All you need to know about adding metadata, tagging and organizing your clips from ‘Your Account’
When you have uploaded clips to Clipcanvas.com they will (after uploading and transcoding is complete) immediately appear in ‘Your Account’ ready for tagging and pricing. This is where you make your clips ready for publishing by connecting all necessary information to them, and send them for final approval.
Click on ‘Tag your clips (number of ready clips)’ on the left menu under ‘Sales’, then all of your unpublished clips will appear.
At the top of the page you will see your five first uploaded clips, with the first one playing underneath – ready for tagging. You can click on any of the five to open them in the tagging interface and also navigate between groups of five.
Above the playing clip, you can enter your tags. The following is a walkthrough of the tagging page at Clipcanvas.com.
Française, لعربية, Беларуская, Български, Dansk, Nederlandse, Suomalainen, Deutsch, Ελληνικά, Magyar, Italiano, 日本, 한국어, Latvijas, Norsk, Polska, Português, Roman, Россию, Slovenščina, Español, Türk.
1) Tagging
When tagging your clips there are some things you will need to know to maximize the potential for selling. This is both general advice and specific advice for www.clipcanvas.com.
Regarding the search engine at www.clipcanvas.com, the most important thing to know is that it uses a precise search – meaning it only shows hits that are 100% similar to the word(s) typed in. This means that if you search for ‘cars’, you will not get any hits of from clips tagged with ‘car’ – and vice versa. If one searches for two words, only the clips with both words tagged, will appear. So tagging your clips with singular and plural nouns (when appropriate) is essential. When describing an action, often a verb, it is also important that you include the relevant verb tenses of it. Basically, it means to include the two variations that people are likely to search for, like ‘walk’ and ‘walking’ or ‘drive’ and driving’.
When tagging for royalty free stock footage, an important aspect, beside the obvious in the footage, is to include words that can be described as feelings, concepts or moods. This is because potential footage buyers often search for footage that can illustrate a feeling, concept and mood – without actually knowing exactly what kind of clip they are looking for.
Here are a few important things to remember:
- When tagging for a royalty free stock footage marketplace like Clipcanvas.com, your focus should be on the objects, the actions, the concepts and the feelings in the particular clip, and not on ‘who’ and ‘when’.
- The first five keywords are the most important. These first five must be good and to the point.
- Furthermore, it is very important that only words that are directly relevant for the clip is included. That means that everything that is not the main focus in the clip is left out. This is of course to make the search-results as precise as possible.
- Footage with positive keywording is more likely to sell than footage with negative keywords.
- You should always be one-hundred percent sure that the keywords you use are totally correct and true. When you start guessing, the quality of the keywording will sink rapidly, and irritate potential buyers of your clip.
- When there are humans in the clips, remember to describe them as precisely as possible. Gender, age, race, color of hair, eyes etc.
Remember that on Clipcanvas.com there are several other options in addition to the keywords, like lighting, framing and camera handling. This means that by selecting the right values in these categories, makes keywords related to this redundant.
Try looking at the process it from the perspective of the buyer. Ask yourself the following questions: ´Would I be happy to find this clip if I search for the keyword I just typed in?´ and ´Is this the main focus of the clip?´
We suggest that you:
- Always think like the person who wants to find the clip
- Always have the clip you are tagging, playing in front of you
- Learn how the search engine at www.clipcanavas.com works
- Always focus on what matters. The objects, actions, concepts and moods directly linked to the clip
- Always avoid objects, actions, concepts or moods that are not directly linked to the clip
- Always remember the little, obvious things that may be easy to forget
- Always do your own keywording
- Have access to an English dictionary while keywording
- Always be totally precise and accurate in your keywording
- Include detailed location, and country in the country section, if it is relevant
- Always spell check your words
We suggest that you do not:
- Include objects, actions, concepts or moods that are not directly and concrete linked to the clip
- Guess if you don’t know. Better to do a little research or put the clip on upload-hold until you know for sure
- Use words that can be misunderstood, like double meaning words
- Use irony
- Do your keywording while in a hurry
- Underestimate the value of well contemplated keywording
- Include country and location if it is irrelevant
2) Categories
Check the boxes that you feel correspond with your clips. It can be one category or several categories. When it comes to computer generated images, they should be classified as ‘Animations’ and/or ‘Backgrounds’ – and not any of the other categories.
3) Camera handling
Handheld – choose this when the clip was clearly filmed with a handheld camera. Signs of this is usually uneven shaking in the clip.
Mixed-other – choose this when none of the other choices fit. It is often clips that are filmed from a car, plane, helicopter etc, with a jib or crane or clips that combine two or more of the other options, like tilt and zoom.
Pan – choose this one if the camera makes a smooth motion horizontally.
Static – choose this one if the camera is absolutely still when filming.
Tilt – choose this one if the camera makes a smooth motion vertically.
Tracking – choose this one if the camera physically follows the object being filmed, and is not just zooming after it.
