Question 1

What are video categories?

Accepted Answer

Shutterstock’s royalty-free video categories cover a wide range of topics. Art, Food and Drink, Science, and many more await within our library. If you want captivating footage of the natural world, take a look at our Animals and Wildlife or Nature video category pages. Expect to see stunning drone and aerial video of seascapes and mountain ranges, as well as slow motion video of crashing waves or a single dew drop dripping from a flower petal. If you want video footage that shows human innovation at its finest, take a look at our Industrial, Technology, or Business and Finance category pages. Time lapse of workers getting the job done in retail warehouses, animation clips of futuristic factories, top-down views of office workers typing away at their laptops, and other such footage can be seen. Essentially, if there is a video category that you can think up, odds are we’ve got it.

Question 2

What are royalty-free video clips?

Accepted Answer

“Royalty-free” refers to certain types of intellectual property, such as videos, that can be used without worrying of paying any royalties. Typically, if someone makes money using another person’s copyrighted intellectual property, then the user must make recurring payments or give a percentage of earnings from said intellectual property to the creator or owner. These payments are called royalties. If you intend to place videos on your website or share them on your social media, it is essential that you only use videos that are royalty-free, otherwise you must pay royalties to the intellectual property owner. There are legal consequences for failing to pay royalties on copyrighted material. Fortunately, Shutterstock has you covered. All of our video content is royalty-free. We compensate our contributors ahead of time so that you can use any of the high-quality videos found within our library after paying a single fee.

Question 3

Is royalty-free and copyright free footage the same?

Accepted Answer

No, royalty-free and copyright-free are not the same. If you are looking to work video into your website or social media, then it is essential to be aware of the difference between royalty-free and copyright-free footage. When it comes to royalty-free video, users must make an initial payment to the original content creator. After that payment, the video can be used a number of times without the user needing to pay any additional or ongoing fees. The original content creator, or licensor, retains the rights to the video, while the person who paid the initial fee has become a licensee.

Copyright-free video, however, is part of the public domain. This means that a user can utilize this sort of video as they see fit. It is not necessary to make any payments to the original content creator. There are no legal repercussions for using copyright-free video because there is no one person that can claim sole rights to a given video.

Question 4

Where can I get royalty-free footage for free?

Accepted Answer

You can download 40 free videos from Shutterstock by creating a free account. This collection has been curated to cover a wide variety of subjects and potential uses so that there is sure to be a clip you are excited to work with. All of these royalty-free video clips have been expertly shot, edited, and resized for your social media and website needs, so that they are ready to go upon download. The videos are issued under the Footage Use License, which allows for usage on websites and in multi-media productions that are distributed to audiences of up to 500,000. You will have the right to use these free videos in perpetuity, which essentially means, forever! Simply sign up and sign in to download your 40 free royalty-free video clips.

Question 5

How can I find high quality stock footage?

Accepted Answer

Shutterstock is here to help you find high-quality stock footage in no time. Simply click on the Footage dropdown menu at the top of any Shutterstock page and select “Footage home.” From there, enter your keywords into the search bar and click the magnifying glass at the far right end of the search bar. You will be presented with hundreds of thousands of relevant royalty-free videos. To narrow your search, utilize the filter options on the left side of the search page. Select a maximum resolution, FPS, video duration, and more. To take your footage to the next level, click on “Shutterstock Select” within the Footage dropdown menu. Royalty-free videos captured in up to 8K resolution with high tech gear such as RED cameras and Zeiss Master Prime lenses await. If you are a motion designer or video editor in need of cutting-edge visual effects, go to that Footage dropdown menu and select “Shutterstock Elements.” We have crisp lens flares, sleek transitions, grungy grain effects and so much more to give your footage a cinematic, professional look.

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