The perception of stock footage
Stock images and stock footage get a bad reputation, with the perception of it mostly being business handshakes and cheesy scenes. Artgrid really breaks that perception with the footage not only being excellent quality but cinematic at the same time. The key to stock imagery or stock footage is using it tastefully, it shouldn’t stand out, it should complement the work you have already done and look seamless.
Using Stock Footage In Promotional Videos
Artgrid really earns its way into my work toolkit for promotional videos. A lot of clients come to me with just some images and no video and no time or budget to shoot any. Artgrid allows me to make the videos much more engaging by taking the more generic topics in the video and using stock footage. Very often these are topics that would be very hard, if not impossible for me to shoot, especially on a budget. Video will always be more engaging than an animated photo, even for generic topics.
Why use stock footage?
I find Artgrid footage perfect for any generic b-roll that I don’t have time to shoot. A good example of this is timelapse, clients love it but I rarely have time to shoot a location-specific timelapse, so I will take something from stock that fits in nicely.
Artgrid was a godsend during Covid, I was unable to shoot new footage for clients but I was able to still create fresh content using a mix of archive footage and stock video. This created some challenges but allowed me to get creative with how I used stock footage.
Using it as a tool to gain clients
I use both Artgrid and Artlist and I will always mention that when quoting for work. Depending on the scale of the project and the way the payment is calculated I will work it into the quote. I will provide the client links and mention that any music or video sourced from the stock libraries will be included in the overall quote.
Stock footage and audio can be expensive, so it is a big benefit to the client, not having to pay for that separately and navigate the minefield of licensing assets. Many clients are shocked at how much licensing stock footage costs, especially if you need a lot of it.
How much is Artgrid?
Artgrid has a variety of plans, I use the 4K creator plan which at the time of writing costs $40 (£28) a month. They have an HD plan at $25 (£18) a month or a Pro RAW/LOG plan at $50 (£36) a month and that includes footage up to 8K log using the ProRes codec. I personally like the 4K tier because although I supply mostly HD content, it means I have 4K clips when I need them and for HD projects I can crop into the footage to make it work with titles and graphics. There are times when I would like a little more flexibility in the colour grade for stock footage but this more of an edge case for the projects I am working on. If things were to change I think I would move up to the next tier because having that control over the footage is useful. All plans are paid annually but you can trial ArtGrid completely free and you can get 2 months FREE on an annual plan using this link with a 14 day money back guarantee.
Another nice thing is that they often have member perks like free LUT, overlays, and SFX packs. My favourite part is that all plans come with unlimited downloads and a really simple license that includes lifetime use of the footage across all platforms. You can read more about the ArtGrid license here.
So is Artgrid worth it?
For me, yes, it more than pays for itself each month and I feel it really improves the quality of my videos. It allows me to add clips that I otherwise could not obtain and for the more generic sections and allows me to get more creative in the client-specific areas of the video.
It’s not perfect, there have been times when I have had to go elsewhere to find the odd clip, but that tends to be rare and the simple licensing of Artgrid more than makes up for it. There are many other services for stock footage available, so be sure to shop around, taking licensing and pricing into consideration and choose what’s right for your workflow.
Please note: This post contains some affiliated links, you will never pay extra for the products but I receive a small commission when a purchase is made, this allows me to keep writing content like this.
