Pond5 FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions


What is Pond5?
Pond5.com is a web-based stock footage marketplace and emerging community of film- and video-makers. It’s a great place to find and license stock footage for use in your productions, or to upload and market your own footage for use by others. All our clips are downloadable and available immediately under a royalty-free licensing agreement.


What is Royalty-Free?
Our industry-standard royalty-free licensing agreement allows buyers to use footage in a wide variety of ways in their own projects, across multiple projects, for a one-time licensing fee. You can read the full text of the agreement here.


How do I find and purchase clips?
To search for clips, simply enter a search term in the Search field (or, to see all clips, leave the field blank). If a clip interests you, you can add it to your cart by clicking on the cart icon. To complete your purchase, click the “checkout” link in your cart. After completing the purchase, your clips will be available for download on the My Downloads page.


How can I know if I will be able to use the footage I purchase on pond5.com?
On the Information Page for each clip, you will find technical details about the footage, including file extension, format, codec and frame rate information. Before you purchase a clip, please check this information carefully and make sure that you will be able to work with the footage being offered. In particular, many of our clips are in the HDV format, a recently adopted high-definition format that is only supported on newer versions of most editing applications.

Do you offer video format conversion services?
Yes, in most cases, we can supply you with a high-quality format conversion free of charge. Please contact us for details.

What are Clip Bins?
A Clip Bin is a place to store and organize clips that interest you for easy reference later. You can create multiple Clip Bins for different projects or topics, and add clips to them as you browse the site. To purchase clips that are in your Clip Bins, you will first need to add them to your cart.


How do I sell my footage on Pond5?
It’s easy. After registering for an account with us you can begin to upload your clips. Once a clip is uploaded, you will need to “tag” it with some basic information (name, description, keywords, etc.) and set a price; then you submit your clip for curator review. A curator will take a look at your footage, and if it meets our technical and quality standards it will be approved for sale on the system. Buyers will then be able to search for, preview, purchase and download your clips. Click here to find out more about selling footage on Pond5.


Who can sell footage on Pond5?
Any copyright-holder of high-quality footage, including individuals, companies, and organizations, can sell footage on Pond5.


How much will I earn? How and when will I get paid?
Artists earn 50% royalties on all clip sales. Payments are made monthly, either by check or directly into your Paypal account. Payments go out on the 15th of each month, for sales during the previous month (so your earnings from clip sales in June will be credited to you on July 15). There is a $25 minimum payout amount.


What is Paypal? How can I receive my earnings electronically?
Paypal is a web-based service that allows you to send and receive monetary payments securely and instantly over the internet. It is our preferred method of making payments to artists. Please note that Paypal charges a 2-percent fee, up to a maximum of $1, on each payment made. This will be deducted from the total. So, if your earnings for March are $200 and you choose to receive payment through Paypal, you will receive $199.



What are the footage specifications?

Duration and size
Each clip should be from 5-30 seconds in length, and no more than 500MB. If your clip is larger than this, consider cutting it into multiple smaller clips.

Codecs
If your footage originates in the DV codec, we ask that you keep it in its original form to maintain quality. If it originates in another codec, we recommend that you compress it using PhotoJPEG with a quality setting of “high” or better. T

File Container Format
All broadcast quality (resolution above 640X480) footage should be prepared using the Quicktime .MOV file container format (this is for compatibility reasons, so buyers can be sure of what they are getting). If your footage is in a different file format, such as .AVI, you can perform a lossless conversion to .MOV using Apple’s Quicktime Pro software, among others (many editing applications will allow you to output directly to .MOV).

For Multimedia (non-broadcast standard) clips with resolution of 640X480 or lower, mpeg and mp4 file container formats will also be allowed.

Note: we are somewhat flexible on technical requirements for footage and open to suggestions. If you are unsure how to prepare your footage, please contact us directly here.


What about clips with alpha channels?
For clips with an alpha (transparency) channel, you can create a matte and attach it to your clip as a separate file on the My Uploads page using the “attach” (paperclip) link next to each clip.


