Mine just arrived today

should prove useful in a short while in fact. They had Video Traxx 1 on sale a while back, but I was interested more in 3.

It looks like it's got some decent footage from what I've seen.

Dave

Yes, I purchased Video Traxx 1, then Presenter's Toolkit shortly thereafter.
Didn't realize that PTK contains all the clips from VTX 1 but at half the resolution.

I think that's why they're having so many specials, to clear the SD inventory. All the stuff I've bought from them has been HD, even if I don't need the HD I sure need the 16:9.

They've been running phenomenal specials since right before Christmas - I've spent lots with them and am getting about a 90% discount by buying these specials - Dave (guy who runs the place) is looking to drive traffic to the site and doing it very effectively by offering these types of specials. Their forums are pretty good too for ideas and how to stuff, as well as the free video tutorials (DJTV).

My only grievance is that the HD packs are fewer clips. I ordered some HD and SD when they had a deal of 10 Jump Backs for 249, SD or HD. The HD packs only have about 1/2 to 2/3 the animations the SD ones did, and there were some that were in the SD animations that I wanted/needed. Anyway, it was a bit annoying to me, but I suppose that's the way the DVD Crumbles.

Dave

I own all of the DJ content except juice drops, they're wonderful to have.

I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing Video Traxx IV and beyond, I like rf video footage but it's a total ripoff at most places, charging upwards of $100 for a single 7-second clip! Ouch.

Digitaljuice.com's VideoTraxx provides me with thousands of clips for a fraction of typical rf video pricing. But I'd like to see new releases, new content, as it's a wonderful value.

Why is rf video so highly-priced? I'm glad at least there's a place for less pro stuff to be released with http://www.istockphoto.com 's new video downloads, you can get individual clips for $10-$30, which is reasonable, though the quality isn't as good as the regular commercial outfits.

Anyone else have tips on rf video providers that have a lot of content at less than $70/clip for 720x480 res etc?

Ken

royalty free footage is expensive for a couple of reasons. One because of who the customer is, generally in the last 50 years or so, people producing a video of any kind have had to have a pretty hefty chunk of change for a budget, but also because the time and money spent to get to the locations to do the taping and then the time going through the footage to make sure that it's exemplary is substantial. Would you fly to cairo, shoot footage of a bunch of dif. places and come back go to work on stabilizing and color correcting your footage for hundreds of hours after that (depending on how much footage you have) and then sell it for $100? I sure wouldn't, unless I knew that I was going to sell it to say, 100+ people and even then I think it would just kinda break even on the payout. But if I had quality footage taken with quality equipment and sold it for 50-100 bux a clip depending on, I could probably make a pretty penny and it would be a decent return on my investment. Some of the places though, I think have to work with getting licensing cleared for the footage, and so there's a WHOLE LOTTA CRAP that has to be done to do the footage RF, so you have to pay more.

As for some places with reasonable RF on the cheap (sorta) take a look:

www.digitaljuice.com
http://www.travelvideostore.com/index.php?cPath=1254 (this is their royalty free stuff)
www.footagefirm.com
www.artbeats.com The prices are higher but the quality is too

those are a few, I'm going to actually start a new thread with this stuff, and have others post their links too, it's a good idea to do this ken. Way to go.

Dave

Of course, if you're working on a project that needs a specific clip, and you can only find it on the ala carte libraries, it's up to your client if they want to pay for it. I got Art Beats promo DVD. The work is simply stunning, particularly the aerial stuff.

Some of the shots I've seen on Video Traxx look somewhat amatuerish, ie, handheld when they should've used a tripod, etc. But you can't really compare the two. They're at different ends of the spectrum.

As for HD, I think the prices will come down, and the clips will increase as more and more footage gets shot. There's so much SD footage out there, it makes sense it would be more abundant.

Realistically you get what you pay for. You want something exotic like I once did, it's going to cost serious money.
To be honest I was amazed that I could even find the clip, it would have taken at least a month's work to get the shot, add on travel expenses, cost of 35mm, lord only knows how much they ran and didn't get the perfect shot.
A search for what I wanted was kind of funny, one clip was $15 and the good one $1,500. The $15 one was of the animal in a cage at a zoo, complete with the wire in the shot, you'd have at least thought the guys shooting it would have arranged with the zoo to shoot from inside the cage!
The good material was shot in the jungle of the animal leaping, how long do you think that took to get, man I wouldn't spend more than a day in that location for anything, period.

I've tried shooting aerial footage of Sydney as there's none in any of the libraries, which is kind of odd our Hardbour Bridge and Opera House are pretty iconic. Adding up my costs to do it right, $2,500 minimum for copter with F950, $1,000 for HDCAM SR deck for a day plus I have no clue what post costs and then I have to pay for dubs. Then I have to pray enough people buy copies to recoup my costs before HDCAM-SR isn't good enough. Selling dubs at $1,000 I doubt I'd ever get my money back.

Now I could reduce the costs slightly by shooting HDV but that limits the market or I could up my costs and shoot 35mm except then someone will probably want a higher frame rate, yish. Who'd be in the business of shooting stock footage. It sounded atrractive but when you do the sums it all gets a bit scary.

