FAQ for Sellers

Clipcanvas is a royalty free marketplace for online stock footage purchase. At Clipcanvas you can search for clips, test watermarked previews and work creatively with your colleagues using our Clip bins - all for free.

When you decide to purchase clips, you will get access to the original clips in the best quality we have, and you can choose between our 18 different codecs when downloading.

All of our clips is sold under a royalty free license, which means the clips can be used wherever you want, for as long as you want, in any media you want - as long as they are used in one production.

Stock footage, stock video, b-roll, stock shots or stock video footage are common terms for the moving images that are used in a film or video production, but not shot with that particular production in mind. Typical productions where stock footage is commonly used are documentaries, television series, news programmes, independent films, commercials, sports reviews, and movies.

By signing up to join our service, you get access to various tools to help you with your production. We offer more than 230.000 royalty free stock footage clips, mostly in HD, which are just minutes away from you. Our database is pre-selected to help your production shine, and we are pleased to offer you high quality content on all thinkable subjects.

You can download watermarked SD clips for free to test in your editing suite and you can make and work creatively with Clip bins - even email them to your colleagues for input or approval. Our database grows with hundreds of new clips each day - and our team inspects every file to make sure that you get the best possible quality when using Clipcanvas.

Searching for stock video using Clipcanvas is easy. Simply type in the keyword(s) related to what you are looking for, press enter and the results are displayed. Then narrow down the search results using the left side menu.

If you want to save some of the clips you find for later, simply add them to a 'Clip bin' or add them to 'Your Cart' in order to purchase them directly, or the next time you log in to use the service. When you use 'Clip bins', please remember to save them for later. You must be logged in to save or purchase clips.

Searching Clipcanvas for footage should be easy and efficient. Try out different search strategies and explore the search interface to find the method that suits you the best!

Yes, our Producers are offering a growing selection of free clips you can download for free and use in your projects. Simply navigate through the 'Free footage'-tab in the head menu on the main pages of Clipcanvas.com to see what is available right now. The free footage is offered with the same license as our regular footage, Royalty Free. Please see the License Agreement in the Legal section for all details.

Simply put, 'Clip bins' is the lightbox or project work space for storing and reviewing stock video clips you like or take a particular interest in.

By adding individual clips to a 'Clip bin', you store them for later, so that the next time you log in to the account you may resume your work from where you left off. When you add a clip to Clip bin, it is automatically placed in the bar on top of Clipcanvas. Here you can either save them in a new bin, or place them in an existing bin.

Access Clip bins and make all the changes or updates you like in 'Your account' under ‘Clip bins’. You can make as many Clip bins as you like, and add the clips you want into them, and also remove clips afterwards. You can name the Clip bins whatever you want, for instance something that relates to the project you are looking for stock footage for.

Let our Clip bins be a tool for creative work and for revising content you or others in your team are considering purchasing, and remember to save the ones you need for later. You can also edit them at any time, if you need to.

Yes, you can. Our Clip bins are made so you can use them as an tool for your creative work. Once you have selected clips and made a Clip bin, you can email them to colleagues, clients, friends or whoever you want. They again can save the bin, edit it, and send it back to you. This way you can work creatively with the bins - in an easy way. Please note that you must choose to make it ‘Public’, by ticking off ‘Yes’ when saving the bin if you want to share it with others. We will also be working to improve these features even further.

'Your account' is the place to go to get access to and edit information regarding your purchases and downloads, personal membership information and data, if you require invoices/order confirmations, to review your order history, sales history, uploaded files, uploaded footage, provide additional information, request payments, review your account balance and so on.

We aim to make our service as intuitive and easy to use as possible, so give it a go and explore the different sections to familiarise yourself with the contents and possibilities.

All the information related to your membership may be retrieved and edited from 'Your account.' Your details are guarded by our privacy policy.

If you have trouble with your login, please make sure that you do not have CapsLock switched on or otherwise typed in the letters incorrectly. Alternatively make sure that you have allowed for cookies (settings for this are usually found in the 'Tools' menu for your web browser) and that you have activated the required Java script functionality.

If you still experience problems, wait for a short time or try restarting your browser, then try again, and/or contact us with a brief description of the trouble you are experiencing and we will help you out as soon as possible.

