Well spoken, Noedelhap.

Plainly most people get it. If everyone who reads this thread sends an email or signs the petition and gets friends/peers to sign, then that is a significant number of people pledging to stop uploading or even delete their portfolio. Whether or not Videoblocks actually changes their policy, the point is they'll be made aware that cutting commissions means they will lose contributors, content and their good name. NOT responding to a massive, insulting commission cut sends the message to ALL stock companies that they can cut commissions as much as they want and we won't say a word (which is the more accurate definition of a sissy). By action or inaction, we inevitably MUST send one of those two messages. Seems a simple choice.

The petition link again: https://www.change.org/p/tj-leonard-videoblocks-don-t-cut-people-s-pay-in-half

I'm blown away by everyones response.  $25 isn't enough for an HD sale?  $100 for 4k?  That's way better than all these under $20 4k sales I've had flooding in recently.  People complain about how bad their business model was before, and then complain about it when they make a change... and now a petition?  That's crazy!  It's not like they dropped it to 5%.  It's still 50%!  That's good in this game.  They should have some money to spend on marketing now, which usually creates more sales.  But good ahead and write them off if you want.

Tyson, you don't seem to see the big picture. They're driving down market prices while also massively cutting our commissions, which is bad enough in itself but gets worse if/when it encourages other companies to do the same. We are the suppliers in an industry. When our profit is squeezed - especially in dramatic cases like this - if we do not respond as suppliers in any other industry would, then that is economic suicide. We've seen this play out with stock photography, and plenty of people here, myself included, will do all we can to not have that process repeat in stock footage.

SpaceStockFootage: why would you think there has to be a murder in order to  use words like "betrayal," "back-stabbing," "crap" excuses, etc.? It's a betrayal for a company to market themselves as especially contributor-friendly and then make a massive 50% cut in commissions. And it is crap to paste it over with hollow excuses. Do you really think they're going to increase sales enough to make up that 50%? Do you think even they believe that? Of course not, it's a false hope meant to pacify us. So what do you do when a business partner takes 50% of your money and then gives a BS reason about why he took it?

Let's address the obvious problem. The businesses are strong and centralized, we as individual suppliers are weak and widely dispersed. They're always looking to increase profit and undercut the competition, and to do that they'll always have an eye toward paying their suppliers less. Every single time they make a move in that direction, we owe it to ourselves as business people to take a stand and say no. By not uploading, by deleting portfolios, and especially by then telling the companies that you're taking those actions, we let them know that there are economic consequences to squeezing us. The more unified we are in that, the more powerful the response, then the more economically defended we are in the long term. So please don't shrug this event off. Don't take a "it's not so bad" attitude or a defeatist attitude. Simply take one single minute to sign the petition and share it with your friends. And if you have other ideas to protect our interests, please share them.

Here is the petition, please sign and share with friends!

https://www.change.org/p/tj-leonard-videoblocks-don-t-cut-people-s-pay-in-half

Quote from: KevinM on July 17, 2018, 09:10

Is anyone able to track down the email for CEO TJ Leonard? I had no luck through Google, hoping someone here has some web sleuthing skills.

email may be:

[email protected]

from page 8 of this publicly available PDF (page 5 on the document):
http://arlington.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?meta_id=164618

Great find!! Thank you!

Quote from: KevinM on July 16, 2018, 10:41

I think it's dangerous to all of us to let this go unchallenged. This is a massive commission cut. It's also the breaking of a commitment they made to contributors. To allow them to do that to us with no response except indifference and acceptance is not only bad in the short term, it's terrible for the long term. It means they will cut commissions again in the future. And of course other stock companies are watching - if they see that they can massively reduce commissions without any consequences, they may very well follow suit. It doesn't matter if you only have a few or no sales a month there, this is a big move and extremely damaging for us as the suppliers in this industry.

