Author Topic: Clips under 5 seconds? (Read 4303 times)

SkulkBayCretin · « **on:** March 06, 2017, 00:49 »

Hi guys,

Just wanted to ask if anyone has any experience in selling very short clips. While most footage stock sellers have a minimum clip duration of 5 seconds, some accept clips that are as short as 3 seconds (Pond5, Getty, Videoblocks, i think).

Has anyone had success selling anything between 3-5 seconds? Or is it not worth the time and just best to focus on clips strictly over 5 seconds? I'd be trashing a lot of clips if i stuck to 5 thought.

Cheers,
Viktor

namussi · « **Reply #1 on:** March 06, 2017, 00:58 »

Shorter than five seconds is not a clip, it's a blip.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #2 on:** March 06, 2017, 02:10 »

Depends on what it is I guess. If it's some businessmen shaking hands, then I don't think three seconds is going to cut it. If it's a eagle riding a wave of lava, shot from a drone, with a backdrop of mushroom clouds and fork lightning, as a barrage of warheads fly past the camera... you might get away with a two second clip.

alno · « **Reply #3 on:** March 06, 2017, 02:15 »

It all depends on subject I guess. For example there are a lot of dynamic hyperlapses 5 seconds or shorter and he is quite a succesful seller as far as I know: https://www.shutterstock.com/ru/video/gallery/Kirill-Neiezhmakov-1144685/

outoftheblue · « **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2017, 02:36 »

Quote from: SkulkBayCretin on March 06, 2017, 00:49

While most footage stock sellers have a minimum clip duration of 5 seconds

This part alone makes it disadvantageous to produce 3 second clips - regardless of potential success/unsuccess selling on some other sites.

SkulkBayCretin · « **Reply #5 on:** March 06, 2017, 19:35 »

I guess i'll stick to 5 seconds minimum.

thanks guys!

Tyson Anderson · « **Reply #6 on:** March 07, 2017, 03:12 »

A lot of projects call for edits with quick 1 second flashes of various clips. If you've got a great clip that's only 3 seconds, add it to the sites that accept it. I've sold a couple 4 second clips in the past.

sharpshot · « **Reply #7 on:** March 07, 2017, 05:02 »

A lot of the clips I have seen in use are less than 5 seconds. They are probably edited from longer clips but I don't think buyers will mind shorter clips a lot of the time. Must be easier for them to download and deal with the smaller files as well.

PigsInSpace · « **Reply #8 on:** March 07, 2017, 12:35 »

I think closer to 30 seconds is better, even though buyers are likely to only use a few seconds. My shortest video is six seconds, and I never really thought it would be downloaded, but it was today for the first time. Go figure! It's a building shot and someone walked into the frame that I didn't notice. Only six seconds was actually usable as a result.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #9 on:** March 07, 2017, 19:28 »

Yeah, I wouldn't aim for five seconds or more, I'd aim for ten seconds, or twenty seconds. I appreciate that a lot of people edit clips down, and may only use two seconds from a 30 second clip... but I'm sure there are also people who keep duration in mind.

I.e. if you're making a 60 second video using stock, at $79 a go, then two 30 second clips is going to cost you $158. Twelve 5 second clips is going to cost you $948. Yes, a video with just two clips is going to be pretty c**p, but some people have the budget for multiple cuts, some people don't. It's probably not a massive consideration overall, but I don;t think you're doing yourself any favours shooting five second clips.

There will sometimes be reasons you can only get a five second clip. Say it's some deer vomiting on a giant frog, and you only managed to get five seconds before he flies off into the distance, then that's fair enough. If it's a landscape with nobody about, then go for thirty seconds.

pkphotos · « **Reply #10 on:** March 07, 2017, 23:26 »

Most of my clips are between 20 and 30 minutes

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #11 on:** March 08, 2017, 02:54 »

Quote from: pkphotos on March 07, 2017, 23:26

Most of my clips are between 20 and 30 minutes

I'm assuming they're timelapses and you squish them down into shorter versions? Unless I'm mistaken, the majority of sites don't accept clips over one or two minutes, and even if they did... a 30 minute HD clip in Photo JPEG, would come out at anything from around 10 to 30GB.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #12 on:** March 08, 2017, 03:59 »

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on March 07, 2017, 19:28

There will sometimes be reasons you can only get a five second clip. Say it's some deer vomiting on a giant frog, and you only managed to get five seconds before he flies off into the distance, then that's fair enough. If it's a landscape with nobody about, then go for thirty seconds.

I aim for about 10-15 and where it makes sense, a bit longer.

Storage isn't much of a problem but 30 seconds of 4k (UHD) ProRes HQ is 2.7 GB, and uploaded to 5 sites that's 13.5 GB which takes quite a bit of time. It makes it hard to get just 4-5 clips up in a day even on a fast connection.

Hyperlapses usually end up closer to 6-8 seconds since they are so time consuming to make.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #13 on:** March 08, 2017, 04:29 »

Yeah, most of mine are 10, with a few at 15, 20 or 30 seconds. I've never made anything under 10 seconds as far as I can remember.

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Author Topic: Clips under 5 seconds? (Read 4303 times)

SkulkBayCretin

namussi

SpaceStockFootage

alno

outoftheblue

SkulkBayCretin

Tyson Anderson

sharpshot

PigsInSpace

SpaceStockFootage

pkphotos

SpaceStockFootage

increasingdifficulty

SpaceStockFootage

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