Hi Puravida,

 I couldn't agree more. That is why when we are shooting ethnicities that we are not clear on their customs and nature we have a person of that culture on set to keep it real as possible. Doing some internet education is also helpful to gain some insight but nothing like having the real thing there to help, or living in the country itself. My work shot in Europe is one example. Not only do the models fit because they are local but so does the surrounding environment and their habits and customs thanks to my local interpreter. Different from country to country, even different inside each country. Shoot in Eastern Germany then go shoot in Western Germany and that's just one example.
 Quite often the model of that culture can help if you are making a mistake, I always tell them " If we are doing something that doesn't make sense to your culture please speak up and let us know ". I know that the Japanese don't share food from chopsticks to chopsticks, it is considered very rude. I could easily envision a great romantic shot of two Japanese people sharing each others food across the table with their chopsticks and the buyer that knows their business would look at that and say what is going on in this photo. Just one small example from one culture, every culture has many of them. Don't underestimate your buyers knowledge.
 Even technical issues like shooting in a surgery room. There are so many rules to follow in there, you can't put your hands below a counter they must always stay on top so they stay clean at all times. You also never turn your back on the operating table when walking so all surgeons and support have their eyes on one another and there is no accidental bumping going on when someone is being worked on. These are just a couple of the details that will separate your work from the next guy as the competition grows at every level of stock.
 I love great feedback like what so many including Purivida have added to this topic and so many others on this site, this has been very educational. Even if your information goes completely against what I believe I love it! That is when I start to look at things from a different angle and gain more info and hopefully grow as a shooter as well as a person. I enjoy it so much more when people try and keep it educational for everyone with some data instead of just personal opinion based on nothing. Then we all grow and learn.

Good post thanks,
Jonathan

Hi photovideo,

 Glad to see people looking towards the future. Would you be kind enough to share some personal or professional background with the group here. I noticed you are anonymous and it would really help to see your work as well as what you will expect from your contributors on quality vs. quantity.
 It really helps me to understand your operation better if I can get some idea of your expertise on the matter of running a stock collection in the past or your capital you plan on investing in this concept. How deep are the pockets to make this thing fly while you are trying to get it off the ground. I don't need exact details but a contact or lead to your own work might really help. Keep on stretching that brain for us, good to see people stepping to the plate especially in raising content providers returns to 50%.

Best,
Jonathan

 Hi All,

 I am wondering if a Niche agency that specializes in Lifestyle at a higher quality level but still a broad user base of concepts like Vetta. The collection does not need 4 million photos to compete. They just need to produce the best of the best. A group of 100 ( random number ) of the best high production lifestyle shooters with a return of 50% to the image providers could be enticing to some.
 Only the content shot from a particular shoot would be exclusive, the photographers would still be able to submit to other agencies. There are people working on this concept as we speak. 100 shooters producing 1000 top quality images a year would build a strong collection fast that wouldn't be to deep for the clients to get lost in. If it was edited to be the best I think the buyers would find that of value.
 Besides I think you'll find that some of the biggest Micro sites make the bulk of their revenue from a small percentage of their providers.When you have 10,000 or more image providers a small percentage is still quite a few. Finding the 100 shooters that would commit to such a quality and quantity level would be the hardest part.

Just my two cents.

Best,
Jonathan

Hi Phil,

 Does your kid want a job as a producer  Thanks for that story you have a very bright child on your hands. I am sure the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree.

Best,
Jonathan

Hi All,

 A bunch of us Built Blend Images 5 years ago www.blendimages.com. It is a culturally diverse stock collection. We spend a great deal of time on research and if I was going to offer any advice it would follow Nasoya and the strength of hispanic growth in the U.S. Another suggestion I have seen in sales is to actually use the Mediterranean Spanish look model as apposed to the Hispanic model in a lot of cases but the Hispanic model is still a strong growth market for the moment. Buyers want a hispanic tone but also they want them to have soft facial features that the Mediterranean's seem to represent the best. The next is Asian groups, they are selling more and more for me.
 I was a big believer of multi cultural shoots and they are still good in the right setting, but buyers are wanting more and more of solid ethnic races in their photos. Everyone of the same race in the photo is growing at the moment. Remember when building an Asian ethnic cast to understand the cultural differences when grouping the people. Some Asians do not get along well with others and to many of us the differences may appear small but to the buyer it is clear as day. This goes for any culture that is different than your own. Do your research first or have someone on the set that knows the subtle differences in that specific culture.

 Good Luck,
Jonathan

Hi Pixelbytes,

 You are absolutely right about my opportunity or any other macro RF shooter that has older work tied up in 5-7 year contracts ( standard duration ) in the Macro RF market. We are not eligible for the Exclusive contract at Istock for licensing images. I think they want to support their base of photographers that put them on the map and bring in new talent as they become more seasoned. I totally understand that and I am glad to see a company support their photographers. That has not always been the case in stock history.
 I think this helps control the mass of pro's that might jump on the Istock exclusive wagon if given the chance and flood their market with content. I totally get it. The only possible down side is these old timers are shooting Micro now. They are just uploading to Istock at a slower rate than all the other Micro agencies. Giving the other agencies access for their buyers to a great deal more of the old Macro stock shooters work, whatever that is worth .
 I don't know if that is good or bad yet for Istock, we'll have to wait and see. They benefit on the other end by having exclusive content that no buyer can find anywhere else. They also have the highest RPI compared to any other Micro agency in the business making them appealing to new shooters. At least from my short experience. in Micro.