If you have forgotten, misplaced or for other reasons do not have access to your password and/or UserID, you may request this information to be delivered to you from the regular login page, or use the 'Contact form' to get in touch with us if this did not solve your problem. Remember to accept incoming mails from Clipcanvas and check the spam folder in your email account if you did not get an email after having requested it.

A submitter is our term for a contributor, seller or producer of stock footage, video clips, backgrounds and animations. Any person, company or organisation that owns the rights to market, sell or otherwise distribute stock footage content may become a submitter with Clipcanvas.

If you feel confident that your video content is good, then there is a high chance that others may want to pay to use it in their own production. By becoming a submitter you offer such customers the opportunity to license your work on a royalty free basis. In this way, you make more money from your work and Clipcanvas customers get access to more and better video content.

In order to submit footage to Clipcanvas you simply register, and then follow the procedure to upgrade to submitter for free. Then navigate to 'Upload' and download our uploader or use FTP and start uploading your content. Your submitter status entitles you to receive a 50% share of sales from the clips sold by us on your behalf. The full terms of agreement can be found in the Submitter Agreement.

Clipcanvas is a non-exclusive stock footage marketplace, so you are free to upload and sell your video clips anywhere else in addition to us.

In order to submit you own content you need to be a submitter, have access to a broadband internet connection and use the Clipcanvas Uploader or FTP. Simply launch the Clipcanvas Uploader from the ‘Upload’ menu or find your FTP information in the same place. When using FTP, place your clips outside the Support folder.

The Clipcanvas Uploader is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, and Clipcanvas recommend you use this method when uploading. If you have very large quantities of footage you wish to make available for purchase, and you do not believe it is convenient to use our uploader facilities, please get in touch with us using the ‘Contact Form.’

First of all, upload your best clips, not necessarily everything you have. The default sorting on Clipcanvas is partially based on how many clips you have sold in relation to the amount of clips in your whole portfolio. So to get more visibility on Clipcanvas, make sure your portfolio is helping you, not dragging you down. Very high technical quality is essential. HD clips must look stunning in HD, not just a web-version.

Be creative in your work, and look for subjects, compositions and approaches to your work which can complement our database. Many usual subjects is covered thoroughly, and prices pressed low, so keeping your portfolio fresh and exciting is important. The more unique footage you have, the better the chance of selling it for a higher price.

Customers seldom needs clips that are longer than 20 seconds, so if you have longer sequences, edit them down and upload the best parts. Remember that the first five (-5-) keywords are the most important, and that good keywording is essential - customers must be able to find your clips.

As a submitter you make money from all transactions where customers purchase and download your content. Whenever one of your video clips are sold, your account balance is increased by the amount received from the sale. In turn, you may request payment for the amount on your account balance whenever you like, so long as the amount is above 50 Euro.

For each sale, you are entitled to 50% of the sales amount, minus possible PayPal transaction fees deducted from the purchase of your clips, and promo discounts. PayPal transactions is the only form of payment that has a fee, credit card payments, prepay, bank transfers and credit do not have fees. Discounts is subtracted from the gross amount before earnings are split between the Submitter and Clipcanvas, so in other words the discount is split between you and Clipcanvas.

When your €50 minimum request limit is reached, you will find a link in 'Your account' called 'Request payment'. Follow the procedure described to request a payout and receive your money.

Clipcanvas does sadly not accept Public Domain footage.

The customers that wish to buy your video content through Clipcanvas, need to understand how they may use the specific content in question. Content may be used commercially or editorally, depending on what the content depicts and what releases have been secured. For example, if the main part of one of your video clips depicts individually recognisable people (like actors) and you wish to offer this for commercial use, a model release is required for each individual that is depicted and individually recognizable. Otherwise, your clip could at best be used for editorial purposes, or maybe even not at all.

Similarly, where individually recognizable property is depicted and constitutes the main art of the content, including trademarks, brands and logos, a property release is required. In the case of logos etc. you probably would not get such a release, so try to avoid uploading such content, as it would in most cases be rejected.

The same applies to sound that it copyrighted by others, like an audio track. All submitters are required to secure the proper release when needed and provide such a release upon request, according to the Submitter Agreement.

