Okay, so let me tell you about the first time I really had to figure out what a stock shot was. It wasn’t for some big fancy movie, nah. I was roped into helping out with a promo video for this tiny local community garden project. You know, super grassroots, absolutely zero budget.
I thought, ‘Easy, I’ll just film some plants growing, people smiling.’ Then I actually looked at what they were hoping for. They needed shots of ‘community spirit,’ ‘diverse volunteers working together,’ ‘the beauty of changing seasons in the garden.’ Stuff I just couldn’t realistically shoot in a week with my ancient smartphone, especially since it was the middle of a very grey, very uneventful winter. My filmmaking skills were, let’s just say, not exactly ready for that challenge either.
That’s when I hit the internet, frantically typing things like ‘how to get video clips for free’ or ‘cheap video footage for projects.’ And then I started seeing this term pop up again and again: ‘stock shot’ or ‘stock footage.’ I was scratching my head, like, ‘What in the world is that?’ I’d heard it before, vaguely, but never really got it.
Turns out, it’s basically a library of pre-filmed video clips or even photos that someone else, usually a professional, has already created. And these clips are just sitting there, waiting for people like me to buy a license to use them, or sometimes, if you’re lucky, get them for free. Think of all the generic stuff you often see:
- Someone typing on a laptop (their desk is always suspiciously tidy).
- A firm handshake (the universal symbol for ‘deal done!’).
- A beautiful, sweeping sunset or sunrise (because who has the patience or luck to capture the real thing perfectly?).
- Groups of diverse people smiling and laughing, often while looking at a computer screen or eating a salad.
It’s footage that’s made to be general enough to fit into lots of different projects. That’s the idea, anyway.
So, I dived in, trying to find something for this community garden video. Man, it was a rabbit hole. Some websites wanted what felt like a king’s ransom for a tiny 10-second clip! Others had ‘free’ sections, but a lot of that footage was, well, a bit cheesy. Or it had massive watermarks plastered all over it unless you paid up. I must have spent days, actual days, sifting through endless videos of ‘happy diverse people pointing at non-descript charts’ or ‘yet another time-lapse of city traffic’. It was pretty mind-numbing after a while.
For that community garden video, I eventually managed to find a few usable, cheap-ish clips. I got a decent close-up of hands planting a tiny seedling, and a time-lapse of clouds moving that sort of hinted at ‘changing seasons’ without actually showing snow melting into spring flowers. It wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot. You could definitely tell in some moments that it wasn’t our specific garden or our actual volunteers. But, it filled the gaps. It made the video look a tiny bit more polished than just my wobbly, poorly lit phone footage would have.
And that’s when it really clicked for me. A stock shot is basically a shortcut. It’s a tool for when you don’t have the time, or the budget, or maybe even the high-end equipment or specific skills to go out and get that perfect shot yourself. Sometimes it feels a bit like you’re using something impersonal, almost like cheating. And honestly, some stock footage is so incredibly overused. You see the same ‘thoughtful doctor looking at a clipboard’ or ‘business team giving a thumbs up’ in so many different ads and presentations. That kind of thing drives me a little bit nuts, I won’t lie.
But at the end of the day, those stock shots helped get that little community garden promo video made. It wasn’t going to win any awards, for sure, but it helped them get the word out, and they were happy with it. So, what is a stock shot? From my experience, it’s a practical solution. It’s a fill-in when you’re in a pinch. Sometimes, it’s a genuine lifesaver for small creators, tiny businesses, or community projects running on fumes. It’s not the same as custom-shot, bespoke footage, but often, it’s good enough to get the job done. And knowing they exist, and how to wade through them, has definitely changed how I approach making any kind of visual content now. I’m always spotting them in ads and videos – it’s like a little game I play.