Best,
Jonathan
 

 I agree with Phil.

 Vetta is good for the industry to start separating the quality levels. People that have been true to Istock deserve this opportunity, they believed and it looks like for some it has paid off well.

Jonathan

Hi All,

Here is the U.S. even a sole proprietor is leaving themselves very exposed to a law suit that can take their personal property as well as business investments if one of your images causes such a result. Location or model release, etc issues. If you incorporate you remove your own personal belongings from your companies holdings. So if someone sues you they can only go after your business not your personal home or car or any other personal assets you might have. You should all register yourselves as businesses that is what you are and you have to pay your taxes. They are cracking down on this massive loss in revenue that is taking place in our industry. I know personally, I have been audited by everyone and their mother. A lot of paper work but always treat the IRS with friendliness and teamwork approach. They can be very reasonable about payment structuring if you owe them money and the easier going and open you are the better your results will be.

Best,
Jonathan

 Hi All,

 For those that are curious about who is using the Red and the films that have been shot on the camera here s a link. It takes a bit to download but it is a great set of film clips. It doesn't like safari so use firefox or another browser, anything other than Safari. Prices or the new Scarlet start at $2600 dollars and grow from there, Check it out.

http://red.cachefly.net/redreel/RedReel_h264_720.mov

 Best,
Jonathan

Great approach DWL.

Best,
Jonathan

 Hi Freedom,

 You keep spreading the help and positive attitude Freedom. I was very happy to see the results of the test really leaned to people being happy with their efforts. That is all I want from life. A bit of happiness and the chance to learn and help others. It all comes down to being happy. I like your handle that is the other thing that I am happy about, my freedom.

Best,
Jonathan

Hi Click Click,

 The royalty rate at Getty for motion is higher than stills so that makes up a part of it. It depends if your work is being put in their RR or RF collections. The legs or the shelf life of this kind of work has had a very long return period however it takes a lot longer than stills to hit the market. I have a good friend in England that shoots only motion and has for years and he says his work really hits it stride at two years . Then it sells very well for the rest of it's life, depending on the subject matter and the quality of the video. I have several friends that shoot motion for Getty that I asked tons of questions about how to make money at this part of the game before I dipped my toe in. It really helps when people will step up ad share their sales figures with you and what is selling best for them as well as all the mistakes to watch out for.
 Still there is a learning curve and I think we can up our production as we work the bugs out. We are just starting so please don't get the impression that I know didley. There are people that could run circles around me in stock motion but there will always be someone better or more successful than I am. I don't let that get in my way of trying new things. If anything it just pushes me more.
 Heck it might be Micro that wins the sales battle in motion for the web sites it's to early to tell. There are so many more opportunities for massive sales in the future for the internet more than for television in video. That is where I would place some of my betting money.
 I wish we could produce and shoot one of these shoots a day. No we try for 2 a week but I have a lot of pokers in fires right now so I am lucky to get six days a month with hope of obtaining 50 finished clips for RR collections from each shoot day. I also get another 50 stills or more from each day so we are covering two sets of buyers with the one set of production costs. Each clip is costing around $50 dollars for me to produce and the stills are just extra income. So that would be 300 stills and 300 clips a month at 6 days of shooting. I have no personal data of what sales are like in motion and I am not at liberty to share what others have told me I hope you understand. Either way it is still a crap shoot because things are changing so much so fast these days in stock you don't know if what worked yesterday will work tomorrow. That's the reason for so many * pokers in so many fires. I would much rather be taking it easy rather than working, but we all gotta pay the bills.

Thanks for the interest,
Jonathan

Hi Rt,

 With high end video you are almost always using some level of neutral density filter in front of the lens to keep at a wider f stop for that motion picture feel, we shoot a lot at f1.4 on video that's why the focus racking is such a skill to stay sharp with a moving subject at F1.4 that let's the foreground and background fall off. The problem with most stock footage that is shot on lower end systems is everything stays in focus not much control of depth of field, although there are some new inventions that are changing that problem for middle range video as well ( $10,000 dollar cameras can now offer a much shorter depth than they used to be able to due to new products available ). Besides the Red One as any high end motion camera loves lots of light not low light at all. Although it will handle low light, the more the better. Then controlled with neutral density. The higher up the histogram we can keep it the better the color range and detail then re-adjust in post. Just like still raw files they also show more noise in the blacks if you under expose the original as apposed to shooting it brighter then reducing the brightness in your Raw processor in post you get a lower quality finished product.
  I am throwing 3000 watts of daylight onto our sets for video so when and if I shoot with my Mark 3 there is plenty of light. The raw software is very similar to using the raw software in PS just not quite as many sliders. Nothing for chromatic aberration yet so you do have to spend a bit more time on lighting for the motion once that is done I can step in and shoot stills with less post production than my sloppy stills lighting approach of old. Can't fix frames if there is something not right in the capture like a logo without doing it to a thousand frames, no retouching for stock to expensive on the back end.
 Yes they are 12+ mg frames each and it does eat memory but it is designed for just that and comes with the storage to handle the workflow. We shot for 10 hours one day last week and it had no trouble ever keeping up. Never had a down time that cost us a shot. The Scarlet I believe will take several SD cards and you can get 320 gig SD cards now so you can shoot for a long time. Remember each clip is only 10-30 seconds in length so to get 50 clips out of a day is not using as much space as you would think.
I hope that helps make things clearer.

Best,
Jonathan