When putting together a video or content that includes video, you don't always have to shoot everything yourself. The chances are that someone else will have already shot some footage that perfectly meets your needs and made it available for others to use as stock footage. By subscribing to a royalty-free stock footage site, you get access to millions of clips that provide inexpensive, practical, high-quality footage for inclusion in your projects.
There are several stock footage sites out there, each providing video clips in almost every topic you can imagine, whether it's animals, people engaging in many activities or even outer space. So, as a content creator, you must choose the platform that will help you increase your video's production value the most.
So what makes one stock footage site better than the rest? Of course, the first characteristics that come into mind are video quality, price and ease of use. However, in this article, we'd like to focus on one crucial aspect of stock footage platforms that is often overlooked - story driven.
Intrigued? Read on!
What is stock footage?
Stock videos are short video clips, usually under 10 seconds in duration - and occasionally longer - that you can purchase to integrate into your own projects. Stock footage is the video equivalent of stock photos: images that you can buy to illustrate books or blogs, commercial reports and training materials, or anywhere you need images but, for whatever reason, cannot shoot yourself.
Stock footage is extremely convenient and can save you both time and money, as well as ensure that your final product appears professional and finished. There are many situations when using stock footage is far preferable to shooting your own video. Examples include:
- When you need to suggest that you are somewhere else in the world but either traveling there or commissioning a local crew would be too expensive and impractical
- Using footage of different seasons and weather conditions to what you are experiencing during shooting
- Incorporating footage that would be beyond the scope and budget of your projects, such as expensive lifestyle shots, sports, crowd or protest scenes, or scenarios that require technical expertise or specialized training such as pyrotechnics or animal handling
- If you're exploring how to become a video editor and want readily available footage that you can cut together.
When you purchase a stock footage subscription, you get a license that allows you to use the footage you want in your videos. For example, the Artgrid comprehensive license lets you use its clips for any type of video – including commercials – to complete your projects professionally and with a high production value.
What is story-driven stock footage?
While millions of hours of stock footage are available on any platform, the best stock video will always be story-driven footage. That's because rather than being a selection of random video clips, story-driven stock footage is drawn from the same sequence created by the same filmmaker. This means the footage has a background and continuity, and it works almost as a standalone story. So rather than feeling a choppy and relying on luck as to whether it will work within your project, story-driven stock footage has a sense of completeness.
2 Clips from the same story - Strike by LACOFILMS
4 reasons you should use story-driven stock footage in your videos
1. Achieve continuity editing
by selecting story-driven stock footage, you give yourself more opportunities to ensure that your edits flow easily from one to another, without feeling fragmentary and as if, well, you're using stock footage.
2. Add depth to your storytelling
when you're telling a story, it needs to feel well-rounded and complete, as if it has a backbone. The same approach applies to both using and creating stock footage, too. First, by editing with stock footage, you can include more story elements to your narrative that give it resonance and authenticity. Stock footage gives you the flexibility to include scenes that you wouldn't be able to shoot yourself, either because of temporal, geographical, budgetary or skill constraints. This will help you to create a more compelling story with a fuller and stronger narrative that has more detail. It also allows you to include more examples of the same kind of footage if that's what you need. Second, the best stock video tells an entire story, which makes it easier to edit into your final piece. It will feel fully integrated and not as if it's just tacked on your work.
3. Increase your video's production value
High-quality video and a cohesive style will make your project look more polished and professional. The flowing nature of story-driven stock footage means that it is best for including in your final projects, rather than just bits and pieces of stock footage that come from here and there. Furthermore, Artgrid stock footage is the best stock video because it can be downloaded in both Raw and log files. This allows you to color grade the stock clips with the same look and feel of the entire project, giving it a consistent and professional finish.
4. Save time and money
Finding the right clip for your video can be challenging, but story-driven footage makes everything simpler and faster. Once you find 1 clip that fits your video, you know it has similar-looking clips with the same characters a click away. You might not need to go on a new quest to find the 2nd and 3rd clips that will fit your project.
And since with an Artgrid subscription, you can download as many clips as you want, you will not need to spend money on each clip you download like on some other platforms.
Another example of the efficiency of Story-driven footage can be seen in this series of clips from the Urban Dancer Story by Omri Ohana on Artgrid.
So you're looking for a shot of a female dancer, and you find the look you want, you can go for a close-up shot of her.
Or an extreme close-up, even.
Or a long shot
Or from the back
Wrap up
Hope this article made you realize that the best stock footage is story-driven when it comes to stock video. And of course, we believe that the best stock footage subscription is found at Artgrid. With tens of thousands of hours of story-driven footage, you will be able to find clips that slot seamlessly into your video and feel natural. But, if you're still not convinced, why not look at these top videos with stock footage. And when big brands, major production companies, and news organizations use stock footage from Artgrid, there's no reason why you can't, either.