How do I upload my clips?
You upload clips from the MyPond or My Uploads page by clicking on the "new upload" button.
You have two choices to upload your clips: the Java uploader, and FTP. The Java uploader works from within your browser, so no extra software is needed. You simply select the clips you would like to upload (you can batch upload multiple clips at the same time), and press "upload".

Another option is to upload your clips using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). If your internet connection is not reliable, or your browser doesn't support Java technology, FTP is the way to go. You can get the FTP login details and set your FTP password here


How long will it take to upload my footage? Do I need a broadband internet connection?
The amount of time it takes to upload your clips depends on the size of the files and the speed of your connection. Remember that broadcast-quality video files are very large, and may take a long time to upload. For instance, with a connection that has an upload speed of 100kb/s (or 12.5 KB/s), it will take around 43 minutes to upload a 10-second DV or HDV clip, with a file size of 32MB.

You can test the speed of your connection here: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ Remember that you are interested in the upload speed of your connection, which is often slower than the download speed.

What can I do if I don’t have a high-speed connection? What if I have a lot of footage and don’t want to spend days uploading it?
In many cases, we will also accept footage sent to us by postal mail in the form of digital files on DVD or CD-Rom. Contact us here if you would like to discuss this option.


What is tagging?
Tagging is the process of adding information such as name, description, and keywords to your clips. The better you tag your clips with useful information, the easier is for buyers to find and buy them. To tag your clips, select the “edit clip info” option next to each clip on the My Uploads page. To help you with the tagging process, we’ve created two tools: the keyword assistant and tag templates.


What is the Keyword Assistant?
Keywords can be added to a clip in two ways: by writing them into the keyword field, or by using the Keyword Assistant. The Assistant is simply a series of checkboxes for commonly used keywords. By checking on the appropriate box, you can quickly add these keywords to your clip.


What are Tag Templates
Tag Templates allow you to tag multiple clips simultaneously. This is useful when you have common information shared across multiple clips (for instance location, camera data, or keywords). To create a template, use the “new template” link from the MyPond page and enter in all the shared information. Then, select clips by clicking the checkbox next to each one, and choose “apply template” from the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page. All fields that have been filled in on the template will be written to the selected clips. Fields that have been left empty on the template (or where the option "ignore" has been selected) will not get overwritten, and any existing information will be left intact.

Note: for keywords, you can choose to either add template keywords (including those added with the Keyword Assistant), or to overwrite them. If you choose ‘overwrite’, it will replace all keywords on the clip with those on the template; if you choose ‘add’, the template keywords will be added to those currently on the clip.


How do I decide how much to price my clips?
The minimum price for broadcast-quality SD and HD clips is $10; multimedia clips (640X480 or lower resolution) have a minimum price of $5. There is no maximum price.


Will I retain copyright of my work?
Yes. You will simply be using Pond5.com as a marketplace through which you license the use of your footage to other media producers under our royalty-free licensing agreement.

What else can I do with my footage? Do you have exclusive rights to represent it?
Our agreement is non-exclusive, which means that you can do what you like with your footage, including sell it elsewhere.

When is a model/property release required?
If your clip is meant to be used for commercial purposes, we require a model release for each recognizable individual depicted. For editorial footage (that is, footage which is newsworthy or has documentary value), model releases are not usually required.

There should be no copyrighted music or sound on the audio track without an accompanying property release, and no recognizable voices without a model release. Likewise, there can't be any trademarks, logos or brands depicted in the footage without a release.

Where can I download model and property releases?
Downloadable release agreements are available here. We also accept other standard model and property release agreements; using Pond5's version is not required.


How do I upload a Talent or Property Release?
Signed releases should be scanned and uploaded as jpg files. This is done on the Uploads page by clicking on the “attach” (paperclip) icon next to each clip, or by selecting multiple clips and selecting “attach release” from the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page.


Do you offer Rights-Managed sales?
Not at the moment, but we’re considering it. If you’re interested in selling footage under a rights-managed license, let us know.


My question wasn’t answered here, where can I go?
You can always reach us using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of every page, or by clicking here