Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Stock Videos

When creating a video, you have a few choices: You can use live footage, stock footage, or animation. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a look at some of the pros and cons of using free stock videos.

One big advantage to using stock footage is that it’s pre-made. So if you’re in a hurry or don’t have the time or skills to shoot your own video, stock footage can be a lifesaver. It’s also cheaper than hiring someone to shoot custom footage for you.

On the downside, stock footage can be quite generic and doesn’t always fit with your specific project. You might also find that the selection of videos available is limited, which can make it difficult to apply what your content will be.

So why is everyone using it? Here are some of the facts that you need to know on why it is really helpful or not.

1. Saves Time

• If you are very busy on the strategy and other content marketing that you are planning for your business this is a really win, win for you. Using stock footage will save you time on shooting video. You don’t need any videographer to shoot for your themed or customized video. Instead you can just choose on the premade video that would suit your content and you are ready to go.

2. Cheap

• Since you will not hire a videographer who will do the video, this can also save you money. Hiring a professional videographer would cost you a lot. The range of hiring a videographer is ranging from $200- $500 depending on their skills. You would also need to pay and buy props and everything that is needed during your shoot. You also will provide the food and transportation of the videographer depending on the location and how long the shoot will take.

Now choosing stock videos or stock footage would lessen your budget for some of the stock videos are free and some are paid. For the paid stock videos it depends on the clip that you will choose but the price range is $25-$150 this depends on the source and the quality of the video that you are looking for.

3. The help of providing story

• Sometimes shots from footage may not be as perfect as it can be, especially if you are using a low quality gadget for shooting your footage. So the help will come from stock footage. This could be a lifesaver on the story that you wanted to convey.

4. High Quality

• As a filmmaker it would take a huge amount of effort and time to edit one scene on a video. You will need to consider the perfect color, the perfect sound that you will be using to put in the video. The transition effects and many more.

But if you will be using stock footage, you will be able to get a high quality video that would be beneficial for your content. A lot of video editors have a huge amount of high quality videos that you can choose from. All you need to make sure is that you are using the correct video for your content. In this way you will be able to market your content all throughout the internet properly.

Aside from advantages of course there are still disadvantages of using stock videos as well. And here as follows.

1. Can be very expensive

• This can be also very expensive especially if you have a very low budget when it comes to your content creation budget. Most of the time when a video clip is more often used it is most likely to be more expensive than the others. This is how the trends go depending on how you provide the needs of that particular video.

So, I would highly suggest that you put all the stock footage that you wanted to use for your videos and compare it on how much your particular budget is so that you won’t be over budget when you start checking out and using those videos.

2. Anyone can use it

• Since this is open to the public meaning that anyone all over the world can use this template for their video depending on the needs. The big issue here is that you might be having some business that uses that video as well that is the same as yours. You do not have control of any of this. So if you really are looking for a more professional look in your marketing content we would highly suggest that you do not use stock videos. Instead use videos that are custom made by you and your hired videographer.

3. Looks and Quality

• The looks of the stock videos may look odd and different depending on the quality of the videos and photos that you will be using. As we move on the content we might see a slight change on how the video would look like. These are the things that you need to take a look into when you are using stock footage. You need to make sure that when you do the editing you have the quality and content intent that you wanted to deliver to your audience.

4. Impact the videographer’s job

• Yes, as I said there is a big impact on the success and growth of our videographers. Meaning is that they might not have a single gig anymore because of these stock videos. They might hurt our economic growth in terms of the videographer’s side.

Because as a videographer there are certain things and areas that you still want to improve on.but these could not happen if you cannot get any more clients to work on. And with all this could be a great BAD impact for our professionals.

Overall, you still need to consider what are the things that will help you when it comes to your video content. You need to see and double check every aspect of whether you should use stock videos or not. You can try by assessing all that we discussed and start from scratch which are you budget and the things that you can get from them.