ChrisSD Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 I have picked myself up off the floor long enough to ask this group, when i see they want me to contribute 250 clips minimum to be considered for the video category, have I read that right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDoug Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 It's a hefty ante. I've just started collecting clips for my initial submission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisSD Posted June 16, 2016 Author Share Posted June 16, 2016 Ok - so it isn't a typo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 That is absolutely correct and, just to ice the cake, they want you to submit them all at once on hard disk. Alamy launched into the world of video several years ago, testing the waters by working with established video producers. There has been little since to suggest that they have had any significant success in the video market and they have themselves suggested that this project is now on the back-burner. It is a pity they have not grasped fully the opportunity afforded by the video market, especially since talented videographers at some well established microstock agencies are desperately seeking an outlet which they can trust and which will offer them a reasonable commission and good prices for their work. hey ho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisSD Posted June 16, 2016 Author Share Posted June 16, 2016 Yes! Ive been reading about the slew of 50% video sites that have -0- traction. I was hoping to be able to do video work here as well as stills. Im just getting started and wending my way through it all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted June 16, 2016 Share Posted June 16, 2016 As far as I can see, Alamy as a video site has hardly any traction at all and I would be surprised if it is worth putting in the effort to gather 250 clips to submit. If they are clips which you already have available on other sites (probably at a lower cost to the buyer), why would someone buy from Alamy? If the clips are exclusive to Alamy, why would you put them here for very few sales?. I would love to be proved wrong and now be inundated with posts from existing Alamy video contributors who are making a good income from their sales here, but I remain sceptical. If I have completely misread the situation I will quickly be processing new material from my own clips collection for submission here, but until I have some real indication that it would not be a fruitless labour, I will have to bend my efforts elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisSD Posted June 17, 2016 Author Share Posted June 17, 2016 Thanks for taking the time to give your insights Joseph! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Or . . . if Alamy are indeed trying to establish a presence in the video market, it will simply never happen if potential contributors all hold back until it happens, if you get my drift . . . dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Or . . . if Alamy are indeed trying to establish a presence in the video market, it will simply never happen if potential contributors all hold back until it happens, if you get my drift . . . dd For it to happen Alamy simply have to create an environment which makes it possible for the many talented image makers they already have to contribute video: online upload and good QC systems being top of the list. Saying 'simply' lays bare the problem as to why it isn't happening, the required investment in resources is significant and Alamy have preferred to take other, less resource intensive, opportunities, Stockimo being the most notable. Videographers would flock to Alamy if the right environment were present, just as still image contributors are doing so even now. I know I sound negative, but I would genuinely love to be able to place my video work with Alamy, but it is impossible as things stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I would enjoy learning how to do it, but 250? Make that 50 and I'll think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisSD Posted June 17, 2016 Author Share Posted June 17, 2016 Exactly - 250 delivered in an archaic fashion says to me they do not want videos. 250 video clips uploaded, is, of course, next to impossible. fortunately ive found video specific sites that allow direct upload, etc. But when possible i like to work with one user name LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I've dabbled with video and quite enjoyed the process, but have nothing like 250 clips at present. I would have thought that, for Live News in particular,, a single clip should be acceptable. As matters stand I have no feeling for what would sell/or be acceptable to Alamy. Are they editing content or just technical quality? Is it the case that a single failure amongst the 250 would bin the entire submission, or will they be picking from the content? Maybe the cost of disc space versus potential revenue is the problem here, videos eat up hard drives - on the scale at which I operate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I enjoy video, I do have 250 clips, have had success with them elsewhere, but have never bothered applying to Alamy. Submitting on hard disk? No way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I also enjoy uploading a few at the same time elsewhere, have done so since 2008, some of the early ones still sell (though preferred containers and codecs may have changed). I now often experiment with containers and codecs as there seem to be a tendency some places to prefer the "out of camera" quality - edited by the contributor as little as possible (especially interesting if AVCHD files and various codecs). Not all agencies accept these files, they have to be on the ball, I think. BUT, the same development is going on as with images. Loads and loads of videos and fewer and fewer sales compared to a couple of years back. New ways of shooting or making video on the computer come and go (drone video f.inst.) - and investments and time to do this perhaps don't pay unless you work with video as a professional and have the gear and sometimes the material at hand. Many professionals also upload their surplus footage perhaps shot for other purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Thought I'd do a calculation to see if uploading 250 video files would be a problem or not. I've just looked through a few personal videos I have, and after rendering in MP4 Full HD format I have one of 1:22 length which is 75MB. So let's say I did 250 videos each 1 minute long, and they were 50MB each. That would be 100,000 Mb (MegaBITS). Uploading that on my 15Mbps FTTP connection would take around 111 minutes, so I'll round it up to 2 hours. Most people won't have such a fast upload speed but more and more people will these days, so I think to have to send a hard disk with data speeds what they are, is out of date. Before I'm "told off" again - These are my own thoughts and I'm sure Alamy have reasons for doing things this way, and of course allowing fast uploads to their servers would cost a bit depending what sort of bandwidth allowance arrangement they have. Geoff. Your size may be an underestimation, Geoff. I typically render as .MOV with PJPEG codec as this is accepted by nearly all agencies and gives a good quality starting point for the customer. A 15 second video rendered in this way may be 200-500Mb. Other codecs are accepted in various agencies but the large file size is still likely to be a feature if the video is not going to suffer from compression artefacts. Video is very resource intensive in both disk space and processing power, so I can understand why Alamy have tiptoed into this field, I just wish they would be bold enough to take the next step and open up the field for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kumar Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I was tempted by the following 'video upload service' link under the "Additional Revenue Tab". Applied promptly with my online sample link, and was accepted. Already have more than a 1000 clips in my clustered-HDDs. But the idea of sending those over on HDDs thwarted me totally. The experience of sending image disks over to London way back around 2005 wasn't very pleasant either. Upon enquiry, I was asked to ignore the 'video upload service' link altogether. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Most video I upload is around 200-400mb, unless I submit something unedited, straight from my camera (5dII) then it is much lower, usually less than 100mb. I don't have a super fast connection, I'm in the former east Germany, super fast connections don't seem to exist here. But it still is not a problem, I just leave uploads running overnight. I recently uploaded about 80 clips to 3 different sites, so equivalent of 240 clips uploaded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 probably more or also because AFAIK Alamy sends you the HD and probably pays for the postage probably both ways I guess.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaZvone Posted June 19, 2016 Share Posted June 19, 2016 I have lot of videos to upload, ftp upload would be great ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christian58 Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Video here at Alamy?? sorry people but that boat sailed years back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Video here at Alamy?? sorry people but that boat sailed years back! I'm not sure that it has sailed, if you mean it in the sense of the video market already being swamped. Certainly there are a lot more people contributing video and microstock agencies are increasingly more choosy about which clips they admit to their collections. However, with the ever growing number of mobile devices and the decline of print (especially newspapers), it seems to me there will be yet more demand for video material. If you add to that the rise of 4k video format, which has very few clips available compared to HD, then there is massive room for growth as past subjects are re-shot to new video standards. The real question for us is still whether Alamy can be persuaded to leap into a fast motor-launch and catch the ship before it sails over the horizon and out of sight, if you will permit me to extend your metaphor. Many people here here have a lot of time for Alamy, despite their shortcomings and downward spiral into microstock prices and practices, and they would like to entrust their investment in video work to an agency they feel they can trust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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