In any case, spending some time learning about the different areas of use for video content is both interesting and worthwhile, so make the best of it and use common sense.

The technical requirements regarding uploading content are easy to follow. Currently, we only accept HD quality content with 16:9 aspect ratio in a Quicktime .MOV file container format and the most relevant codecs: PhotoJPEG, DVCPro 25/50/100, ProRes HQ, H264 native, HDV, XDCAM, IMX50, DNx and DNxHD. We do not accept DV material any more unless an explicit agreement is made with Clipcanvas.

• Our system DOES NOT ACCEPT videos in any other containers than .MOV.
• If your content constitutes a different codec, try one upload and see if the clip appears for tagging. If not, the codec/container is not accepted.
• Make sure the bit rate is high enough. This is typically at least 50 mbit/s.
• FPS should be between 24 and 60.
• Each individual clip must have a duration of at least 2 seconds, and should generally not be longer than 30 seconds.
• The file may not exceed 750 MB. If any of these technical requirements are not fulfilled, you work will automatically be denied.

If you are having problems, or questions regarding this, please use the 'Contact Form.' If a clip does not meet the technical requirements, it will be deleted.

The professional quality of your work should be high in order to attract relevant customers. If your work is unintentionally out of focus, depicts unstable images, if the framing is badly off, lighting is over- or underexposed, you risk having your content rejected by our content managers.

Quality is a difficult dimension to verify, but using common sense is in many instances the best way to secure your own content being accepted. Also, content of poor filmatic merit is less likely to find a buyer. Identical clips are usually rejected. Please make sure you limit your uploads of the same subjects, and only upload the clips you are most satisfied with, not everything you have. REMEMBER, the customers browse through the clips, and will respond much better to a few, superbly produced clips, than large quantities of average, similar clips. Trust us, we know!

When you have upgraded your membership to 'Submitter', you are ready to start uploading your footage for sale. However, before you upload everything you have, Clipcanvas needs to approve your footage to make sure the technical quality (codec compression, bit rate etc.) is good enough.

Our customers are quality minded, and Clipcanvas must make sure every customer is satisfied with the quality we deliver. This is why all new Submittters must start by uploading maximum 5 clips that represent the quality of the footage you intend to upload for sale. After uploading maximum 5 clips, you must keyword them and send them for approval where Clipcanvas will inspect the clips. If the clips ends up with a status as 'Published' you are welcome to upload more footage of similar, or better, quality. If the clips are 'Not approved', Clipcanvas will unfortunately not accept more of your footage.

The Clipcanvas Uploader is a Java-program used to upload and submit footage to Clipcanvas. It is an easy to use and robust application that lets you select which clips you wish to sell (drag and drop or a file browser), and upload them.

Clipcanvas recommends this way of uploading, as the Clipcanvas Uploader has built-in clip verification, and is more stable and reliable than FTP.

Your upload speed depends on the file size and your line capacity. A typical media file of 60 MB would under normal circumstances require approximately 10 minutes to upload, given a broadband upload connection speed of 1 Mb/second.

However, you may select many files for upload and leave the machine to finalize the upload. Provided your computer remains on and there are no long network interruptions, the uploader will complete the upload on its own.

To use FTP, you need a (free) software like Cyberduck (mac) or FileZilla (pc). Use this address: upload.clipcanvas.com. Your FTP username and password is found under 'Upload' in 'Your account'.

PS - Place your clips outside the Support folder!

This is usually due to one of two reasons:

1. Sometimes, when the upload pressure on our system is high, the clips you upload takes some time before they are transcoded and ready for tagging in 'Your account'. Usually they will appear quite fast after completed upload, but on certain occations, it can take up to 48 hours before they appear. Please be patient, and you will soon find your clips.
2. If the clips never appear in 'Your account' under 'Tag your clips', our system has not accepted them. This is often related to submitting content in formats, codecs etc., that differs from our technical requirements. In such cases, the clips must be altered to meet our specifications and uploaded again. Duplicate clips are also automatically rejected by our system, so please check that you have not uploaded the clips before if you do not find them for keywording. See ALSO our FAQs on technical and artistic requirements!