Zoom – choose this one if the camera zooms during the whole, or part of, the clip.
4) Framing
Extreme close-up – choose this when the segment being filmed is so close that all small details of the object being filmed is visible. This could be a human eye.
Close-up – choose this one when the segment being filmed is so close that you only see a small part of the object being filmed. This could be a face of a human.
Medium shot – choose this when the whole object being filmed is not in the frame, but is non the less clearly visible for what it is. This could be the upper body of a human.
Long shot – choose this when the whole object is visible in the frame and you see the surroundings as well. This could be a human being from top to toe.
Wide shot – choose this when the framing is so wide that all details are gone and the focus is on a larger view. This could be a view over a city from the top of a building.
Extreme wide – choose this when you have a very wide view of something. This could be a landscape from a mountain top.
5) Price
Set the price you want to charge for the clip. We have the following options; 9€, 19€, 29€, 39€, €49, 59€, €69, €99, €149, €249, 319€, 499€ and €849. We urge our submitting video artists to price their clips based on technical and aesthetic achievement and the uniqueness of the clip.
6) Dynamics setting options
This is ment to be an option to someone who is in need of a special feeling of intensity or movement in their work. Is it still and almost photo-like? Or very intense with lots of movement and speed? This often has to do with camera handling and framing as well. The closer it is, the more intense every movement will appear in the clip.
Low – choose this if the clip has no camera movement, and there is nothing, or almost nothing happening in the clip.
Regular – choose this when there are regular movement or camera handling, like people walking, ripples in the water, cars driving from afar etc. Basically when it´s nothing ´special´ in terms of intensity or movement.
High – choose this when there is a lot of movement in the clip, and you ´feel´ a sort of intensity and energy in the clips. This could be close-ups of traffic, a timelapse of people rushing past and generally clips where there are much happening in the clip.
Extreme – choose this when the clip is really intense and ´pumping´, and really is as intense as it could get.
7) Lighting setting options
Artificial – choose this when the lighting in the clip is artificially produced. This include animations, backgrounds and all kinds of inhouse/studio lighting.
Dawn – choose this when the clip is clearly filmed in the morning, usually when you see twilight or the sun just before, or after, being visible
Day – choose this when the clip has a regular day lighting.
Dusk – choose this when the clips is clearly filmed in the evening, usually when you see twilight or the sun just before, or after, setting.
Night – choose this when the clip is filmed during the night, and thus is dark.
8) Country options
Choose the country the clips was filmed in, if it is of importance to the clip. This is usually if the location is of significance. For instance, for clips from a city, landmarks, tourist sights and so on, it is recommended that you choose country. In for instance animations, clips of clouds moving or detailed close-ups, it is recommended that you not include the country of origin, as this will only confuse, and maybe irritate, customers that search for clips from specific places in different countries.
9) For what kind of use is this clip to be offered?
Below the clip that is playing, you must answer the following question; ‘Does the clip contain visual or audible names, people, logos, trademarks, patented designs or copyrights or other forms of intellectual property?’. This is to identify which kind of use the clip will be offered. It can be commercial or editorial, this depends on the choices you make. This is to secure that all necessary releases has been obtained if the clip shall be offered for full commercial use.
Here are some more in-depth explanations for these phrases:
‘Visual or audible names‘ – do you see any names written in any form or hear any names being mentioned in any way?
‘People‘ – do you see any people that is so visible that they could be recognized by themselves, or any other person? Remember that the clip most likely will be enlarged (TV-size), when used by someone.
‘Logos‘ – is there any kind of logos in the clip? Example; the Coca-Cola logo or the Windows logo.
‘Trademarks‘ – this can be a lot of different things, like a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements. Do you recognize any trademarks in the clip?
‘Patented designs or copyrights or other forms of intellectual property‘ – does the clip show any famous designs? This could be a cruise ship, luxury car, Coca-Cola bottle etc. Does it show anything else that could be copyrighted or any intellectual property? This can be architecture, paintings, photographs, statues and all forms of art. Exceptions may apply if the originator of the art depicted has been dead for more than 70 years. This could be the architect of an old building, the sculptor of a statue, the painter of a painting etc. If you are uncertain, you must check with the legal system in the country of the clips origin.
Depending on the answer, the clip will be offered for one of two uses, either ‘editorial use’ (meaning news and documentaries) or ‘commercial use’ (meaning no limitations of use within the limits of the Clipcanvas ‘License Agreement’).
Remember that there is also a difference between clips where visual or audible names, people, logos, trademarks, patented designs or copyrights or other forms of intellectual property is the main focus of the clip, or is only a minor detail in the clip. In some of these cases, the clip might be able to be offered for commercial use.
10) What happens next?
When you have been through everything, you can either ‘Save clip’ (if you want to return later and adjust something) or ‘Send clip for approval’, to send it to Clipcanvas for our evaluation, and hopefully, publication. During the approval process, Clipcanvas reserves the right to not publish clips we do not feel are up to our quality standards in terms of technical and aesthetic merit.