11 replies to this topic

[CamDiver]

Looking to create my archives and wondering of there is an online service that offers good archive hosting?

Anyone with recommendations?

Cheers,
Mark.

[Nick Hope]

If you just want to store stuff for safekeeping and not access it much, Amazon Glacier is supposed to be reliable and cheap. As the name implies, it's slow. I expect people have started building more feature-filled services that utilise Amazon Glacier storage behind the scenes. If you do want to access stuff then the Amazon service is S2, but costs could get high for significant amounts of video storage.

[Steve Douglas]

Personally, I would never trust a cloud based system with my master footage. If their server goes down and you need access to it, you're stuck and if a client is waiting on it, you're out of $. However, if it is just for a second or third back up, I see no reason why not. I back everything up at least 3 times using both an Accusus RAID configured as a RAID 5 and a Drobo Pro as well as a ton of other external drives. I wouldn't take chances on just a cloud based back up.
Steve

[CamDiver]

Hey guys, thanks for the input, appreciated. Steve, we just want somewhere to store some proxy files of masters so that easy to access low rez files can be viewed by stock footage clients. Had a recent bout of hair pulling trying to get clients in Korea access to a show reel of some recent 4K footage from Indo.

Have been told about a site: http://www.paya.com who offer such services and take a 20% cut. Haven't checked them out yet but will be doing so this morning.

Cheers,
Mark.

[CamDiver]

Been playing around with that paya website, seems ok if not a little clunky at the moment. I've been asked by another shooter in the region to manage his archive, well the office bod does that, under the liquidmocean banner, seems quite a fitting name.

Anyway, given we're testing the water with a standard vimeo account, the Paya site simply works in tandem with the account on the vimeo platform, means we're limited to uploading just ten clips a day. If the client wants to look at accellerating a little he will have to spring for a Vimeo Pro account but at first glance it all looks relatively straightforward. Food for thought for the active shooters out there: https://www.paya.com/seller/2102

Cheers,
Mark.

[RWBrooks]

Sounds like you are promoting the site Mark, developing it too?

[CamDiver]

Urmmm, nope. As this category of the Forum is so titled I'm simply sharing the info and experience of a service that deals with the post production and potential sale of footage. I also mailed you about that merely as a way of enlightening you to a potential option for your footage.

Maybe being too social also has it's pitfalls. No worries.

[RWBrooks]

No, don't get me wrong, seems like a great deal for the contributor, if you get bites then all the better. Thanks for the heads up.
Richard

[SimonSpear]

Hi Mark

Admittedly I've not looked too deeply at Paya, but is marketing 4k footage with low res proxy's the best approach? Wouldn't watermarked high res (at least 1080) versions be more effective, especially as anyone looking to buy is unlikely to be limited by bandwidth these days?

Cheers, Simon

[CamDiver]

Hi Simon,
If you look at most stock agent sites, Oceanfootage and Mammoth for example you will not find the main archives in 1080p from their 2k and 4k stock. It is still a matter of bandwidth and clients not wanting even watermarked stock at that rez 'out there'. The other limiting factor is platform space. Paya works by feeding through a Vimeo account, as this is a simple trial I am still on a standard account but even with the Pro account the max space one has is 50Gb. Sounds a lot but 50Gb worth of 1080p clips is not a lot of clips, especially when we're talking a base stock currently occupying numerous Terrabytes worth of hard drive space.

The feedback I have thus far received from producers and directors from broadcast and production houses also seems favorable.

Cheers,
Mark.

[SimonSpear]

Hi Mark

That surprises me to be honest. I would have thought that if they were going to commit to purchasing 4k footage that they would have wanted to see something a bit higher resolution first, or is the plan to physically send them higher res files via YouSendIt, Dropbox etc once you have an expression of interest?

I do agree that 50GB on Vimeo is probably not enough storage space. My current stock library of around 1500 clips is in ProRes and PhotoJPEG and comes in around 500GB. Still maybe as H264 proxies it could be workable....I obviously hadn't put much thought into this aspect of marketing 4k footage!

Cheers, Simon

Edited by SimonSpear, 29 December 2012 - 07:33 AM.

[CamDiver]

Hi Simon,
The clips on the paya platform are simply reference files, as with all stock houses. This also explains why the clip lengths may be off in the actual as opposed to the pricing structure descriptions etc. It's simply a reference listing that states "This is the stock, I have it in these lengths etc and can deliver it in all resolutions up to 4k under a plethora of licenses".

People want to see manageable, playing clips to get an idea. Even when editing RED One footage very few people will use the actual 4k master or even 1080p proxy for that matter. Depending on their computer set up they will use one of the proxies, including the 720p for speed. EDL build and then out source to a render farm, at least that is how some of the people I've thus far worked with have structured their workflow with this footage.

In my limited experience with this the broadcast and production industries one sells stock to work at a very different level than many imagine. This may come as a surprise to many but their end products are pretty well polished.

Cheers,
Mark.

Edited by CamDiver, 29 December 2012 - 04:23 PM.