Initially, our service is aimed at providing online end-to-end distribution of stock video content. However, if you have limited bandwidth or other issues prevent you from taking full advantage of being able to upload content directly to the service, please feel free to contact us using the 'Contact Form' and we will get back to you. Our job is to help you get your stock video out there, so we will do our best to make that happen. We sometimes accept disk shipments and other storage media, but please contact us first.

To change the price on single or multiple clips, please access 'Edit your clips' in Your account. Here you can either change the price one-by-one with the drop down menu beneath each clip, or choose all clips (please use the side menus and number of clips shown on each page to customize your choice), and bulk change the price with the button called 'Change selected clip prices'.

When you have uploaded a clip it is ready to be tagged from 'Your account' after a short while. When submitting tags or keywords for your work it is advisable that you try to enter keywords you feel describe the clip(s) in question. The first 5 keywords are the most important!!

Think about what you normally would search for if you were looking for this particular clip yourself. How, using only a few tags/keywords, would you characterize the particular clip in question? Adding precise keywords is anticipated to have a positive effect on helping potential customers find and review your clip, thus increasing the chance of making a sale.

You tags/keywords could include anything from country, location, city, objects depicted, activity, to concepts, moods, what it is about, or other relevant aspects. It should be easy and straightforward, so just apply your common sense. If you consistently add irrelevant tags, your account may be suspended. Also, such behaviour is quite unsportsmanlike vis-a-vis your fellow submitters.

Yes, under 'Set tagger defaults' you can set default information that will apply for all your future uploaded clips. You can also use the check-boxes in the keywording interface to use default values for one specific keywording batch. Please use these options with care, and make sure the information you apply is correct when sending the clips for approval.

Yes, we have written a walkthrough-guide called 'Tagging page'. You can access it here. This guide gives you a thorough explanation on everything you need to know about keywording, pricing and the other information you must apply in this process.

At present, you may select from the following price levels in Euro: 9, 19, 29, 39, 49, 59, 69, 99, 149, 249, 319, 499 and 849 for royalty free clips. Most clips are priced at 9 to 99 Euros. Anticipating the correct price may be difficult, but you are free to change this at a later time, if you feel the price was set too high or too low on the previous occasion.

If you need to change any information connected to your already published clips, you must go to 'Edit your clips' in 'Your account' and access the large view. There you can set it back to 'Unpublished' to access it in the keywording interface. After this you can make the changes you want and send it for approval.

If you need to delete or remove a clip from Clipcanvas, go to 'Edit your clips' in 'Your account' and access the large view of the clip. Here you will find a 'Delete'-button.

After submitters has uploaded clips to our site, they are reviewed by our content managers before they are published. During this process, our main responsibility is to ensure the artistic and technical quality, as well as the uniqueness, of the clips. If we find the clips are good and according to our standards, they will be published. In case any clips are not published, it is due to an evaluation where the clip was not found to be of the quality standards we have. Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity or time to comment or give feedback on any clips that do not make it through to be published, but we often give you some feedback and input on how to improve.

Before your work is published and publicly available for identification, review and purchase by any customer, our content managers revise and provide quality assurance for the individual content in question. We make sure that you have provided the required information and that both the technical and filmatic quality is up to standard. Reviewing content is an important step in the process of assuring high quality to be offered to the customers buying your content and for securing safety of use.

Therefore, we take great care to provide for this, and the time it would take for a clip to be reviewed and acknowledged depends on the amount available for review and the quality of the data you provide. In the event that there is a longer backlog awaiting publication confirmation and quality assurance it would take longer time, and in the event that there is no backlog it is usually done within five working days.

In any case, we strive to work our queue as soon as possible and hope you agree that quality assurance is important, both for you and for your potential customers. For new Submitters, please be aware that reviewing your first clips may take longer, as we need to inspect the original files thoroughly.

The customers that wish to buy your video content through Clipcanvas, need to understand how they may use the specific content in question. Content may be used commercially or editorially, depending on what the content depicts and what releases have been secured.

For example, if the main part of one of your video clips depicts individually recognisable people (like actors) and you wish to offer this for commercial use, a model release is required for each individual that is depicted and individually recognizable. Otherwise, your clip could at best be used for editorial purposes, or maybe even not at all. Similarly, where individually recognizable property is depicted and constitutes the main art of the content, including trademarks, brands and logos, a property release is required. In the case of logos etc. you probably would not get such a release, so try to avoid uploading such content, as it would in most cases be rejected. The same applies to sound that is copyrighted by others, like an audio track.

