- If you're a video creator,
stock footage can be an absolute lifesaver,
but you do need to know a little bit about how
and when to use it and most importantly
how to integrate it seamlessly into your project.
If used seamlessly and effectively,
it can improve your storytelling prowess by 10 times.
But if you just drag it and drop it
without much thought into your projects,
it's probably gonna stick out like a sore thumb.
So in this video, we'll take you through five tips
that will help you seamlessly integrate stock footage
into your video projects and make it seem
like that stock footage is actually your footage.
I'm Teresa with InVideo let's go ahead and jump in.
(logo whooshing)
So before we get into the tips,
let's first talk about the most common scenarios
where stock footage is gonna come in handy.
The first and most obvious scenario
is when you want to show something
that you just weren't able to film yourself
like an underwater shot.
If you don't have access to a waterproof camera case,
a drone shot, if you don't have access
to a drone or a fog covered mountain,
if you don't have access to a fog covered mountain.
For example, I went out and took some b-roll shots
of Chicago, but let's say
I just really wanted to add a drone shot to the sequence.
I really felt like it would hold the whole thing together.
I don't personally have access to a drone.
So in this case, I would turn it to stock footage.
Another time you might need stock footage is this.
You go out, you're filming, you're feeling great.
You're feeling like you're getting everything you need
and more you get back home,
you upload your footage and you realize
you forgot a few shots that you really need.
Now, this happens to me more often than I care to admit,
or it might not even be that you forgot,
but it might just be that you get to editing
and you think of more ideas
for shots that you really wish you got,
and you might not be able to go back out and shoot.
So, stock footage.
So I'm creating this lovely little autumn montage.
I go out and shoot all the leaves and all the colors
it's looking great.
And then when I'm editing, I might be like,
uh, if only I had one shot of a leaf,
actually falling off of a tree, that would be so cool.
Why didn't I think of that when I was out shooting,
this is where stock footage comes in handy.
The third scenario is when you want to switch to b-roll,
and maybe you're not able to film your own b-roll
or you're not able to film the specific b-roll
that you need.
For instance, in this video,
I was talking about the different types of cuts
used in different types of videos.
I was talking specifically about music videos
in this one section of the video.
So I wanted a shot of a piano,
which I do not have a piano.
So instead I used a stock clip,
another example for a business.
If a car dealership wanted to promote family-friendly cars,
they can use these dynamic stock clips
to bring some visuals in
that will really help sell the product.
It helps tell a little bit more of a story
and just to give some visuals to the video,
even if for whatever reason they weren't able
to go out and shoot with an actual family.
You might also need b-roll at to cover up jump cuts.
If you've ever edited an interview
or a talking video of any kind,
you've probably run into the jump cut problem.
It's that really abrupt transition
that looks like the subject jumped
from one spot in the frame to a slightly different spot.
It can be really distracting.
You, you probably know what I'm talking about.
So you can hide that by throwing in some b-roll
and for b-roll, you can use stock footage.
In this example, I was talking about cameras and filming.
So I took a stock clip of a camera, patched up the video,
and it's good as new.
And then one more b-roll scenario
where you might need to find some stock footage
is if you need a transition.
So let's say you filmed the blog
and you started your day at a cafe.
And then you ended your day on the top of a mountain,
people do that, right?
As you were out filming you might've gotten
some footage at the cafe
and then gotten some footage at the top of the mountain.
You might not have been thinking
about filming the hiking in between,
but when you're editing your blog,
that's gonna be a pretty drastic change
to go straight from a cafe to a mountain top.
So in this case, you can go and find some stock footage
of hiking that looks similar enough
to the place where you actually were hiking.
And then you can throw that in between,
and it'll add a nice transition sequence.
And here's the best part,
if you're already an InVideo user,
we've made it easier than ever to find stock footage,
because there is a library right within
the editor of over 8 million
high quality stock footage clips.
So hop over to the video tab on the left,
and that is where you will be able
to search for the stock footage you need.
You can find stock footage for any of the scenarios
that we just mentioned.
And then you can just add it right into your project.
It's all in the same interface so it's super easy.
And just in case, you're looking for even more sources
for free stock footage,
you can go ahead and check out this video
where we talk about the top websites
to find free stock footage in 2021.
All right, now that we've gone over the scenarios,
let's go ahead and go over the tips
to seamlessly integrate your stock footage.
Number one, take time to find the right clip.
There is currently a lot of stock footage available
on the internet so for any given clip that you need,
you're gonna have a lot of options available.