Bob.

With everything you mentioned about doing aerials in Sydney, don't forget a camera stabilizer built into the helicopter. That's a pretty penny as well. And that's what separates Art Beats and other high end stock houses. You'll see many clips in the DJ aerials that look like it's simply some person sticking a camera out a window. Not really usuable to me.

Not for nothing but I just wanted to put an oldfashion thought in there: I was visiting Sydney in the mid70s (with an Eight Film Camera -the super 8 track was later added : to play the BeeGees 'I started a Joke').
I was a little rainy (thus the song) and I was on top of a hotel roof probably somewhere around Crown & Williams St (my memory is not that good anymore - I looked up the approximate area on Mapquest) and filmed the (three lane) streets crossing appr. north to south and east to west on my left, swinging northerly and zooming towards the Opera and Bridge, later to my right / easterly to film a part the harbor (incl. plenty of anchored sail boats).

The eight / super eight film did not survive all these years too well but I was able to get some footage converted to DV and though it is "lousy" film quality I still do enjoy watching it from time to time - and do remember very vividly how I shot it (dont forget this is a laymen / hobby filmer talking) .
Finally that brings me back to the previous threads. You dont always need helicopters (including helicopter stabilizer built ins). That would be wonderful and probably very professionel but good footage does not always need the very best presets. Sometimes I think it helps to simply ask someone for something a little unusual (would you mind if I get to your roof to film a little) and of course someone nice to respond - which I thing most Australians do anyhow.

Back in the early 70s Australians were indeed most fascinated by anyone with a decent looking camera. We got away with blue murder as we were just out of high school and a bit of a novelty act. We even managed to get Sydney streets blocked off by the police and the council to supply trucks etc for free.

Today you'd be looking at serious money now that we have a 'film industry' and everyone wants to make a movie. Private property is a different matter of course but sadly the litigation plague has spread to these shores so public liability insurance and red tape can tie you up in knots.

However for stock footage do not forget tourism boards, I've aerial footage of Sydney from NSW Tourism, cost free and it was shot on 35mm as part of the promotion of Sydney for the Olympics. Unfortunately it's getting a bit dated these days and the grading on the copy I have is a bit wonky, I guess if I had the budget I could pay to have a new transfer done.

Without sounding jingoistic Sydney if probably the best city in the world for aerial shots. In a copter you can fly in from the ocean low towards the sandstone cliffs and then pull up over those heads to reveal the city, the harbour and the two icons of the bridge and the opera house, plus the air here is very clear (well somedays). it really does make for an awesome shot.

A few years ago I was lucky enough to fly into Sydney at night in a very small plane and we had to fly out over the ocean at 2000'. Flying back into the city was just awesome, the pilot turned off all the lights and I was just behind the empty co-pilots seat, what an experience. It was then I realised why overseas visitors would always say what a great city Syndey was, I thought they were just being polite but they'd seen the view as they flew in and that first impression stays with them.

Bob.

I just got the Video Traxx today. After looking at a various clips, it's obvious that you do get what you pay for. For the price, I'm not expecting much. But some clips are of lower quality, so I wouldn't use them in my projects. The quality isn't bad, they're just not as crisp as the footage I'm shooting myself. It's probably because some clips are from older film sources, and they don't mesh well with DV.

It's hard to gauge the quality when you're looking at the tiny thumbnail clips on DJ's site.

But like I said, I'm not expecting much. There still looks to be plenty of clips I'll use when needed.

Australians are great people; I met a bunch back when the gov't of Fiji hired me to be the country's sales trainer. Some of the nicest, most interesting people in the world.

I've never been, though I hope to spend a couple years in Australia at some point in my life...

Digital Juice is the most exciting thing to hit rf content ever, and Dave Hebel the CEO is the best CEO I've seen online from any company, frequently responsive in their forums. I wish every company in the world treated their customers like DJ does, this would be a much much better world.

And I *really* hope they don't let themselves be acquired by one of the big RF outfits or a big software company.


Ken

Digital Juice just repriced their entire line - VideoTraxx are now $349 per volume, JumpBacks, StackTraxx and JuiceDrops are now $99 and Editors Toolkits are $199.

I have been taking advantage of their special pricing but these regulat prices will be very well received.

The best sale price I got before these recent sales was $249. I needed the content from two different volumes for a trade show video for 3M that had to be done in a few days. They fed-exed one of the wrong volumes by mistake. I called them about it and they sent me the correct volume--and said to keep the extra volume because of their incurred delay. I ended up with all three.

Most of the footage is very good, a few look like they were a little grainy (the water skiing shots)--but more than made up with the very clean snow skiing footage.

These guys are absolutely fantastic and their customer service is unbelievibly good. I started purchasing their material back in the days when they distributed everything on CD's pre-rendered. I sold these versions on eBay when I got a few bundles on DVD with the same volumes.

They also have very efficient shipping. I order UPS ground (cheapest) and get it in a few days.