I'd like to hear if others feel the same. There are options we can explore, such as a collaborative response to Storyblocks and their CEO. They're particularly vulnerable to us shutting down our portfolios in protest because for most people they're such a low earner anyway. I think this is a needed time for us to make a stand for the sake of our long-term health and power in the industry.

Agreed completely, how do we go about it. Set up something on change.org, send the CEO some crazy mails, picket . out of them

Glad to see people agreeing that cutting commissions from 100% to 50% is intolerable and a betrayal of Storyblocks' commitment to the contributors it depends on for its existence. Several people saying they will stop uploading to Storyblocks, while some people suggesting that cutting commissions to 75% would be acceptable.

I second the idea of starting an online petition via change.org. Petition would state our grievances and say that signers are pledging to stop uploading content to Storyblocks unless Storyblocks maintains a commission of at least 75% AND makes up the lost 25% in commissions via higher sales.

What do people think of this approach and the terms?

I don't believe at all that cutting our commissions by 50% will be recouped by "driving sales growth" as TJ wrote his email, but if that's the plan then they should be held accountable by us not uploading new content until they've made up the lost 25% in commissions via higher sales. The commission reduction is a stab in the back to contributors who joined because of the good commission structure, and we as the content creators in this industry are long overdue to have some organized response to CEOs who think they can squeeze our paychecks without any consequence.

I opted out. I clicked the link to read more about the program - https://limited-licensing-program.pond5.com/

It's clear from what it says there that the clips will be sold at a lower rate (so lower commission), and I echo the concerns of others that this could be abused by buyers re-using our content or buying there to avoid paying full price. Sounds like a risky program, and there's not much gain. Opt out instructions are on that page:

Can I opt out?
Yes. All of Pond5�s incremental revenue programs are fully optional. You can opt out of the program on your Preferences Page by un-checking the Limited Licensing Program checkbox.

Go to Account, then Preferences. Limited License Program is now listed there.

I appreciate the kind offer, SpaceStockFootage, thank you! I do have After Effects 6, so I could key using that. I've uploaded a snippet to Dropbox and will PM you the link.

How do folks here process their green screen video footage for stock clips?

I recently shot some green screen clips on a pretty clean, even green screen. Now editing in FCP X to create stock clips, and can't decide if I should leave the shots "as is" or if I should key them to remove subtle variations in the background on full body shots, and then add a new green background. Either way, the buyer will have to key the footage. If I do a key while processing and add back a green background, it makes for a uniform background that I think adds a subtle appeal for buyers. The downside though is that I'm simply using the "Keyer" effect in FCP X and I don't know if this will make it harder for buyers when they key it a second time themselves. Maybe it's best I leave the footage "as is" and let buyers key it for the very first time when they purchase?

I'm not great at keying footage myself, so not sure of what process will ultimately be best for buyers. Appreciate hearing from people with experience in this!

It's legalese for "our customers don't have to give you attribution when they use your video".

Nothing to see here, move right along...

Exactly. Without that clause, we would have the right to demand that anyone who uses our clips must attribute us and may not alter the clip in any way. In other words, our clips would be unusable.

I shoot all my stock stuff in 4K. Even though 4K sales are rare, it's future proofing and also allows cropping in editing for a 1080 image.

5DM4 fails for me in that the 4K is only 30P max. Me and my 5DM3 will wait another 3-4 years for Canon to quit screwing around and make an affordable 4K/60P DSLR. Love the Canon look, but until that day I'll have to lug around my Sony FS7.

I too have seen low sales prices from DP, as well as many "returns" due to customer fraud that wiped out the sales. So I stopped uploading to them. No time to fight a bad system, I just move on.

I publicly shamed Craig by posting a comment on one of his blogs a few months ago, which resulted in me finally getting paid the $200 he owed me. I had 1 or 2 sales since then, so he owed me $20 or $40. What a piece of crap person he is for taking in money over the last couple years and not paying contributors. I'm not going to start a class action lawsuit over $20 but I'd certainly join one.