Cutcaster is.....

Cutcaster is a dynamic marketplace to license digital photos, vector illustratons and video online. The platform helps people who have taken a really good photo or captured some amazing video footage to monetize their content through licensing it to someone working in advertising, publishing, filmmaking or graphic design. Most people wouldn’t know how to price their content when approached by an interested buyer and even the most experienced ones have always let the agency dictate the price. In order to help these people determine the price they could charge, Cutcaster helps them learn how to price their content or has an algorithm that helps find the correct and highest market price based on a number of important variables. If the creator is an old pro, they have the option to set their prices as high as they want based on their past experience selling content.

The twist Cutcaster has introduced to licensing is buyers can now license content on demand or they can bid for it by submitting a price to the seller seamlessly over the site, which the seller can accept, decline or resubmit a new offer back to the buyer. In addition, if a publisher from a magazine came to you, they could also bid on extended rights for content like exclusivity in certain markets or over certain periods of time. This bidding platform helps buyers find content within their budget, provides incentives for them to license content at Cutcaster because they can create better deals for themselves than they would find at other sites and highlights for sellers where the demand is at different pricing levels and how to price their content so they don’t lose sales because their content isn’t priced correctly.

The Cutcaster Algorithm- Helping you get the most out of your photos and videos

I'm adding some additional information on how the pricing algorithm can help you get the most value out of your photographs, still images, stock videos and archival footage. I have an interview that we posted a while back which was done by Photopreneur which explains in detail what variables we look at when pricing content and how the algorithm can help people find the correct market price for photos and videos.

What is the Cutcaster Pricing Algorithm?
Cutcaster’s proprietary pricing algorithm takes the work out of determining and maximizing your content’s revenue by changing its price to match the demand in the marketplace. All you have to do is set an initial price or allow us and then let the algorithm do the rest – the price of your stock footage or hi-res image will then fluctuate based on a set of market variables.

How does it add value?
Just like how the price of a stock on an exchange is set through the interaction of buyers and sellers, we wanted to create a similar effect for a photograph or stock video. If you set the price too high and nobody buys or views your content, well, the price will come down. If there is a high level of demand for your content, you as the seller should be able to charge a higher price for it, so the price will move up. What the algorithm tries to do is automate this process across your entire inventory of content, so with very little effort you can feel confident that your work is being sold at the right price while still being very secure. At Cutcaster, we want our content producers to spend their energy being creative, not managing digital inventory.

How does it work?
It’s actually pretty simple. First, you need to determine the starting price for your content. We don’t really want to tell you this because you the best at determining the cost that went into the production of the photo or video and in addition you know how valuable your time is. You can either set the start price yourself or use the algorithm which will start the initial price at $75 for videos and $20 for images. The formula is flexible and can be modified, so feel free to let us know if you think there’s room for improvement or other variables we should consider when evaluating your prices.

Digital Stock Footage Market

Stock footage is estimated to be a $300 million market(US), according to BBC World-wide, and is poised to grow to $1 billion by 2010(US) as more clips make their way into Internet ads, cell-phone snippets and digital billboards. ‘Thought Equity’, based in the US say its revenue grew by 500 percent in the first six months of 2006, very similar growth experienced by dedicated footage companies in the UK.

Just some interesting tidbits on the day ;-)

What is Cutcaster?

Cutcaster is a dynamic marketplace to license digital video or photos. Cutcaster offers royalty free images, stock photos, stock footage and stock photography for advertising, publishing or web design. The platform helps people who have taken a really good photo or captured some amazing video footage to monetize their content through licensing it to someone working in advertising, publishing, filmmaking and graphic design. Most people wouldn’t know how to price their content when approached by an interested buyer and even the most experienced ones have always let the agency dictate the price. In order to help these people determine the price they could charge for a royalty free license, the site has an algorithm that helps find the correct and highest market price based on a number of important variables or if the creator is an old pro, they have the option to set their prices as high as they want based on past experience selling content.

The twist Cutcaster has introduced to licensing is buyers can now license content on demand or they can bid for it by submitting a price to the seller seamlessly over the site, which the seller can accept, decline or resubmit a new offer back to the buyer. In addition, if a publisher from a magazine came to you, they could also bid on extended rights for content like exclusivity in certain markets or over certain periods of time. This bidding platform helps buyers find content within their budget, provides incentives for them to license content at Cutcaster because they can create better deals for themselves than they would find at other sites and highlights for sellers where the demand is at different pricing levels and how to price their content so they don’t lose sales because their content isn’t priced correctly.

