Industry Leader iStockphoto Sees
Demand for Gritty, Authentic Stock Video, Predicts Trends in Combined
Still/Video Offerings and Mini-Films as iStockvideo Celebrates Fifth
Anniversary
CALGARY, Alberta: Oct. 17, 2011 — October marks the fifth year
iStockphoto has been in the stock video business. To celebrate, the company is discounting
video purchases by 15 percent from October 17th to 23rd.
Reduced advertising budgets
and the explosive demand for online video content have allowed the stock video
industry to evolve at a highly accelerated pace. Today, iStockphoto’s video
library contains nearly 400,000 files, to which a team of more than 6,500
videographers is adding roughly 2,500 files on a weekly basis.
Today stock videos are used in
everything from national news programs to documentaries, films and web advertising.
The biggest current trend in both demand and the offerings at iStockvideo, is
authenticity through the use of models, scenes and lighting that seem real and
not too “ideal.”
“Thanks to reality TV, the
smart phone cameras and social media we’ve quite literally become used to
seeing reality unvarnished, “ said Jim Goertz, director of video content
development at iStockphoto. “Some of the things we used to strive to perfect
become glaring imperfections in that they seriously undermine credibility. Now,
effective art must imitate reality.”
Besides realism, other
major trends in stock video include:
· The use of modern DSLR
cameras to shoot stills and video simultaneously,
· The use of large format
high-definition video cameras,
· An increased call for more
completely edited “mini-films.”
Stock
Video On the Edge: New Trends:
Here are sample
cutting-edge stock videos on iStock that demonstrate new editing techniques,
and shooting styles that Goertz believes will be in greater demand over the
next few years.
This is a high-definition
animation zooming out into space from a city park. Real actors make up this
difficult to achieve clip. A world surrounded by networks and computer wireless
data.
Note the very real look and
lighting of the restaurant and the actors in this piece, which could be easily used
to demonstrate everything from friendship to a quality restaurant experience.
This clip represents the
new trend of mini-films. A car pulls into a car park and two characters
cautiously swap briefcases, one of which has a bundle of cash in it.
First
iStock Video Ever Sold and The Top Five-Selling Videos Globally
In 2006, the biggest
purchase trends were toward simpler themes such as water or businesspeople,
although some conceptual themes were popular, such as this animation of a DNA
strand. To honor its “first-ever” status, is the free video of the month
in October:
The first video ever sold
on iStock was created by member geopaul
Overall, the top videos sold
at iStockphoto globally represent themes that can work in many contexts and cultures,
such as technology, spirituality, and hectic lifestyles. iStock expects clips
like this to remain in high demand as our global concerns become more
homogenous and more buyers enter the market.
