Articles

This 3:46 video shows you where to get FREE Royalty Free Video Clips.

In order to edit together a compelling video, you need to have quality video clips to use.  Shooting them yourself is not always an option due to budget, time and travel constraints.  In those cases, Royalty Free video clips are the answer.

WHAT ARE ROYALTY FREE VIDEO CLIPS?

Royalty Free video clips are shots that you pay a one-time fee for in exchange for the right to use them in your projects.  Most royalty free video clips come with a limited license, you do not OWN the clips but you can use them in certain ways.  Contracts differ (so ALWAYS read them) but generally speaking, Royalty Free licensing lets you use the clips in any project that you do not then turn around and sell as a royalty free video for others to download and use.  In other words, I can not take royalty free shots, repackage them superficially, then sell it as my own product.  What the R.F. video companies are trying to avoid is someone using their own clips in a competitive way against them. Other than that, you can use the clips in any type of project.  Videos  you give away, and videos you sell.

Using Royalty Free video clips is usually much less expensive than shooting them yourself and it is certainly faster.  If I need a shot of an Egyptian pyramid, you can rest assured that paying $75 or $100 for a royalty free shot is faster and cheaper than me humping it over to Egypt with a video camera!  (Although no doubt the trip would be fun and I am sort of bummed that I can not go!)

Having said that, paying $75 or $100 bucks for every single shot of a 5 minute video is going to get expensive.  (If a shot lasts 10 seconds, you’d need thirty shots to fill five minutes.  30 x 75 = $2,250.)

Since I edit a lot, I am constantly on the look-out for quality royalty free video clips.  I have amassed a huge library of R.F. clips because I simply never know when I am going to need that pyramid shot.

I discovered an awesome resource the other day for FREE Royalty Free video clips that I wanted to pass on.   What is better than free? Free AND high quality with lots to choose from.

The clips at Bottled Video.com are professionally shot AND completely free.  As of this writing, they have a total of 10,604 clips to choose  from.  Not only are all the clips free, but you do not even have to sign up for an account.  There are no upsells and no obligations.  They do not even have your name and email address so they could not upsell you even if they wanted! 

HOW DID SUCH A GOOD DEAL COME ABOUT?

My first question was: “How can they do this?”  Being the cynical sort, I figured there had to be a catch somewhere.  So I asked David Schmerin, the owner to explain.  Turns out, he has been in the video business selling Royalty Free clips for a very long time.  He has been so successful at it that he now is in the enviable position of being able to turn his business into philanthropy.  Below, I have pasted his exact response to my email inquiry.

INTERVIEW WITH DAVID SCHMERIN, OWNER OF BOTTLED VIDEO.COM

Just about 20 years ago I started a web site called Wrightwood.com which is the oldest royalty free stock footage site on the internet. While
Wrightwood.com is still up and running, over the years we expanded into a site called GotFootage.com where instead of licensing royalty free stock footage collections we created the first site to allow individuals to license and download individual clips. From there we expanded to GotFootageHD.com which is the same as GotFootage.com but licenses only HD materials.

Here I am now some twenty years later… One day something happened to me. I received a call from a student looking for a deal on one clip because they just didn’t have any money and I sort of just snapped. Suddenly it seemed like every person over 20 years I had to say I could not help if they didn’t have any money was weighing in on my shoulders. I turned to my wife and partner and said that I have a lot of Karma to make up for. Since money was no longer an issue in my life, BottledVideo.com was born.

Right now we currently have just over 10,500 clips on BottledVideo. Every clip on BottledVideo is from our private library and more clips will be added from our pay sites to the free site every week until all 100k clips in my library are available for free.

So the short answer is no I do not make any money from BottledVideo.com nor is making money the goal of the site. The goal of the site is to give back to the next generation for everything those who came before have done for me, my family, and my life.

THANKS DAVID!

I personally applaud David and his team for being so generous.  They do not have to do this but I am glad they did.  I spent all afternoon yesterday downloading clips.  I like the fact that these clips are REAL, not staged.  Staged shots look staged and sometimes that is perfectly OK, but I am a reality lover so I prefer unstaged.   They have real doctors performing real surgeries.  Real soldiers.  Real cops.  Real chefs.  The list is very long and David promises it is destined to get even longer.

