Asked to sell footage. How much?
- Thread starter Aerial Entertainment Studios
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Gotta be honest, I have been selling my videos for some time now. If someone offered you $2k for a video just take it and run. The great thing here is we just pump out more. $2000 is a lot for stock footage from a random videographer. It is not the last video you will ever make and this is a starting point and a place to learn. Just do it and stop delaying it before they find someone else.
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I agree take the money and move onto the next video. That pays for 2/3 of the inspire. Props to you im a little jealous actually 
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My two cents:
If a company were to hire me to film that (say Maldives tourism), and let's say I was local to the area, I would probably collect the footage over a few shoot days, so I'd bill out around $4,500, and they would legally own the footage. If you were doing it for fun and licensing the footage to someone for use in one specific application, I would charge $250/clip. They don't own the footage, they pay you the owner to use it, thus you could pursue other possible sales routes like stock footage databases.
If a company were to hire me to film that (say Maldives tourism), and let's say I was local to the area, I would probably collect the footage over a few shoot days, so I'd bill out around $4,500, and they would legally own the footage. If you were doing it for fun and licensing the footage to someone for use in one specific application, I would charge $250/clip. They don't own the footage, they pay you the owner to use it, thus you could pursue other possible sales routes like stock footage databases.
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I remember seeing your footage before and thinking "this guy should really watermark his stuff" followed up by "I wonder if there are any job openings where he works, I would apply and then he could have a pilot/camera operator on his business trips"
I agree with $2k, start there - fund a website and start splitting clips and listing them for sale. Run it as a small business and you can probably write off just about any income with travel expenses, insurance, and drone purchases. And let me know if you have any job openings.
I agree with $2k, start there - fund a website and start splitting clips and listing them for sale. Run it as a small business and you can probably write off just about any income with travel expenses, insurance, and drone purchases. And let me know if you have any job openings.
Sorry for the late reply. The video is still up and should be accessible from the initial post. Cheers.
Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the subtle difference in what you recommend. I actually blew off the buyer who wanted to get everything for $2000 and asked $10000. He is possibly willing to meet somewhere in the middle which would be good. If he's willing to pay that much, he must be thinking of using it to generate revenue so I think I'm missing something here.
Thanks for your note. I may just do that even without selling the original clip. I'm in Mauritius right now and capturing some other great stuff, so I can probably populate some stock footage sites with a lot of clips. The buyer is in fact willing to pay more for the footage. What would be reasonable you think? Cheers.I remember seeing your footage before and thinking "this guy should really watermark his stuff" followed up by "I wonder if there are any job openings where he works, I would apply and then he could have a pilot/camera operator on his business trips"
I agree with $2k, start there - fund a website and start splitting clips and listing them for sale. Run it as a small business and you can probably write off just about any income with travel expenses, insurance, and drone purchases. And let me know if you have any job openings.
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From the sounds of it, you are like most of us and are going to be filming regardless, this didn't start out as a business - just a way to record memories and have fun. If I were you, I would monetize the clips. You have nothing to lose. $200-$250 a clip and see what starts selling. Depending on what your time is worth, you could probably have a family member or college student come in and split your video into clips and upload them to your site. There is the legal aspect and content rights, but all of that is handled better by someone that knows the laws in your area. The hard part is getting noticed, you have been - so see where it takes you and enjoy the ride! What an awesome opportunity. Good luck!
Thanks for the feedback. I my very well just do that. I just completed my trip to Mauritius and have been working over a number of nights to get the below footage. Hopefully people like it as much as I do.
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Nice footage, but how did you grade this footage? Do potential buyers expect they'll have to adjust the horizon in most every scene? The mostly beach/ocean scenes - the whites' are pretty blown out. If current interested parties scoff at $200 + per clip, tell them to go find better for less somewhere else. If they say they want only 10 seconds of a 60 second clip, tell them to buy the 60 second clip or go bang a wall. Good luck with sales.
- Johnny
- Johnny
Ok so your saying $200 a clip is fair market price is that right?
Please do be more specific about the horizon comment as I'm not sure I'm getting it. What are you referring to exactly? Thanks
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Markets are all subjective, you've already received plenty of quote suggestions. Have you Googled how many other stock websites offer footage of these same locations and how much they are charging? Do these websites offer stock libraries of this specific location as comprehensive as yours?
Look at all of you clips which include wide views of the horizon - see attachments for example before/after. I've read plenty about I1 users pointing out DJI flaws with the gimbal...
- Johnny
Look at all of you clips which include wide views of the horizon - see attachments for example before/after. I've read plenty about I1 users pointing out DJI flaws with the gimbal...
- Johnny
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My bad, previous was wrong "before.jpg", see following. Not to spec, you'll get the idea...
- Johnny
- Johnny
Ok so this is where we see the difference between pros and amateurs. I wouldn't notice this at all and quite honestly wouldn't care either. The focal point on this 2 second shot was the boat, not the top left and right corners where we don't see anything. If this is really what influences the purchasing of stock footage, then I'll sell mine at a 50% discount and the buyer can crop it himself. Sounds fair ?
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As I said this was just 1 example from among your various footage. Either you can pick out vistas where the horizon is off, zoom in a bit if shot in 4K and level the horizon in about 15 seconds, or leave it up to the client's post capabilities. In my own opinion, based on my previous comments you could get from $200 - $500 per clip. From a previous post here, this unique library could bring $10K + from the right buyer. Just glean from all of the helpful advice in this topic regarding your footage and decide what's best for you. Like Mazz posted, as an amateur taking $2K is a darned good start. It always depends on market demand. You might sell this footage today for 10 bucks, or keep it available on Vimeo and a buyer may offer you 10 grand in 5 months from now...
- Johnny
- Johnny
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