Video Marketing 101: Where to shop for stock footage

Stock footage is a useful tool that will save time, money and resources on your video marketing projects.

However, if you’re searching in the wrong places, it can be really hard to find exactly what you need. With that in mind, Moneypenny’s very own video producer, Jamie Parry-Bruce, has shared a handful of his favourite sites and some insights into what you should be looking for when searching for the right stock footage;

Whether it’s archival, editorial, news or stock footage you’re searching for, Archive.org is one of my top picks. The site collates footage from all around the world, and there are even public domain films and TV shows available. Archive.org also features great text, audio and image libraries, too. One thing to bear in mind is that it’s not always the easiest to navigate, and you’ll need to check things like resolution, format and aspect ratio to ensure that videos are fit for purpose.

Videezy is an awesome source for free stock footage. It’s one of the only sites offering good quality 4K footage for free, just be mindful of the frame rate when choosing 4K footage – there’s a mix of 24 and 30fps, so make sure you choose the right one for your project. Be careful of the teeny tiny ‘PRO’ label on a number of the clip thumbnails too, as you’ll need to buy credits to purchase these (and you’ll more than likely be able to find cheaper footage elsewhere). On the other hand, purchasing one credit for $20 is a good way of supporting the site if you’re feeling generous. Videezy is sponsored by Shutterstock, so if there isn’t any footage matching your search criteria on the site, you’ll also receive results returned from Shutterstock.

Another option for you is Pexels. This minimalist, easy to navigate site presents a broad range of clips from around the world. Though the video quality is not always on par with some of the more well-known paid stock footage sites, it presents a very broad selection of clips (almost exclusively full HD mp4s) with Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licenses and has even embraced vertical video in its offering. This means you’re able to edit or change the clips to suit your project, without the need to provide attribution – just be careful how you represent identifiable people.

While Pond5 may not have any free footage available, its prices aren’t too high and the site has heaps of useful features. For example, the ability to drag and drop an image or piece of footage into the site in order to search for something similar. Pond5 has a huge range of footage, it’s easy to navigate and it even has a Premier Pro add-on and a Final Cut Pro app, meaning less hassle when searching for that perfect clip.

If you have the budget, try Shutterstock. Perhaps the best known stock image and footage library on the internet, Shutterstock is an obvious choice to get fantastic looking footage. Though renowned for their extensive library, their search and recommendation tools are equally noteworthy – you even have the ability to view similar looking shots, which is a major help when it comes to match-cuts or continuing a theme. You’ll also find an incredibly easy to use ‘Collections’ feature for collating potential purchases into user-created folders without leaving the site. All of these highlights mean that Shutterstock is often the first choice when searching for stock footage – even if it’s just to get a feel for the kind of shots you need before you look for freebies elsewhere!