When you’re just starting out with editing and video production, the amount of information related to codecs, frame rates, formats, and bitrate can be overwhelming. There are endless tutorials offering guidance on how to best export your project, but this recent video from David Kong illum

Last week, Austin, Texas was taken over yet again by the annual SXSW festival — the convergence of tech, music, and film that leaves people talking for months after. While the interactive and music portions of the event each only run for half of its duration, film is a presence throughout. This

More than 150 feature films screened at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival, among them dozens of documentaries spotlighting people and places from around the world and throughout recent history. While it was impossible to see them all, these seven especially piqued our interest, and are all guaranteed

With its slow-burn approach and old-school atmospherics, writer/director Jennifer Kent’s critically lauded debut film The Babadook is a prime example of throwback horror put into a modern context to ultimately scare the life out of audiences. It follows a single mother named Amelia (Essie

Finn O’Hara is an established photographer who, despite the self-doubt and hesitation that often lingers in a creative mind, made a big leap into film directing. In fact, it was his photography work that first propelled him to tell stories in broader dimensions. Whether still or live-actio

Over the course of the last week, the Internet experienced a beautiful, bizarre, and atypical viral hit. “Too Many Cooks” can best be described as an 11-minute looped intro to a fake TV family sitcom — which sounds relatively harmless, except for the twisted, multi-genre (and decade)

Last week, Shutterstock shared a lightweight, in-browser video editor called Sequence. What we didn’t share was the process of bringing Sequence from a concept to a live product. We originally created Sequence for a company hackathon, one of those stay-up-all-night events where you can wo

Welsh musician Gruff Rhys has been the creative force behind numerous projects over the past two decades. Originally rising to attention as the frontman of much-loved psychedelic indie-rock band Super Furry Animals, Rhys has gone on to release a series of solo albums, collaborate with acts inclu

It’s been a great year for jazz drums in the movies thanks to two fantastic (and most likely Oscar-bound) films: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash. Birdman is home to a wonderful, all-jazz drum score by Antonio Sanchez, w

No one can really predict the future, but there’s been a lot of debate lately about 4K video. Everyone’s wondering where it’s going, what’s next, and whether or not it will actually take off. With that in mind, we decided to dive in and look at some of the platforms and programs that are p

With Thanksgiving leftovers finished and twinkling lights on the trees, we find ourselves in the midst of the holiday season. To kick it all off, our team in Germany partnered with talented animation designer Robin Greenwood to create a “Happy Holidays” video made entirely from vecto

On Thursday, December 18, Shutterstock presented “ShutterTalk Live: How to Monetize your Footage,” a live-streaming video workshop. Following the event, the full presentation is now available to watch below. ShutterTalk Live is a free series that offers tips on how to maximize your

There are few things more important to film directors than visual style. While story and performance are always given the utmost attention, the look and feel of a film can be just as influential. Visual style gives directors a unique voice that can make their work recognizable without a word bei

Hundreds of movies are released every year, making it difficult for the average movie watcher to navigate what’s worth seeing. For this reason, “Top Movies of the Year” lists are extremely useful. Most, however, are just walls of text. That’s why the video movie countdown from

Big news from Shutterstock HQ. Last May we launched Shutterstock Music, and today we’re announcing the acquisition of PremiumBeat, a royalty-free music service with over 15,000 curated tracks from leading composers around the world. Based in Montreal, PremiumBeat provides exclusive, high-quality

It’s one thing to know a cinematic work for the storytelling, visuals, and onscreen dynamics, but what about the musical component? It’s a rare and beautiful thing to happen upon a composer who creates entire scores that stand out in our minds, even before the film itself. John Willi

Did you know that many of our footage customers are from the television and motion-picture industries? When it comes to shooting footage for these markets, there’s a great opportunity to fill their needs by producing establishing shots. So, what exactly is an establishing shot? The purpose

The music of Nick Cave has been described as having a dark, mysterious, and gothic quality, but in 20,000 Days On Earth, the veil is lifted on the artist’s process, via a partly fictionalized version of a day in the cult rocker’s life. A stylized 24-hour chronicle, the film by direct

If you’re editing video, when you start looking for music to add to a project, you shouldn’t have to worry that the perfect song is too long or too short for your clip. Finding a song that fits the pacing, mood, and style of your video is difficult enough, so making that perfect trac

Last week, mainstream America — and David Letterman — was introduced to one of Japan’s most intriguing phenomenons, the virtual star known as Hatsune Miku. Making a holographic appearance as the musical guest on the Late Night host’s show, Miku was joined by a live band to perform a