subject: Making Money Shooting Stock Footage [print this page] Your DSLR can become a tool to bag some extra money. You just need to deploy your photography skills to produce high quality footage on selected themes, put the clip on an online footage library and rake in the moolah.
If you have the DSLR to shoot HD video, why not deploy the device to produce video and make some bucks in the stock footage marketplace. That you haven't used your camera earlier professionally doesn't matter. You will learn with experience how to move with the camera and the subject to capture your footage.
You can begin practising with inanimate objects before graduating to 'live' beings. When you think you are skilled enough to shoot the real thing, you need to decide what you want to shoot. This is an important decision as you have to blend your inclinations with the market demand. You already know what you love to do, so that is not a problem. But you need to know what you can sell in the market. For that, you need to spend some quality time on Internet, browsing the websites of the premier stock footage companies gauging what they are selling.
You need not pick for yourselves anything complicated, that requires plenty of skills and resources. Choose something you find comparatively convenient to shoot, is interesting enough to sustain your interest and has the monetary potential. For instance, you could capture an intriguing local cultural event, trying to dole it out later to a documentary maker. Or you could shoot a sports event, edit it to come up with a fine footage and put the clip on a stock footage website.
Demand of high quality sports footage has increased of late. Footage of action-packed sports such as Bungee Jumping, Car Rally, Horse Racing, Rafting, Skiing, Scuba Diving, Speed Skating, Surfing and Rock Climbing are in vogue. If you are interested in extreme sports in particular and have the skills to capture some exhilarating moments, you can reap rewards with your footage. With right angle and camera movement, you can even shoot traditional sports footage in popped up manner.
For maximising your chances of taking your footage, you need to perk up your audio and video editing skills as well along with the shooting acumen. If you are a newbie, taking up a course will help. They will advise you on the basic skills and you can put up more while working.
With your footage ready, you just need to upload it on an online library and play the wait game. Different libraries work in different manner. MrFootage, for instance, allows cameramen to upload their work straight on the website or send DVD's and hard drives to them. They integrate the meta data of clips into their search engine and photographers can edit it on the fly later. Using such libraries as a platforms, photographers can quickly get their footage off the shelf.
Using top-of-the-line technology, the library can be quickly screened, making the selection process efficient and enjoyable. The system works well for the buyers as well as cameramen. The former gets best suited HD footage lounging on their sofa while the latter get the rewards for their efforts.
