Curator Training

100% rejection here as well from 73, why did they outsource good jobs to India in the first place?. 99% sure it's due to costs not "higher standards", why they don't simply say we can't afford to host anymore clips so for the time being the door is closed to new submissions?.

For the first time ever I too have actually had stuff sell on ss that was rejected here for poor camera quality and didn't meet their new higher standards.

They apparently accept cell phone video.....yes, home videos, but use a pro camera and tripod and you don't meet the new higher standards? It's costs.

Maybe new business model for indian people: "Become curator, make money with 1 click" ;)

No doubt and they are good at what they do, Pond5 must just love them, it's like hiring a top goalie for a hockey team, these guys in India don't let anything get past them.

To be honest, I totally get it, obviously it's costs, they would not have contracted out to India if they could have afforded to keep good jobs in New York but what gets just furious is they are saying 'higher standards' as the reason for rejecting everything but then the one clip they let in is severely out of focus and I bumped the tripod by accident.....that one was ok, all else rejected for poor camera work and that they are applying stricter and higher standards but on the FAQ it still says they accept cell phone camera video.

@tsado and @weathernews I'm sorry to hear that your recent batches were 100% rejected. Typically it is unlikely to see such a high rejection rate and so I would like to personally look into this.

@tsado I will directly approve from the database any rejected clips I find which I feel warrant being online.

@weathernews it looks like you have already deleted your rejected clips however if you would like to resubmit the clips which you feel deserve attention I will personally look through the batch. Please message our CS team at support@pond5.com when you have uploaded them and I will have a look.

Thanks again Simon, will do, maybe we should go back to two month wait times but have a couple of fair curators do the reviewing, one being yourself, seriously, I'd be totally cool with 2+ month wait times and have a more fair reviewing. For me it's not that bad but for others that spend big money on models and shoots to have it all rejected.....it's harder for them.

I've actually held off on upgrading to 4K because of the uncertainty, sales are steady but the other stuff not so sure.

Thanks again for responding and I will re-upload those with the next batch. Off to get my blood pressure medication renewed now.

Thanks Simon.

Weathernews I totally agree with you, I'd rather wait two+ months for an experienced Pond 5 reviewer to view my work then to continue to go through this.

Interestingly I too have decided to hold of on the purchase of 4k for the same reasons...

Yep, very worried as if I needed more to worry about...these days one simply can't make any decisions due to uncertainty. I think I will hold off on 4K upgrade until end of August at least and then take a second look at new equipment.

Wow... Some curators need to be fired... If they only knew how difficult and how much setup goes into the recent clips of mine that were rejected.

@cactii Well it seems they don't or can't really accept much more footage here anymore think of those curators as goalies in a hockey game, I suspect their performance is measured by the numbers they keep out. If it's truly been outsourced to India it's about costs so.....

and apparently these new rules apply to the 4K library as well I found out so now I really don't feel like getting myself into more debt and upgrading to 4K.

Things are not looking good for new content, I'm lucky as I have 34,000 already in the door but have to optimize keywords and stuff to try and get them selling. As for new stuff?, I basically have to throttle back on shooting new stuff simple as that. Can still upload to a couple of other sites as they haven't applied the brakes yet.

@Tsado I technically could be 4K tomorrow and looking at the artist resources page it clearly shows a lot of 4K sales and for good prices so on one side there is the temptation but on the other side we have the curators basically reminding us that unless it's award winning video it won't make the cut.

I think as tempted as I am I would be smart to at least sit on the fence for a couple of months. The new rules are the new rules. If I could confirm 4K sales are going strong at the other two sites then maybe but haven't heard back yet. I would not be happy if I invested in 4K gear and found out I still can't get stuff in so probably best I stay HD for now and monitor things.