So head on over to Bottled Video.com and start downloading!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Related posts:

  1. Royalty Free Video Clips: Awesome Resource
  2. FREE Royalty Free Music Collection
  3. Royalty Free Stock Video Footage
  4. Awesome Royalty Free Computer Animations
  5. Video Production: Using Royalty Free Music
professional wedding video kildare straining the limits of your wedding budget? Are you worried about the results you?ll get if you use a friend or relative?or a cheap wedding videographer? Your wedding is the event of a lifetime. Families come together to witness the public expression of your love and commitment amidst the beauty and pageantry of your carefully planned ceremony. And you know that planning this ?event of a lifetime? is no small task. You only get one chance to get it right and you?ve spent months going over every tiny detail. You?ve struggled with the guest list; trying to book just the right date; ordering wedding invitations; selecting your bridesmaids and groomsmen?and the list goes on and on. Just choosing a wedding dress was a monumental task, but it was worth it because you?ve found a gown that surpasses all your dreams. The stress can be overwhelming but you don?t mind because you want your big day to be perfect! But making all these arrangements is very expensive. And if you?re on a budget, like many couples today are, you may find yourself coming up short for some things you were counting on having?such as a professional wedding video. With professional wedding video services costing anywhere from ?1500 ? ?2500+, some couples are just throwing up their hands and saying ?forget it? and resigning themselves to being happy with what friends or relatives shoot with their personal video cameras. Well, we?re here to tell you that you don?t have to say ?forget it.? You can have that professional wedding video, stay within your budget and maybe even have money left over to put toward things that will get your new life together off to a good start?like your honeymoon, or your new home. With just a little planning and some very important, but easy to use insider tips and resources, you can do it yourself and have a wedding video that looks as professional as the professionals?, at about 1/3 ? 1/2 the cost. So bookmark this page because Wedding Video Secrets is going to provide you with all the information you need to produce your own professional-looking wedding video. Advertising , Marketing and Promotion video production Dublin While advertisers are becoming more selective in how they chose to spend their promotional dollars with broadcast television, other venues for commercials such as online video pre-roll, online sponsorships, in-game advertising, event sponsorships and in-theatre advertising are starting to take the place of broadcast / cable commercials. A proliferation of video screens cropping up on every building, device and structure will create an even more diverse set of advertising opportunities. The challenge will be to create specialized content targeted to ever- shrinking niche audiences. Viral Video for website Dublin A video is viral if it is so compelling that people want to share it. (Calling a video Viral doesnt make it so). Viral videos have to be extremely engaging, entertaining, shocking or meaningful to be successful. Unfortunately some of the most successful viral videos have little connection (and therefore value) to any brand. Everyone references Will it Blend but very few viral videos are remotely this successful in actually driving sales. Viral video is very difficult to do well. Email Video Testing has shown that open rates can double if you include video in your email marketing activities. To be effective the video should be purpose-built to elicit a specific conversion activity such as requesting a demo, more info, etc. E-mail is seeing a resurgence with marketers and embedded video in emails (like gmail supports) or links to video in email is becoming very popular. Infomercials Infomercials have been around forever. While they continue to be the primary focus of web-based parody videos they have remained remarkably resilient over time. The shopping channel is, in effect, a 24 hour infomercial. If done well, Infomercials can be very effective at selling certain consumer products. Content Marketing video in Dublin This is a broad category that will become very important over the next months and years. Much of the content (video or otherwise) being created today by companies is focused on selling and focused on the brand. Focusing on solving your customers problems first and then associating your brand with those solutions will be increasingly more important and effective. What knowledge do you have that can help your customers and prospects. People dont go to your website to see your sales pitch. They go to see if you can solve their problem. Landing pages and micro sites Video is beginning to replace or supplement text and graphics as a content element on many corporate websites. Landing pages can offer a more compelling call to action with video. Some micro sites on larger web properties are self contained, purpose-built conversion machines that have the singular purpose of generating a conversion activity (sign-up for more info, attend event, order something etc.). Video is becoming an important part of the conversion process.
Useful Links:
innelinkiLinks