It is secondary to primary footage and is used to intercut or tie different primary shots together. B-roll is supplemental footage that’s used in films, television shows, and news broadcasts. One of the most consistent uses of stock footage is as B-roll. While the potential uses of stock footage are only limited by your own imagination, these are the ways stock footage is most commonly used.

However, it’s important to be vigilant and double check that stock footage is in the public domain before using it in your project. There are a few places to search for public domain stock footage including. Stock footage can become public domain if the creator chooses to forego copyright protection by donating it to the public domain.

Stock footage filmed by an employee of the federal government for purposes of their job can also enter the public domain immediately upon creation. It can be difficult to determine if the copyright term has expired given different laws all over the world (these have changed over time). Stock footage might age into the public domain when the copyright term has expired. Stock footage can fall into the public domain in a number of different ways. Public domain stock footage means there is no copyright attached to the footage, so it can be used freely (with a few rare exceptions). Yes, there is public domain stock footage. Most stock video sites enable users to search and sort thousands of clips to find the stock footage clips that are the best fit for their projects. Stock video footage can be found on various stock footage websites including iStock.

Stock footage can be licensed and saves filmmakers the time and money of shooting original material.Ĭommon types of stock footage include sports clips, animal clips, family videos, nature videos, aerial videos, cityscape videos, food videos, slow-motion clips, transportation clips, and more. Stock footage, also known as stock video or B-roll, is pre-filmed footage that can be purchased and used in a variety of projects and films. While stock footage can’t and shouldn’t replace every scene in your project, you might find it’s an affordable way to fill in some scenes for your project. With stock footage, someone else already spent time and money creating stock video clips you can use in your projects. One time and money-saving tool available for anyone making a film, commercial, music video, news segment, etc., is stock footage. Between purchasing cameras and lighting rigs and the time it takes to create great footage, it’s easy to go over budget. Creating videos and films can be an expensive process.