks for your feedback. Would you recommend any stock photo sites in particular.

Given the nature of the footage and the resolution, I think selling the full ownership rights of this video for a few hundred dollars makes no sense. Would you agree? I am shocked to hear about the pricing you paid for some footage, but I guess that cost was trickled down to the paying client at the end of the day.

From your professional opinion, if you were to eliminate complications and simply sell the full rights to the footage in this video, what kind of pricing would you consider reasonable. There are a lot of nice clips in 4K resolution in this movie. What is your take on it.

Thanks again for the feedback. Cheers.

 

[FASTFJR]

The first thing you should do is remove it from YouTube. With full rights and if it was shot at 4K you could easily get thousands of dollars.

 

[Aerial Entertainment Studios]

The first thing you should do is remove it from YouTube

Why is that?

 

[mdomeny]

the ability to download nowadays would not prospect good on the futur... bad english. sorry.

 

[johnmont250]

nice job. yes you should water mark footage thats worth anything, so people cant download and sell it themselves... and mark the center so they cant punch in on it.

 

[FASTFJR]

Remove it NOW!. I wouldn't want anyone stealing my stuff.

 

[FASTFJR]

Or at least pull it off YouTube and put it on Vimeo

 

[PetePerrim]

Very nice footage, looks like a lovely place.

 

[Acidsnow]

mark the center so they cant punch in on it.

what does this mean?

 

[FASTFJR]

what does this mean?

Watermark

 

[ricklohre]

Ya, if you're looking to sell it for serious $$ then definitely pull from public channels...

 

[sdjackaerial]

I have had (good) footage on revostock and istock, and I had a few regular sellers for a little while before they got hundreds of thousands of clips, and so many other stock sites opened up. And dude--I think I made around $300 all told. Now, I know that is just one example, but I really think that stock sites are not the way to go anymore.
I'd let it go for all rights ownership for a good chunk of change. It really depends on the size client, and what you think they'd pay. 15 separate clips, each of 20-50 seconds? I dunno... for a big company who would use it for tourism? $400 per clip? Dunno if they'd pay that. I'd create a scale of different rates for different use. I could see them laughing you out the window at $400 per clip..and I could also see the right situation being fine with that pricing.
Bottom line--your stuff is TOP NOTCH, and you deserve good money for it if you want to see it.

 

[johnmont250]

what does this mean?

sorry, if you mark a corner of footage(4k esp). people can zoom in, in editing, thus no more watermark. adjust the opacity on your name etc and drop on top in timeline, re size, center it.

 

[cburns]

Mate,

I have seen this clip on YouTube and I was very impressed... It's incredible footage and deserving of premium cash. I wouldn't let it go for 400 dollars a clip, I think it is worth so much more than that.

A client who is looking to sell a holiday destination is going to love this. Take a look at airstoc.com to see what a 10 second 4k clip goes for. And your video puts many of them to shame.

I can't tell you what to sell it for but I would negotiate HARD with multiple buyers especially if your looking to sell exclusive rights. You have a diamond of a clip there and worth every penny you get.

Chris

---

Chris
airpxl.com

 

[Aerial Entertainment Studios]

Mate,

I have seen this clip on YouTube and I was very impressed... It's incredible footage and deserving of premium cash. I wouldn't let it go for 400 dollars a clip, I think it is worth so much more than that.

A client who is looking to sell a holiday destination is going to love this. Take a look at airstoc.com to see what a 10 second 4k clip goes for. And your video puts many of them to shame.

I can't tell you what to sell it for but I would negotiate HARD with multiple buyers especially if your looking to sell exclusive rights. You have a diamond of a clip there and worth every penny you get.

Chris

---

Chris
airpxl.com

Hi and thanks for your note. One guy offered me $300 for the whole thing (not per clip), with exclusive rights ;-)

I was thinking in the $2000 range but don't know if that makes sense or not. Completely new to me as a concept so would like to get your thoughts. The video has 33 segments, many of which are stunning.

Is $2000 reasonable? Sure as hell is less expensive than paying for a trip to Maldives.