Try these ten expert tips for capturing stock travel footage, and invoke a bit of wanderlust in your potential customers.
Whether it’s your side hustle or full time career, creating stock travel footage is an incredible way for a well-traveled creative to earn money from anywhere in the world. Shutterstock customers use stock travel footage to tell stories and to share inspiration from every corner of the globe.
Screen grab from footage by R.M Nunes in Rio de Janiero, Brazil
For photographers and filmmakers who travel, creating stock travel footage gives artists the opportunity to earn money doing what they love. When you travel, you get to express unique and awe-inspiring destinations that most brands and customers will never get to experience. By taking videos of those stunning destinations around the globe, you bring that destination into a global viewer’s perspective through powerful, emotive footage clips.
Screen grab from footage by Kertu in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E
In the following article, we’re sharing a few tips on how you can start creating stock travel footage. If you’re a filmmaker with a hard drive full of unused footage, contributing footage to stock can be the perfect solution to use the incredible art you’ve created. If you’re a travel photographer or blogger, creating stock travel footage should be another avenue of your business to explore and develop.
10 Tips on Creating Stock Travel Footage
Tip #1: Create high-quality stock footage
Stock is no longer just a marketplace for unused footage. Businesses around the world use stock to tell stories, and they are looking for high-quality and creative stock footage to do that. Creating high-quality footage not only puts your work above the competition, but it also allows you to earn more money. If you can provide stock in 4K, you earn more money than selling HD clips on Shutterstock. Invest in a camera with the capability to produce high-quality work, and maximize your earnings in stock.
Screen grab from footage by Andrei Porzhezhinskii
Tip #2: Capture the in-between moments of travel
While we all love the stunning vistas and drone footage of incredible destinations, the in-between moments are just as important. Let’s say for example you have the opportunity to visit a market in Mexico City. Capture the details of tacos being put together, a basket of raw corn, or a woman weaving a piece of art. While the overall shots of the market in general are great, these in-between moments allow businesses and customers to piece together a story. In addition, these in-between moments are often location-less and will allow a more diverse set of customers to use and purchase your work.
Screen grab from footage by steve bushman
Tip #3: Film people who are comfortable in front of the camera
While in stock images, you can use friends or family relatively easily. But, film takes a lot more acting. Using professional actors or models when filming is crucial to telling an authentic story. Find someone that you can film for a wide variety of shots and maximize your time with them. Working with people is one of the best ways to create stock that sells. Remember to always bring model releases as footage will not be accepted on Shutterstock without a model release for recognizable people.
Screen grab from footage by Aila Images
Tip #4: Avoid branding and restricted areas
While filming in busy cities like New York is great, it’s also extremely hard to avoid branding and restricted areas where filming is not allowed. Consult Shutterstock’s list of Known Image Restrictions before you start shooting to ensure the destination and place your shooting is allowed to be used for stock. Use a shallow aperture to blur the background in busy locations where you may capture other people or commercially-restricted logos in the background.
Screen grab from footage by Sean Pavone in Fujiyoshida, Japan
Stock travel footage sells best when a wide variety of customers can use that footage. Avoid anything that’s specific to a certain date or time, such as halloween decorations, to maximize the potential for you to earn money consistently from that footage.
Tip #5: Shooting with drones and 360 cameras
This kind of footage is extremely popular on Shutterstock. Drones and 360 cameras allow for beautiful, unique shots that are unexpected in stock travel footage. There’s some really incredible cameras that are entering the marketplace for this kind of footage. Be creative, and create footage that inspires from up above and all around.
Screen grab from footage by SKY 2017
When using drones, remember to make sure you know where you’re allowed to shoot and what kind of permission you need. These aren’t toys, and they should be handled professionally whenever they are brought on shoot.
Using 360 cameras for footage is extremely popular for wide shots such as nature and landscape. This method of filming is still relatively knew, and we want to see what creative stock travel footage you create using these cameras.
Tip #6: Submit new work consistently
While you may go on an epic trip and get really excited to upload a ton of footage, consider spreading out the love over a few weeks. Uploading consistently is a great way to stay relevant in stock. When uploading new stock travel footage, your clip will appear in the “Fresh Content” tab which shows the latest content uploaded to Shutterstock. By submitting new work constantly, you have a higher likelihood of being at the top of that list.
Screen grab from footage by Aila Images
Create and curate a wide variety of videos that you want to upload to stock, and create a schedule to upload them. Uploading a few clips a day is a fantastic way to build and curate a portfolio of your work that will inspire customers and keep them coming back to your work.
Tip #7: Check out the Shot List for ideas on what to shoot
If you’re going to a new destination to create stock travel footage, consult the Shot List before you go to see what customers are searching for. The Shot List is a fantastic resource on what customers searched for in that month a year prior. There may be something listed on the Shot List to shoot that you normally might not have access to, but can maybe plan a trip or stock shoot around.
Screen grab from footage by KeyStock in Iceland
Tip #8: Upload the content you create for Instagram to stock
Instagram is an incredible resource for travel inspiration, and the stock footage you may showcase on your feed or stories absolutely has a place on Shutterstock. Showcase the work you create on social media, and then upload it to Shutterstock. You can even include a link in your bio or story to allow your audience to start buying your work. Continue to showcase the new work that you have available for purchase on your own social media to maximize the opportunities for potential customers to find and buy your work.
Screen grab from footage by Gonchar Evgeny
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Tip #9: Conceptualize ideas for stories in small clips
Every footage clip that you create and upload should convey a specific story. Think about what that footage expresses, and how it can be used by customers. A good stock video shot consists of a beginning, middle, and end in ten-second clips or more. When you create a story within a small clip, you give customers the best opportunity to make cuts and use your clip for a variety of marketing uses.
Screen grab from footage by Supamotion
For example, let’s say you’re filming someone going grocery shopping at a market. In your portfolio, you should have clips that have the model simply getting a cart, then another one of them in the aisles, and maybe one closeup afterwards. Some closeups of the model touching fruit or grabbing milk are awesome options for customers to take and cut a story out of.
Tip #10: Don’t forget to shoot in slow motion
Almost every professional video camera will have an option to be able to shoot in slow motion. Slow motion is excellent for stock travel footage. Not only does it slow a scene down, it’s also a bit more stable for the run-and-gun filming styles that often happen when traveling. Slow motion shots are often romantic and emotional and are great for customers to use to tell stories that inspire their customers.
Screen grab from footage by SkyMediaPro in Cappadocia, Turkey
Featured Image by Aoshi VN
Need more inspiration on shooting stock travel footage? Check out these articles:
- Budget Videography Tips for Creating Stock Footage
- 7 Pro Photographers on Shooting Inspirational Travel Footage
- Making Shutterstock Select: Premium Footage Shot by Industry Pros
- Why You Should Start Shooting Stock Footage Right Now
- Drones vs. Helicopters: Which is Better for Professional Aerial Footage?