Professional Motion Picture Production and Distribution NEWS

Interview with Myles Lank of Footage of the World: What's New for 2009

By StudentFilmmakers.com
posted Apr 1, 2009, 06:05

April 2009 Edition, StudentFilmmakers Magazine, the #1 Educational Resource for Film and Video MakersFootage of the World is featured in the April 2009 Edition of StudentFilmmakers Magazine, the # 1 Educational Resource for Film and Video Makers. Read the accompanying online article here.

Footage of the World

 

What is Footage of the World dot com?

Myles Lank: Footage of the World.com is an organization built to meet the needs of advertisers, film producers, news agencies, corporate producers and anyone who requires the highest quality HD, SD or Low Resolution content on the market. Its selection is creative, original and includes shots taken from some of the most remote locations around the globe. All footage is exceptionally clear, powerful, and always shot in broadcast quality 1080 HD.

Charity is a key part of your business. Could you tell us more about that?

Myles Lank: Footage of the World.com would be nowhere without, well, the world and its inhabitants. Therefore, 15% of all net income (or 1% of gross sales, whichever is greater) will be donated annually to charities researched by our employees. 7.5% will be donated to environmental charities, and 7.5% will be donated to social charities. By purchasing clips on our website, you help to ensure the gorgeous and original clips located on our site will be available for years to come. We are looking forward to being a global partner of Mercy Corps this year as well as a proud 1% for the planet member. We want people buying clips from our site to feel like part of a community that is looking out for more than a bottom line.

What's new for 2009?

Myles Lank: 2009 is a big year for Footage of the World. We are essentially coming out of beta this year and are launching our 1st large-scale advertising campaign. We're teaming with seasoned individuals who have historically only worked with the largest stock houses and will be able to utilize their expertise, enthusiasm and industry know-how. Additionally, we'll start partnerships with outside videographers. Here's where we differ from some of the larger stock houses. We partner with a limited number of videographers to ensure consistent quality. We don't allow just anyone to upload video to our site. We focus on teaming with documentary filmmakers as their footage tends to be fresh, modern and shows the adventurous, unique footage that Footage of the World prides itself on.

Additionally, in June we are launching our Spotlight On documentary series that will show our footage in action. The documentary series are real stories told by our traveling videographers depicting fresh, interesting stories from around the globe.

Who shoots your footage? Could you tell us a bit about your videographers?

Myles Lank: At this date, all clips on FootageoftheWorld.com are shot by in-house videographers. As stated above, we will be opening that up this year. If interested, please email info [ at ] footageoftheworld [ dot ] com.

We are revolutionizing the way videographers work with stock houses. We offer strong commissions and don't make the videographers tag and index their clips. We want our partnering videographers to focus on shooting creative footage. We will make sure its tagged, indexed, formatted and uploaded for stock needs.

What cameras are your videographers using?

Myles Lank: The requirement is HD. Our videographers shoot with everything ranging from the pro-sumer Sony HVR-A1U to the Sony PMW-EX1 and the Panasonic HVX200.

Are all clips shot in HD?

Myles Lank: All clips on FootageoftheWorld.com are shot in 1080 HD. We want to position ourselves to be the clear choice for stock footage for HD which is the future of most broadcast uses, including the future of internet broadcasts. If HD is not your thing right now, no worries. You can buy SD or Low Resolution for a reduced price.

Who would you recommend Footage of the World clips for?

Myles Lank: FootageoftheWorld.com is for anyone wanting unique footage at a great price. Our clips are only found on FootageoftheWorld.com. We offer clips that would generally be sold Rights Managed or Rights Ready for 5-10 times the price. Those who require an international, exotic, or location-based perspective could not go wrong with our library.

Could you share with us some of the top scenarios that different individuals and companies use your clips for?

Myles Lank: Our clips have been used to set a scene, often an exotic, adventurous scene or feeling. They have also been used if a team could not get to a given location. Basically, if your project doesn't have the funds to fly and shoot [risking the right weather conditions] check FootageoftheWorld.com. Sometimes we simply caught a location in a better light than the producer had in house. Our videographers camped at, for example, 2 weeks at the base of Mt. McKinley to get a bluebird shot of it. Some videographers simply don't have the time to do that. Essentially, if you want to express a location, event, or region, footageoftheworld.com has what you need.

What are some of your newest categories of clips?

Myles Lank: We focus on locations. With the global mindset of the industry, we're seeing more and more that consumers of stock video recollect a place that they may have visited or seen on television and desire that shot for their project. Locations, now more than ever, induce certain feeling on the viewer. A shot of New York City will draw out a different emotion than Alaska or than the slums of Delhi or a Cambodian garbage dump. Close your eyes, think of your project's main objective and check out the place that comes to mind. Our newest material includes: Sri Lanka, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, India, East Africa, Vietnam and New Zealand.

What are your most popular clips?

Myles Lank: Africa is our most popular. Although China and Tibet are a close second. We have footage in our library from Tibet that you cannot get anywhere (literally). Our videographers probably should not have been shooting where they shot. Luckily they were not caught.

If you could share a top tip, technique, or application for using clips, what would it be?

Myles Lank: So far the biggest application by far is for web content. We initially wanted to focus more on broadcast television, but over the last year and a half the internet is a niche that is showing more creativity and freedom of expression. Therefore, we are happy to be a strong part of its development.

Visit and browse HD footage at www.footageoftheworld.com.

Free Coupon Code: Footage of the World, LLC (www.footageoftheworld.com) is offering readers of StudentFilmmakers magazine 15% off all purchases through July 31, 2009. Simply type in the promo code SFMDISC upon checkout.

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