Stock video, also known as stock footage or b-roll is a piece of video content, a clip or shot that is inserted in larger video production and was not shot specifically for said production. The stock videos can be outtakes from other projects or shots from other projects that have archived. Lately, productions have been creating shots for the sole purpose of selling the rights to the footage for other creators to use in other productions. Videographers tend to shoot these clips when filming with a more generic perspective so that the shots could fit in a wide range of concepts and styles. The licenses are then offered to use in larger projects.
There are many websites that offer stock footage to others for free, only asking for credit. Five credible and free websites that offer stock footage are: pexels, videvo, shutterstock, pixabay, and storyblocks.
It is important to acknowledge that a lot of stock footage have licenses involved, this is where Creative Common (CC) licenses come in. Basically, Creative Commons (CC) licenses are public licenses. You can use them to indicate what others are allowed to do with your work that you have created whether it is film footage, audios, design work, artwork, etc. Each work created is automatically protected by copyright and the laws surrounding it, which means that others that want to use your work will need to ask permission from you as you are the copyright owner. CC licenses let you easily change your copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” Overall, they are legal tools that give permission in advance to others to share and use your work on the conditions of your choice.
There are six different Creative Commons licenses: CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC-SA, CC BY-NC-ND. The letter pairs indicate the conditions for use of others. CC BY is the most open license as it allows the user of the works to redistribute, to create derivatives, such as a translation, and even use the publication for commercial activities, provided that appropriate credit is given to the author (BY) and that the user indicates whether the publication has been changed. CC BY-SA is also an open license. The letters SA (share alike) indicate that the adjusted work should be shared under the same reuse rights, so with the same CC license. NC (non-commercial use) and ND (no derivative works) are conditions that make the CC licenses more restrictive and thus less open.
Featured Photo by Daniel Leżuch on Unsplash
Emily Ramirez 