I'm looking for suggestions about the best site to sell high quality videos.  I'm currently filming with a Panasonic GH4 and a Phantom 3 Professional, which are great tools for microstock, but I'll soon be upgrading to much higher quality equipment and I just can't see myself throwing those clips in with the rest of my microstock portfolio.  My plan is to get a R3D Raven with a Movi and an Inspire 1 Raw.  I would prefer to go exclusive with those clips and sell them at a higher price point than my other clips.  Does anyone have any suggestions or experience in this area?  Maybe sell them for around $400 each on Pond5?

Holy Cow! Where . are u getting you're hands on all that weed? Is it legal? I'd be worried the police would be knocking at my door

Haha, I live in Washington State where it is legal.  When I first started selling micro stock over a year ago I had an opportunity to shoot photos at a grow house for medical marijuana dispensaries.  My focus is on video, but I can't lie, those pics sell well.  I don't actually even smoke weed anymore.  I kinda wish I could add links to my video portfolios and not photos.

Thanks for the detailed response, I truly appreciate that info.  I'm currently building my portfolio of vids on Getty but I'll look into the exclusive contracts.

I'm looking for suggestions about the best site to sell high quality videos.  I'm currently filming with a Panasonic GH4 and a Phantom 3 Professional, which are great tools for microstock, but I'll soon be upgrading to much higher quality equipment and I just can't see myself throwing those clips in with the rest of my microstock portfolio.  My plan is to get a R3D Raven with a Movi and an Inspire 1 Raw.  I would prefer to go exclusive with those clips and sell them at a higher price point than my other clips.  Does anyone have any suggestions or experience in this area?  Maybe sell them for around $400 each on Pond5?

I'm not sure how hard it is to get in, but Film Supply (https://www.filmsupply.com) is well worth a look at.

Investing a lot of money in to heavy machinery while you don't even try doing unique footage with what you already have? Isn't that a bit naive?

Sorry, don't get me wrong, but with your video portfolio you have online, I doubt you'll get in to RM. You'll do even worse with exclusive on Getty/iStock.

Just a hint... it's not the equipment that does valuable footage, but the person behind it. And judging on what you already have, it would be more suitable to invest in high quality sets and make great footage with equipment you have, sell it on two or three RF agencies and enjoy the income.

Sorry if we destroyed your plans. It's still your decision on what you want to do.

I agree. My best investment so far wasn't some camera, slider or lighting kit. It is a small water tank for aquatic videos. It has brought me several dozens of its price Not to mention every exclusivity is a sort of a deal you cannot control except you just quit it. It's OK while it's working but some day new management comes and ruin all your exclusive sales with new search algorithm or some other "exciting" idea.

Your desire to improve your work means you are heading in the right direction. 

The GH4 is a fine camera but, at this point, you've only attempted the lower limits of its potential.

As others advise, focus on concept development, directing actors, budgeting for locations, staging, blocking, prop integration, etc.

In my experience (others may argue with me on this), cameras / gear like you describe (RED, etc) require a bit more "care-and-feeding" on set than your GH4.  This slows the shoot down, which is problematic when working with actors or quickly changing lighting conditions, etc.

The primary benefit of a camera like the Red Raven is its dynamic range -- maybe 15 stops or so.  If you plan to do most of your shooting outside where lighting conditions can be harsh and are mostly out of your control (beach, landscapes, etc) then maybe it's the right camera for you to buy now.

Best of luck,

Mark

Lots of people are still buying the GH4 for stock video, so it must be useful.  I think the others are saying you need to stray from your wife, kid and your back and legs, to try some more commercial work to see if you can pull it off, before you make a cash outlay.

There's quite a few people using high end equipment like Reds cameras, Phantom slow motion cameras or even large Octo-copter drones to create regular RF stock footage. It's not the equipment that's going to create higher end footage, it's your creativity and what you do with the equipment you have. If you went to buy some new equipment, that's cool, but I would not expect it to drastically change the quality of your work.

The best thing for most people to increase the quality of their footage would be better lighting.

We have our own production comp for commercial directing video and stills and we use lots of Arri cams and stuff but only for commercial productions. When I'm out and about shooting video I always love the GH4 and the canon 80D ( not 4K). These two little cameras are just great for video and more then enough for the stock industry.

Only advice is. Try and graduate from AF and get used to manual focus and focus pulling thats the pro way.