30p and 25p

Would 30p for USA and 25p for Europe versions of the same clip increase sales more than having a clip in different sizes?

I see a lot of 25p footage sold here.

I have been wondering of the exact same thing. Will buyers in USA buy 25p footage?
Many of todays camcorders/DSLR has the ability to shoot in different frame rates. Could it be that shooting in 30p and then make a slightly slowed down version in 25p, offering both version here at P5. Will it be wise?

I've checked my sales and in my case I sell 3 times more 25p than 30p clips.

I have just bought a 7D and on a recent test shoot I did 7 shots each in 23.976, 25 and 30 FPS.

Given that I was at a rally of striking workers, all the shots are not identical but similar. In the future I plan to shoot as much as possible in all 3 modes.

You can see the footage in this bin:
https://www.pond5.com/it/video-sound-effects-music/1/clipbin:229679.html

@jetsetmodels: That is partially because you have 294 clips at 25FPS and only 158 clips at 30 FPS.

Wouldn't it be great if P5 could automatically scale and change formats based on the buyers needs. Submit in 30fps .MOV and then P5 automatically offer 24 and 25fps, h.264, .avi., MPEG-4, .mwv and NTSC and PAL. WOW ... everyone in the world could buy the format they need for their production.

Maybe all video would not need conversion and storage (which would be very expensive) but when a buyers checks the box to select size and format the conversion would take place and an e-mail link to the new conversion would be delivered to the buyer within 5 minutes.

Now that would be a great added benefit to buyers and answer all of our questions on which format to sell.

I have seen clips of mine sell in various formats. At least the ones I offer as such. However, I must point out that a "converter" online is not as "easy" to do as it sounds. Think about it. If you were to go from lets say 25p and needed to go to 30p, if you leave it in some automated converter, does the converter shorten the clip, and hence it runs faster? Does it follow the rules of pull-up and pull-down? Does it always know the correct algorithm? Think about all the combinations possible. Just a sampling: 29.97 to 23.976, 25 to 29.97, 23.976 to 24.whatever and on and on.. Changing frame rates is not as simple as it may sound. Changing resolution may be simpler as long as it is down-convert. But what if w start talking Film 2K and 4K vs Video 2K and 4K, and then again the frame rate change? This is not as easy as it looks. The best example I can think of is using Adobe AE, while bringing in a series of photographs for timelapse - you can actually control how to bring it in in regards to frame rate - But if you change the parameter after the fact in the comp settings, it gets all messy and doesn't match the timeline, which again you have to adjust and so on. It is not as easy as one might think. At least not to do it cleanly. My take on it is simple - as a "converter" does not exist (yet) here on P5, I offer the variety myself. As far as how much variety? Well, that depends on the clip and how it was acquired to begin with. It is obviously difficult to take straight HD and upsize to 2K and 4K so that is not an option. But again, if I shoot in HD 30p, or even 60i (video cam) and convert after the fact to say 24p or 25p (50i) - will the result give me what I need? Will the software handle it? Heck some of the NLE products literally have an issue with mixing various sizes, rates, and not to mention progressive vs interlaced. Avid actually makes it an advertising point that their product can handle it all. Is that because they know others can't? I don't know the answer, but I must say it is something to really think about. There is no simple solution.

Now think about the computing power it would take to convert from one codec to another. Think about how long it takes your systems to render a file - that is the reality of it all. Just multiply it times the number of clips uploaded per week here and you will quickly see that it would require unfathomable amounts of CPU power.

The sites that do the conversions have not seen a boost in sales volume for anyone I have spoken with. It's not like the conversion process is a difficult one. Sure it's a nice feature, yes I think you might see a slight boost in sales if you offer both, that might be because you rank higher do to supposedly double the volume of clips, or because maybe that particular buyer doesn't know how to convert it, and actually needs that. I would think that's not often. 30FPS in my opinion is the best thing to shoot, or animate, because your packing more info into each second. It's easy to drop out info or frames, but not easy to generate them. New camera's coming out put allot of focus on 4k or other large scales, personally if I was in charge I would be more focused on higher FPS. 4K and the larger size stuff is cool for composting or a pan you don't have it in the actual shot, giving some control to the end user, but high FPS provides allot more potential if you ask me. Think about it, the ripple of an impact, and being able to slow down and speed up in full detail a single second, is so much cooler then, oh cool I can pan a little... So much info is lost if you throw some thing past a 30 FPS recording, it's just to fast it doesn't catch details. Why dump that to 25? It's just even more data loss, not as much so people don't seem to consider it, and yet you will hear some people talk about compression like it comes straight from HELL!!!! I'm a big fan of letting the end user dump to 25 because then they have the flexibility to go back to 30. If I needed a 30 second spot done and I was a big business I wouldn't want it to be 24 seconds in the U.S. and 30 in Europe or the other way around.

I know a little off topic, but not really if you think about it. Size, wrapper, FPS, it's all kind of the same topic... Plus, say you put in a ton of work converting all this stuff yourself right, you do a PAL NTSC Web Res... 25FPS 30 and what ever else.. Then in 10 months someone at Pond5 does decide to do it, well then you just lost all that time uploading and re key wording the same stuff you already have online. What a waste... If you want this to be all you do you have to think in business terms what ways your time is most effective. If you have amazing shots from some exotic location that you can't get again and they are in huge demand, do it, change the FPS.. If the only thing stopping you from shooting more, or animating more is your time being invested in another area of the business then don't. It's better to be active in the business in some way then to twiddle your thumbs, but being active could mean your reading this and it could mean your out there shooting what might be the best seller in your whole port...

You are absolutely right. Very few artists have the ability or are willing to spend the money to buy converters that can handle the issues. Yes it might be an expensive software and maybe hardware upgrade for P5 but the results could well be worth it. If you figure in storage if individual artists put multiple formats and sizes, P5 might actually save money by converting as needed when purchased.

On size changes, just think about it. A buyer would be given the original footage and a crop function where they can select the location of the crop during the downsize.

It is kinda being done elsewhere. But just think of the added marketability. Every nation, every broadcaster, and every end user can get what they want.

If it could be done with a central core with the highest quality conversion systems and software it would be a great step forward.

I agree Andy, not an easy task, but a task for the world leader in stock footage to seriously consider. Maybe every speed, size or format cannot work well but something to freshen the site for buyers is needed. P5 announced last week that changes are coming. Great!

Going from 30 to 24/25 fps is a nightmare.