Transform your videos with library content

Bring your vision to life – whether that’s making a sale or making a statement

Using library content instead of original footage creates enormous opportunities for location, characters and authenticity! With these five tips you’re on the way to creating a perfectly positioned masterpiece. 

Find a series

Stock shots are almost always filmed as part of a series, so it’s very rare to ever just have one standalone short clip. That means that when you scour the footage library and come across that one amazing shot that defines your brand, it’s extremely likely you have just hit upon a goldmine. 

Found the perfect shot of a happy couple moving into their new home? The serious manager surveying the warehouse? The puppy dancing with excitement at a new toy? Shots from the same series are likely to be nearby, if not next to, this hero shot in the library. Collect all these shots together into your favourite’s bin to put them aside for later use, and use them to pull from when you’re creating your videos.

Using shots from the same series can quickly make your video feel more high-budget, and therefore more authentic as it gives the impression that footage was shot specifically for your brand.

Do: Use shots from the same series in your video

Don’t: Mix up locations, people and moods with every shot

For an interesting behind-the-scenes look at what goes into a stock footage shoot, click here

Mirror your audience

Put simply, your target audience are the people who are buying what you’re selling. Whether you just have a vague idea of who that is, or a detailed breakdown based on age/gender/country, it is important to mirror those people in your stock shot choice. 

This doesn’t just go for basic qualities such as age and location either; try to capture the style and tone of your target audience, through qualities such as fashion choices, times of day or social group. 

This will help to make your video more effective, as basic psychological principles show us that people tend to make choices based on what they perceive their community to be doing.

Do: Use shots that reflect what your ideal target audience looks like, does and likes

Don’t: Use shots that show people outside of your target audience

For simple tips to help you define your target audience, click here

Define your colour palette

Your colour palate may be brand colours, based on your product or it could very simply be a case of light vs dark. Having a basic colour palette in mind helps you to pick out these colours in your shot choice, and create videos that align perfectly with your company mission.

This doesn’t mean that every shot can only have just those colours in! For example, if your brand colours are yellow and black, you don’t need to only use shots of bees and police caution tape. Just choose shots with a touch of those colours in; like a large meadow with a number of yellow flowers, or someone looking up at an inky black sky.

Colour is a very important tool to connect with your target audience on a deeper level; by matching your colour palette to your brand and therefore to what your users expect to see from you, you increase the chances of your video not just being watched but also being remembered. 

Do: Always choose shots with elements of your chosen colour palette in them

Don’t: Mix up colours too frequently or go outside of your brand colors just because you like the shot

For a guide to colour theory and how it impacts communication, click here

Time to the audio track

A good audio track can transform a video from a stock clip montage into an engaging video; and when you take the time to really time those shots to the beats and movement of the track, you create a powerful scroll-stopping masterpiece.

Humans are inherently hypnotized by rhythm, and there are several well-studied neurological and social reasons why certain tracks and audio motifs get stuck in society for decades. TikTok has benefited hugely from this effect; combine this innate human reaction to rhythm with a visual component, and you increase the engagement and sharing potential. And increased engagement and sharing is what turns a simple promo into real results for your business. 

Use the trim tool on Binumi to easily time your shots to the music track.

Do: Time shots to reflect the beats of your audio track

Don’t: Have every shot the same length and mis-matched to your track

Why are humans so drawn to rhythm? Find out here

Limit CGI or composite shots (unless it’s really your thing)

You either love it or you hate it – but nothing makes a video look more like it was created out of stock footage than the use of CGI graphics. You know the ones; someone staring in wonder at a floating 3D screen, a poorly animated animal dancing, a ‘SALE NOW ON’ sign spinning wildly over a glittering background. There are certain organisations that fall more into the CGI world than others, but every industry has CGI stock footage available should they want it. 

So why can CGI footage be a difficult one to get right? Aside from the fact it is often literal nightmare fuel, it also can so often counteract all the above points that really do work to make your video effective – CGI shots rarely have similar shots in the same series, they don’t reflect a target audience, the colours are set and the pre-set timing of them is hard to fit to a new audio track.

However, if you do want to use CGI stock shots, then remember some key pointers to make it work: match the colours to your brand, keep to one style of CGI and avoid anything with words – as the font on the CGI may not match your brand font.

Do: Avoid CGI or composite shots, unless it is part of your brand identity

Don’t: Use too much of it – a little goes a long way

Discover the history of CGI animation! click here

Sign off

Binumi is the easiest ever video creation platform. It gives anyone, from complete beginners to experts, the tools to make professional-grade video at scale. Work solo, or as a team from different locations. Binumi’s collaboration tools give you the full-on power of creative teamwork.