There's a readily available secret weapon for content creators and filmmakers everywhere to help you put together exactly the videos you want, whenever you need them. It's often overlooked but really shouldn't be. It's used across the filmmaking world, from news reports to music videos to soap operas to feature films and provides convenience, flexibility and value for money. It's stock footage.
Stock footage, or stock video, refers to short video clips that you can buy for inclusion in larger projects. They are used when it isn't possible to shoot the content yourself. Whether shooting a music video or working on a lengthy documentary, stock footage is there to provide you with precisely the imagery you need but are struggling to film. For example, you might not have the budget for travel. It could be the wrong time of year, and you need a blooming summer rather than a snowy winter. Perhaps you need a sports stadium crowd but do not have the resources to film it. Maybe you need the perfect burst of lens flare. By including a short clip of Table Mountain, you can add an establishing shot that suggests that your story, mainly filmed on a set outside London, takes place in Cape Town. And you don't have to go to the expense of sending a crew to South Africa.
When you're snowed in but need to show your viewers that it's summer, a shot of people gardening in fair weather will do the trick.
If someone else has shot a protest and made it available as stock, you don't have to worry about shooting it. You get the idea; stock footage is practical, convenient and economical.
While you might think stock video is only used as a small part of a larger project to provide detail or set a scene, with Artgrid, you can do a lot more. There's nothing to stop you from having a go at making videos with stock footage from beginning to end.
Making videos with stock footage
With high-quality stock footage downloaded from Artgrid, you can augment your own work or compile a complete video without having to shoot anything yourself.
Artgrid's unlimited license
The Artgrid license permits you to download unlimited clips and grants permission for all types of use, including commercials. That means you don't have to restrict yourself to personal projects, and you don't have to worry about running into rights issues. However many clips you want to use, and however you want to use them, you can.
Get flexibility
Many of the clips on Artgrid are also available as log footage, enabling you to color grade the material to match anything you've shot yourself or your project's general look and feel. An Artgrid stock video subscription is versatile and practical and can add some creative flair to your projects with ease.
Want to see exactly what you can do with stock footage? Great! We have some fabulous examples.
Top 6 user-generated videos featuring Artgrid stock footage
Commercials
Artgrid's license permits commercial use, which means you can add stock footage precisely as you need to into adverts.
This first example was our 2021 Edit Challenge winner. It features such a clean and simple storyline that it stays with the viewer and is highly effective. But it also shows just what you can accomplish without the need for complex editing techniques.
Here, you can see the winner of the 2020 Edit Challenge, which combines bold technical/industrial-looking imagery with lens flare and traditionally romantic type footage. It also shows you the power of adding video overlays to change the look and feel of your footage as well as communicate a message.
Trailers
While this video was only the runner-up in the 2020 Edit Challenge, it has reached over 300,000 views on YouTube. It shows you just how you can create fantastic sci-fi videos by using stock video footage.
First place in the 2021 Edit Challenge for trailers went to this dynamic video that makes use of bold colors and choppy cuts to draw in the viewer and grip their attention.
Music videos
Artgrid's extensive collection means that whatever stock footage for music videos you might require, there will be something suitable for you.
This is the video for the violin-centered piece Mercy by critically acclaimed composer Max Richter. The overriding theme of this music video is the subway, with the huge diversity of characters that make use of it driving the narrative. You might well have a few shots of people riding the subway. But by using more taken from Artgrid, you increase the variety and scope–and with it the story-telling power–of your music video.
Artgrid Stories are collections of stock clips from the same sequence, and this video for German beatmaker Starbeats' track Für Dich is a perfect example of how to use them. They allow you to build a narrative and achieve continuity. Instead of something looking as if it has been cut together, it feels cohesive. As well as using footage from the same sequence to keep things feeling together, you can see how overlays and effects, for example, film grain, can be used to give a unique feel to the footage. In this case, it's a retro look.
The contrast between these 2 music videos is the perfect demonstration of the versatility of stock footage.
Wrap up
We hope that we've been able to inspire you to embrace the numerous possibilities that stock footage can afford you. It doesn't matter if you're making a lyric video or just need a small clip for an establishing shot: stock footage in general, and an Artgrid subscription specifically, have got you covered.