All submitters are required to secure the proper release when needed and provide such a release upon request, according to the Submitter Agreement.

A lot of content does not require release forms. However, for content aimed at commercial publication and use, Model Releases are required for any individual that is depicted or individually recognizable, like an actor/actress, as long as this constitutes the main bulk of the footage in question.

Similarly, where an individually recognizable property constitutes the main content depicted, including trademarks, artworks, brands and logos, a Property Release is required.

Please take care to use a model release when appropriate, and if you are in doubt it is better to opt for safety. You can find a copy of a standard model and property release forms here.

For content that normally requires release forms, you should make sure to secure these. Submitters are required to provide a release upon request, for uploaded content that would normally require it, according to the Submitter Agreement. A copy of a standard model and property release can be found in the legal section in support. (Top menu).

Please read the Submitter Agreement for further details and use the Internet to familiarize yourself with regards to what requires release forms and what does not. Content that requires release forms, for which release forms are not supplied, may not be offered for commercial use or not at all, or you may even be unlucky enough to face legal action for violating copyrights.

No, you do not need to upload releases. When agreeing to the Submitter Agreement you accept to provide such releases upon question. In relation to the keywording of all clips, you must provide information about releases, and these answers are the basis for what kind of use the clips will be offered for (editorial use or commercial use). So if the clip needs a release and you confirm/answer that you have secured it, you are legally binded to provide that release if asked to by Clipcanvas, so make sure you store them in a secure place.

The clips should contain the native sound from your initial production. Making sure that the quality of sound is good is valuable. Be advised that release forms are required for sound that is copyrighted by others, like an audio track.

Try to avoid using music in your work, either in the background (like a radio that is turned on) or as a main part. This will in most cases force us to reject the clip.

The areas of use for royalty free content offered through Clipcanvas is similar to all content offered on royalty free licenses by stock footage aggregators. Content that is marked ‘Commercial use’ is in most cases ready for buying customers to use both commercially and editorially.

If a piece of work is marked with ‘Editorial use only’ this means that the content may only be purchased and used for relevant documentary or newsworthy purposes. However, according to regulations regarding broadcasting and publication, different legal practices apply.

To fully appreciate the areas of use, you are adviced to consult the Licences Agreement and the laws regarding copyright and privacy.

Crediting and acknowledging artists is an important aspect of using any type of creative content, ranging from stock photo, backgrounds, music, sound effects and animations to stock video, paintings and web designs. To the extent that your work may easily be credited and acknowledged in the resulting production or derivative work, like when content is used for a documentary film production, those that purchase your content normally do so, but it is not a requirement.

When more producers credit artists, this increases the level of professionalism in the industry and works to inspire all of us, so we strongly encourage this. In turn, we hope that you will provide these customers with even more creative and high quality content.

When your portfolio reaches 200 clips or more, you may create a public profile. This is done by adding a profile thumb from one of your clips, a short description about yourself and a link to your website, blog or one of your social network pages. You must also offer one of your clips for free download. This is a very good opportunity to draw more attention to your work, and there are some Facebook comment and like features you may also use to promote your work even further. Your profile is created from 'Your account' - 'Your profile'.

You can sign up and then become an affiliate to make more money from the traffic on your website, blog, social media accounts etc. The affiliate program is found in 'Your account' under 'Become an affiliate'. Here you can place one of the personalized links on your website. We will track users arriving from your personalized link, and they will be considered your referral.

If the user signs up, you will receive 10% of all the purchases the new user makes during their first 6 months as a member. To get started, select the text or image banner that is most suitable to your needs, and copy the code to your website´s page or template.

If none of the the other FAQs answered your question, concern or issue, feel free to contact us via the Contact form, or on mail[at]clipcanvas.com.

In order to contact Clipcanvas, we encourage you to use the Contact Form to get in touch with us or send us an email via support[at]clipcanvas.com. We will respond to your query as soon as possible. Please try to find your answers in the most frequently asked questions section before reaching out to us. This way, you may find what you are looking for quickly and we save time to bring you more great footage.