MicrostockGroup

I'm looking for one tutorial / website that will hold my hand and explain every aspect of shooting video from a dslr or small video cam for stock footage from start to finish. I know nothing about shooting video, 0, zip, nada. What speed to shoot or if my cam only offers one speed how do i convert, codexes, formats, the whole nine yards. I have an Olympus E-P1 and would like to shoot video for microstock. Even if that camera isn't good enough, at least i can learn and cut my teeth with it. i have iMove but that's it, so how would I create a footage clip. I've heard about stream clip, dont know what its for. Is there a safe way to shoot and process a video that will ensure acceptance across the spectrum of micro stock sites, or is there only a few I should worry about. like to have a complete "how to" that covers every aspect from start to finish in front of me so I don't waste time on the learning curve. Thanks

No i'm serious, perhaps I'm making it more complicated then it is, or just not explaining myself well.  The few times I've read posts about video its always questions about codexes, why their different for each site, questions about specific cameras, but my search queries do not  seem to pull up any beginners tutorials explaining video from the beginning. It's always something like "beginning tutorials on shooting wildlife," or "beginning tutorials on shooting time lapse." When I do searches at the micro sites it seams like there are hundreds of questions asking why their video didn't pass for this or that technical reason, which I don't even understand what their talking about.  I was hoping that there was a well known source that kind of explains everything from a total newbie perspective. But if there isn't I'll just jump in and see what happens.

I learned all that was necessary from this thread and youtube clips.  It is hard to give a tutorial because every camera is different and there are lots of different software packages.
http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19043

The olympue ep1 is progressive 1280 x 720 (30 fps), so use "PhotoJPG" codec.  Most sites accept 90% quality but istock want at least 95%.  I do most of mine at 95% and send them to all the sites.

Just talking file format for submission, not creative editing.

So my e-p1 movie come out of the camera as an .AVI file. I open in iMovie, as full size,  make cuts as necessary, and export as .mov. Export settings are: Video standard NTSC 30 fps, and save as HD (size of original) 1280 x 720. Now looking at the movie within Quicktime,  Quicktime inspector tells me this movie I just created is Format h.264, 1280 x 720, fps 29.97 and it's 16MB for 13 seconds. So, according to Pond 5 this should be acceptable (strictly from a technical, file format standpoint) Istock wants MOV for their RF full-res so this should work for them as well? I understand istock wants MP4 for the application sample. So in Streamclip, I would take this movie and "Save as" MP4. Shutterstock also says Acceptable Video File Formats: AVI, MOV, DV and MPEG. so this movie should work for SS as well? So is that it?  Is that all I would have to do? I'm just talking about file formats for submission, not talking about any kind of editing, getting creative.  Seems like I must be totally missing something. Any pointers would be appreciated.

I use MediaCoder or MPEGStreamClip for conversions and resizing 5Dmk2 files. For a video codec I choose PhotoJPG which is most widely accepted. Tried using variants of MPEG4 (H.264) but it was no consensus among sites so I gave up. PhotoJPG produces much larger files but at least I got one file for every agency. I do not tell you anything about sound codecs cause I usually remove sound.

The footage forum at SS is filled with useful (and some basic) information.  Also, friendly, helpful responses.

Read a few posts about uploading AVI files directly from the Nikon D90.  Have you tried the SS Forum?

Yes that's how it works: sifting through Google, through forums. I'm also looking for a mother of all tutorials like that, so when you sifted through all the noise on the net, please put a clear compilation online, that covers every aspect from start to finish in front of me so I don't waste time on the learning curve. 

For my camera:
1. Export as Quicktime
2. Uncheck interlaced scaling
3. Remove sound
4. Change quality to 75%

Mr Stock...  One problem with putting up a central spot that goes through everything related to shooting stock video is that whomever does it is essentially creating competition for themselves.  They are making it easier for other people to fill up iStock, Pond5, etc.. with clips that effect their visibility on those sites.  So nobody is actually *crazy* enough to do it, unless they're hoping to make more money FROM the information than actually using the information.

That said... You might want to check out ""Microstock News", an aggregation of stock related sites:  http://www.microstock-news.com/

You'll find several listed there which are more specific to stock footage than photography.

However, I will repeat what was already said in this thread:

Quicktime .MOV using the PhotoJPEG codec for footage is acceptable on all known stock footage sites.  Some sites will accept H.264, but not many yet.  So use PhotoJPEG if you want to make it easier on yourself.  75% quality is the bare minimum and I rarely dip below 80% quality.  I will review my clips very carefully and re-encode as high as 95% if there are quality issues. My average length of clip is 15 seconds and if it's valid to the subject, I will go as high as 30 seconds, though some sites reject anything above 20.  On sites that accept it (and it's relevant to the clip) I will leave the sound, but most sites do not so for easiness, I'd remove the sound.

How well you do is determined by several factors...  Number 1 is quality of your clips.  If they look like crap, they won't sell (obvious, right?).  I will often shoot the same subject a dozen times to make sure I get 1 good clip out of it.  Number 2 is uniqueness.  Most amateurs today are out shooting flowers, sunsets, full moon time-lapses, cloud timelapses, etc.. that are already there.  If you shoot any of that stuff, you are NOT going to stand out and it's not gonna sell.  UNLESS!!! you just happen to do it better than anyone else.  I still shoot sunrises, cloudscapes, etc... but so far none of it looks any better or different that what's there, so I don't bother submitting it.  I am still hopeful I'll get lucky and find a unique shot.  Number 3 is volume.  I can't tell you how many people upload 20 or 30 clips and expect the sales to start rolling in...  If you are just starting now you missed the boat.  You need a hundred clips online before you'll sell 1.  You'll need several hundred before you sell 1 on a regular basis.  You need THOUSANDS of clips online before you generate any kind of significant revenue.

So if you don't have a lot of patience, don't get started... You'll only quit in frustration.

Good luck!

Thanks

QuickTime .MOV files in PhotoJPEG codec are accepted everywhere.  So if you plan to submit to more than one location, go with that.

Encode your video in the native resolution it was shot at.  So if you are shooting HD, encode it in HD.  If it was shot in SD, then encode it at SD.  Don't mess with the resolution. 

You should also encode it at the FPS you shot it at.  Don't change from 29.97 to 24p or 24p to 30p, etc...  Unless you really know what you're doing, most software cannot properly convert frame rates and can cause noticeable issues.

Most sites do not accept sound.  Some do, but only if it's relevant to the footage (footage of a bird, sound of it chirping).  For maximum compatibility with most sites, remove the sound.

I personally never encode anything below 80% and more often than not, I'll encode at 90%.  It just depends on how the footage looks after I encode it.  If I see noticeable color banding or the image looks grainy/degraded I'll up it.  But my default in After Effects is set to 80% and I work my way up from there when needed.

For those, I use 30fps, full HD size, 1920 x 1080 save as .mov PhotoJPEG 90% quality for all sites except istock that ask for 95%.