AlwaysHD
Encyclopedia
AlwaysHD is an online, royalty free
and rights managed
, international stock footage
company that sells downloadable, professional HD
(High Definition), 2K
, and 4K
content. AlwaysHD aggregates clips as submitted by its contributing cinematographers and CG artists, sharing with them a percentage of every license sold.
system for MudBrick Media, an educational production company. The primary goal was to offer a centralized repository for all of MudBrick’s high definition master footage that could be catalogued, searched, and accessed from anywhere in the world via web interface. In 2006 the AlwaysHD library was made available to the public and began accepting footage from outside cinematographers, focusing exclusively in professionally shot HD video. In 2007 the library expanded to include computer-generated clips. In December 2008, AlwaysHD split from Mudbrick Media and became AlwaysHD, Inc.
is a resource utilized by advertising agencies, broadcast and cinema production, educational production, government and industrial "corporate videos," museum exhibits, and web development. Stock Footage is most often used in video productions when it is determined that the shot needed is either too costly or too difficult to produce internally. For example, the History Channel's "Life After People" licensed footage of global landmarks through AlwaysHD. as shooting such would be proven to be beyond budget. Sometimes stock footage is used when time constraints prevent the production company from shooting it themselves, such as seasonal shots of cities or landmarks. Stock Footage thus provides video production companies a means to locate and acquire footage both quickly and inexpensively, from around the world, for any given season.
AlwaysHD is in function comparable to, and competes with, stock footage libraries such as Corbis
, Thought Equity Motion
, and Getty Images
. The footage is offered in two pricing models: Per-Clip and Per-Collection. And while similar in pricing and model to microstock footage companies, AlwaysHD has established itself as “quality assured” by its system of footage review and approval.
All footage is, by default, available for download as full resolution Apple Quicktime
.MOV files in either the Photo-JPG codec
(progressive) or Motion-JPEG codec (interlaced). The clips are delivered in the frame rate at which the footage was imported by the cinematographer. The buyer can request different codecs, such as ProRes422, DNxHD, Animation, and Uncompressed as well as different formats (NTSC / PAL), frame rates (23.98, 24, 25, 29.97), and frame sizes.
Contributors earn money by sharing a percentage of the licensing fee charged for every one of their clips sold. The accumulated credit is then paid out every month. Most clips are priced between $25 and $200, a function of the uniqueness, camera used, and contributor’s suggested pricing.
Royalty free
Royalty-Free, or RF, refers to the right to use copyrighted material or intellectual property without the need to pay royalties for each use or per volume sold, or some time period of use or sales.-Computer standards:...
and rights managed
Rights Managed
Rights Managed, or RM, in photography and the stock photo industry, refers to a copyright license which, if purchased by a user, allows the one time use of the photo as specified by the license. If the user wants to use the photo for other uses an additional license needs to be purchased. RM...
, international stock footage
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
company that sells downloadable, professional HD
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
(High Definition), 2K
Digital cinematography
Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on video tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common...
, and 4K
Digital cinematography
Digital cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on video tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common...
content. AlwaysHD aggregates clips as submitted by its contributing cinematographers and CG artists, sharing with them a percentage of every license sold.
History
AlwaysHD was originally created in 2004 as a digital asset managementDigital asset management
Digital asset management consists of management tasks and decisions surrounding the ingestion, annotation, cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of digital assets...
system for MudBrick Media, an educational production company. The primary goal was to offer a centralized repository for all of MudBrick’s high definition master footage that could be catalogued, searched, and accessed from anywhere in the world via web interface. In 2006 the AlwaysHD library was made available to the public and began accepting footage from outside cinematographers, focusing exclusively in professionally shot HD video. In 2007 the library expanded to include computer-generated clips. In December 2008, AlwaysHD split from Mudbrick Media and became AlwaysHD, Inc.
About the Footage
Stock footageStock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
is a resource utilized by advertising agencies, broadcast and cinema production, educational production, government and industrial "corporate videos," museum exhibits, and web development. Stock Footage is most often used in video productions when it is determined that the shot needed is either too costly or too difficult to produce internally. For example, the History Channel's "Life After People" licensed footage of global landmarks through AlwaysHD. as shooting such would be proven to be beyond budget. Sometimes stock footage is used when time constraints prevent the production company from shooting it themselves, such as seasonal shots of cities or landmarks. Stock Footage thus provides video production companies a means to locate and acquire footage both quickly and inexpensively, from around the world, for any given season.
AlwaysHD is in function comparable to, and competes with, stock footage libraries such as Corbis
Corbis
Corbis Corporation is an American company, based in Seattle, Washington, that licenses the rights to photographs, footage and other visual media...
, Thought Equity Motion
Thought Equity Motion
Thought Equity Motion works to increase the value of video content through its technology platform and licensing services. The company works with more than 400 rights holders globally, including BBC Motion Gallery, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, National Geographic, The New York...
, and Getty Images
Getty Images
Getty Images, Inc. is a stock photo agency, based in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is a supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 80 million still images and illustrations and more than 50,000 hours of stock film footage...
. The footage is offered in two pricing models: Per-Clip and Per-Collection. And while similar in pricing and model to microstock footage companies, AlwaysHD has established itself as “quality assured” by its system of footage review and approval.
All footage is, by default, available for download as full resolution Apple Quicktime
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
.MOV files in either the Photo-JPG codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
(progressive) or Motion-JPEG codec (interlaced). The clips are delivered in the frame rate at which the footage was imported by the cinematographer. The buyer can request different codecs, such as ProRes422, DNxHD, Animation, and Uncompressed as well as different formats (NTSC / PAL), frame rates (23.98, 24, 25, 29.97), and frame sizes.
Contributors
Contributing Cinematographers and CG artists apply upon registration (by specifying camera or CG equipment) before they are given the ability to upload footage. The criterion for camera type and model sets a minimum bar for acceptance as a contributor by largely rejecting consumer-grade equipment. Once approved, the cinematographer or CG artist can begin uploading. All uploads are then screened and reviewed for quality and composition. Finally the clips are given keywords and made available for licensing and download.Contributors earn money by sharing a percentage of the licensing fee charged for every one of their clips sold. The accumulated credit is then paid out every month. Most clips are priced between $25 and $200, a function of the uniqueness, camera used, and contributor’s suggested pricing.