Sometimes you might find a stock clip
that looks really high quality, and you really like it.
But then when you line it up with the footage that you took,
it just doesn't quite match.
So you really want to take the time
to try out a few different clips
to see what works best
instead of just jumping onto the first clip you find
that you like.
There might be small nuances between your videos
and the stock videos like exposure levels
or contrast levels, saturation colors
and they might just not quite match up.
And you're not gonna notice that
until you have them lined up together
and test out what the whole sequence looks like really
with your footage and the stock footage.
So let's go back to my Chicago b-roll sequence example,
as you can see, I shot my footage closer to the evening.
You can kind of tell by the colors and the exposure levels.
So I'm gonna try out a few different drone shots.
There's a lot available,
so let's see this one looks a little bit warmer
than my footage.
This one was clearly shot in the middle of the day,
so it doesn't quite match.
And then after trying a few more
I think this one matches the best.
So that's the one I'm gonna go with.
Another example, let's say
you shot this footage of a waterfall.
You took all of these amazing aesthetic shots
of the waterfall, but as you're editing,
you're like, uh, I really want that one close-up shot
of a waterfall and that's the one shot I didn't get.
No sweat, just head over it to the video tab
on InVideo search waterfall and see what you can find.
You can try narrowing it down
and searching close-up waterfall.
You're probably gonna get a wide variety of shots
that could work.
So again, test out a few different ones,
see which one looks the most like your location.
You can look at things like the color of the rocks
that are around the waterfall
or the color of the water itself.
We're really just looking for the greatest
amount of continuity.
And after some trial and error,
you should be able to find a clip
that's gonna save the day for you.
The next tip is to try to match the location
as much as possible.
And of course, it's gonna be tough,
you're probably not gonna find footage
that was shot at the actual same location,
unless you were shooting at like a really famous landmark
or something like that.
But usually you're just gonna try to match the aesthetic
as much as you can.
There's also some things you can do in editing
to make them match better.
So we'll get to that next,
but for now, you're just gonna try
to find the clips that match the best
without any editing.
First keywords are important be specific in your keywords.
So if you shot in a snowy field,
make sure you're searching for a field in the winter
instead of just a field.
If you were hiking on a red rock mountain,
put that in the keywords.
And then the next thing you can do is search
for a really closeup shots or really wide shots.
When it comes to closeup shots,
if you shot in the forest, for example,
and you use a few really close up shots of some leaves
or the bark on the trees,
there's really just not going to be enough context
for the audience to be able to tell
that it's a different location.
And as you can see these shots are also great
for visual intrigue.
I mean, who doesn't love a good macro shot, right?
And then on the flip side,
if you have a super wide shot
for this example, maybe a drone shot
of the top of the forest,
you can't see enough specific details to give context.
So the audience has no reason to think
that this is a different forest.
And when we're watching a sequence of images,
our brain wants to relate them together.
So our brains kind of just assume
that this would be the same forest.
And then one last little tip.
If you're really struggling to find footage
that looks like it's from the same location,
you can always find a footage of a path or a road
or train or something like that.
That suggests that you're moving to a new location.
In that case, it's not gonna matter as much
if it looks like a different place,
because it's suggested that,
you know, you're on the road traveling to a new spot.
So, you know, you could have driven many miles away.
So it looks a little bit different, that's okay.
The third tip is to try zooming in on clips
that don't seem to be working.
There are some clips
that just have a very stock footage look to them.
The way that this clip is wide
kind of slows zooming in
on this very general looking location,
it just looks like a stock footage clip,
it's kind of hard to explain.
So if you're concerned about a clip looking too stocky
because of the way it was shot,
you can try zooming in on it.
The wide shot look is pretty common in stock footage,
but zooming in on a clip can give it a whole new look.
You can try kind of cropping it to different sides,
different parts of the frame to see what you liked the best.
And then the other benefit of this
is that it makes it into more of a closeup,
which we talked about before is very beneficial.
You can get rid of some of the context that's in the shot
if it doesn't fit with the rest of your footage,
or you can just eliminate certain elements of the frame
that you might feel are distracting.
So here is a picture perfect time-lapse of a sunset.
It's a very stock footage sunset.
If you zoom in to the top portion of the image,
you still got the sunset and the time-lapse
and all of those elements,
but you've essentially changed the composition of the shot.
And it has a different look to it
than the original very stocky looking shot.
