The moment I realized my footage was worth a lot more than I thought 👇
For years I sold stock footage the traditional way. I'd upload hundreds, sometimes thousands, of clips to the big stock platforms and let them handle the sales.
It was a ton of work. Keywording, uploading, waiting. And the payouts were so small it barely made sense to keep going.
Then a production reached out to me directly. They needed a very specific behaviour from a blue heron, and I knew I had it on a hard drive.
Pacific Great Blue Heron on the shores of British Columbia
Before replying, I talked to a few people in my network about pricing. That's when it hit me: I'd been massively underselling my work. There were real industry rates for this kind of footage, and they were nothing like what I was seeing on stock sites.
So I sent the production a quote at those rates. They said yes without hesitation. For them, it was just the standard cost of doing business.
And it made sense. They weren't getting a pre-graded, pre-edited clip from a generic library. They were getting the raw footage, straight from the person who filmed it, ready to fit their own edit and grade.
That one heron sale earned me more than 10x what I'd ever made selling individual clips on those other sites.
That was my aha moment. And it's what led to DenSyte.
I kept asking myself: why should only a few cinematographers get to sell footage this way? What if there was a platform that let everyone do it?
Photo Credit: Cameron Trask
Meet my co-founder, Alex Burr
Alex Burr, co-founder
I knew I couldn't build it alone. Alex is an Emmy-nominated director and producer who knows this industry from the other side of the table. He understands what productions need when they go looking for footage, and that perspective shapes every part of how we're building the platform.
Together, that's what we're building. 🐺
Thank you
To everyone who has joined us so far, whether you've submitted footage, posted a request, or just followed along: thank you. You are the community we're building this for, and with.
We still feel like we're in the early stages, and that's the exciting part. We have some great features and updates on the way, and we can't wait to share them with you soon.
If you haven't signed up yet, now's a great time to get on board.
Join DenSyte
And if you know a cinematographer or production company who would be a good fit, please pass this link along. Word of mouth from people like you is how this community grows. https://densyte.com/
More soon,
James