There’s definitely pros and cons to using stock footage. And in today’s episode, you’ll figure out why.

What’s up y’all, welcome back to Two Minute Tips, where I’m here to help you make better video content and not waste your time doing it. As you could tell, I was not actually on a snowmobile, and that is the beauty of stock footage that I’m able to pull different clips in different scenes that I don’t necessarily have access to. And for instance, in this video, I didn’t shoot any of the B roll myself. It’s only this A-roll shot and stock footage that I’m using as B-roll.

So first off, stock footage is great for being able to achieve those difficult shots that maybe the project timeline or budget wouldn’t allow. Secondly, stock footage is great for being able to fill in the gaps. If you’re talking about a city that you’re not in, or if you’re talking about a location, it can help you put visuals to topics and ideas. Thirdly, stock footage has come a long way. It’s super high quality now. The stock libraries are becoming filled with better content, and you have access to tons of different styles and shots.

Okay, so stock isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. It can have its downsides. First off, stock can look like stock. It can look overly staged, cheesy. I don’t even know what’s going on here. Secondly, stock footage can look a bit generic. It also can stand out from the rest of your footage. A lot of times B-roll is shot with different cameras, different lenses, and sometimes that will look like a sore thumb in your final video.

So now that you know some of the pros and cons, it’s all about how you use stock footage. You can use stock footage in many different ways that are super effective. For example, you can slightly blur the footage and place text right on top. That looks great. A side note, at VidLoft, there’s no extra charge to use stock footage and you never have to worry about copyrights or licensing. So go ahead, add it to your next project. Just be careful what you ask for.

As always, thank you so much for watching. See you next time!