You do want to be careful and make sure that
when you're zooming into the images,
they're not too grainy once you've zoomed in.
So you wanna get high quality footage
and just make sure you're not zooming in too much.
Just eyeball it, if you think it's looking too grainy,
then maybe that clip just isn't gonna work,
or you need to zoom it out a little bit more.
The next tip is to add overlays.
Now this is one of my favorite parts
because it's super effective in getting your shots to match.
And it's also where you get to get really creative.
So here's an example of a sequence
with some shots of a record player
and some records and stuff like that.
Some of this is my footage and some of it is stock footage.
And now I'm gonna stylize this sequence
with kind of some film dust and film scratches overlays
to give it kind of a vintage effect
that very much fits the aesthetic.
Now, in some cases you could just add one overlay
over the entire sequence,
and that could be a way to unify all of your footage,
but I don't want to do that.
I want to use it more at periodically.
So I'm kind of scattering it throughout the sequence.
And what I'm gonna do is use it to kind of bridge
my footage with the stock footage.
So I'm using it almost as transitions in between two shots.
Here's another waterfall example
because we all love waterfalls.
If you watch carefully, there's a slight jump
when we cut from the wide shot to the closer shot.
So a quick fix to this problem is gonna be to add
a misty overlay over both shots.
And now, as you can see, it's barely noticeable
that they were even shot at a different location.
These overlay effects can be resized,
they can be rotated, they can be flipped.
So there is so much room for you to get creative here.
The next step is to spend some time editing your audio.
Now you want to make sure your audio is consistent
and you can also use sound effects
as a bridge between your clips.
So when you're cutting from clip to clip,
if there is a change in pitch from one shot to the next
or a drastic drop off in the sound level
or something that it's very obvious.
So you really want to make sure it's all uniform.
This is important any time you're creating a video,
but especially if you're trying to blend your footage
with stock footage.
So in the sequence, the two clips match very well visually
because of the bokeh effect
that both of them have, but you can hear
the pitch drop off drastically in the second clip,
it sounds very jarring
and it just breaks the illusion of continuity.
Even though the clips already look seamless,
you need them to sound seamless as well,
it's really important.
So this first clip has kind of a traffic noise
in the background and what we want to do
is make that continue underneath the second clip.
So the second clip, I'm gonna just go ahead
and mute the audio.
We don't really need it at all.
And then I'm gonna go into the advanced timeline on InVideo.
So to get there, just click on
one of your scenes and then click timeline.
And now the first clip is underneath the second one,
and I'm just gonna drag it out
so that it plays underneath the entire time.
So you're not gonna see it,
but you're gonna continue
to hear that audio underneath the second one as well.
And then you can also use sound effects
as a really powerful way to bridge two of your clips.
So we're actually gonna use kind of a similar strategy
that we used with the overlays,
but we're going to do it with an audio track.
So I'm gonna search the InVideo sound library now
to find a sound effect.
So maybe a car driving by,
and then I'm just gonna place that sound effect
so that it's playing basically as the clip transitions
from one to the next.
(car whooshing)
It's a really powerful way to blend the two.
When the audience hears that they almost subconsciously
connect the two clips in their mind.
And then one more thing you can do
is use the same or a similar sound effects
at a few different points throughout the video sequence.
This is just a way to give some continuity
to the whole thing.
So if you have a more ambient sound like rain
or birds chirping or something like that,
you can kind of just throw it in underneath
a few different points in the video.
And that really just unifies the whole entire thing
and gives it more of a cohesive feel.
And that brings us to our last tip,
which is to keep your stock footage clips short
and be very intentional with them.
Just keep in mind that the longer
you have a stock footage clip play,
the more time there is for the audience
to start to pick up on those details
and maybe start to realize that
what you were doing there.
So here's a sequence
with one really long stock clip added in.
And I bet you can tell which one it is
because as the clip continues to play,
it just becomes a little bit more noticeable.
But if I shorten that clip and we watch it again,
well, I know you already know which one is the stock clip,
but if you didn't already know,
you probably wouldn't be able to tell
there's just not enough time for your brain
to really pick up on those details that would give it away.
So that's just a general tip, it's definitely not a rule.
There are times when you might want
to use a longer stock footage clip
and you can make it work, but in general,
try to keep them shorter
and that should make them less noticeable.
If you found this video helpful,
be sure to give it a like,
and if you have any questions at all on stock footage,
leave a comment.
I'm Teresa with InVideo,
and I will see you in the next one.