Fotolia Moves away from Micro-Stock, Incorporates Traditional Collections

Fotolia has debuted what it’s calling the “Infinite Collection.” This is a set of 15,000 agency-distributed photographs that would normally be found on expensive stock photography sites but are now being sold for as little as $20 on Fotolia. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Will this force higher end stock photography sites to lower their prices? Is this a form of price discrimination because Fotolia won't list the collections they are getting the photos from? Are the photographers whose photos are being sold aware that they are being sold this way by ?

I'll be watching this development closely to see how well they can incorporate this offering into their business model and client base.

Submitted Images- To sell or to reject.

Rejected images. They are a part of the Microstock business and every contributor has had one or two images rejected for reasons they just couldn't understand. It's something that seasoned submitters get used to and track the results of their submissions so they learn from their rejections. What can one do who is just starting out to get better at contributing to microstock sites to increase his acceptance rates?

There are a number of excuses and reasons for why an image could be rejected. Some of the examples below will highlight some of the few things you can do to fix the issues and get it accepted on the next try.

"Noise" can take place in every media file type.

Here are some types of image noise from Wikipedia,

" * In salt and pepper noise (also known as random noise or independent noise), pixels in the image are vastly different in color from their surrounding pixels. The defining characteristic is that the color of a noisy pixel bears no relation to the color of surrounding pixels. Generally this type of noise will only affect a small number of image pixels. When viewed, the image contains dark and white dots, hence the term salt and pepper noise. Typical sources include flecks of dust on the lens or inside the camera, or with digital cameras, faulty CCD elements.
* In Gaussian noise (dependent noise), an amount of noise is added to every part of the picture. Each pixel in the image will be changed from its original value by a (usually) small amount. Taking a plot of the amount of distortion of a pixel against the frequency with which it occurs produces a Gaussian distribution of noise."

If you have noise reduction software programs like Grain Surgery, Neat Image, GREYCstoration, Noise Ninja and pnmnlfilt (nonlinear filter) found in the open source Netpbm tools, you can remove some of the noise on a digital image. These tools are simple to use and can make the difference between a photo being accepted or rejected by many microstock sites out there.

At lower quality settings, "Compression artifacting" or hazing can be introduced by the camera and/or by your image editing software. Also, re-sizing, re-saving and re-sampling can all lower the quality of a JPEG image. A compression artifact (or artefact) is the result of an aggressive data compression scheme applied to an image, audio, or video so you have to always be careful when re-saving JPEGs as the image quality will become worsen with each re-save. One would obviously want to start with the cleanest and highest quality image to start. Always double check your camera settings to make sure it is on the highest quality settings.

“Composition or snapshot” Simply put, this is the setup of your image and the visual composition. Unfortunately this can be attributed to personal preference, but if you’re getting rejections for these reasons there are some basic rules that may help. Wikipedia covers them in the Rule of thirds here.

"The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in photography and other visual arts such as painting. The rule states that an image can be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. The four points formed by the intersections of these lines can be used to align features in the photograph. Proponents of this technique claim that aligning a photograph with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the photo than simply centering the feature would."

To utilize this, "When photographing or filming people, it is common to line the body up with a vertical line, and having the person's eyes in line with a horizontal one. If filming a moving subject, the same pattern is often times followed, with the majority of the extra room being in front of the person (the way they are moving)."

By making sure your images are free of as much noise, haze and artefact, you will significantly improve your acceptance rates when submitting images and footage to microstock sites. These are just a few reasons for rejection but there are more. My advice is to keep trying and mastering your craft. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard so keep it up.

For a great list on what it takes to be a microstock contributor read Lee Torrens writeup on the topic. As Lee puts it, "Rejection is part of microstock" and you need a thick skin.

Footage and Images that Cutcaster Wants

Take a good look below. Our buyers are interested in this footage. Here are the Footage and Images that we Want (in alphabetical order):

Animations: 3D background animations, 3D/2D motion graphics, background for text in DVD projects and menu systems, web graphics, promotional images and characters, etc.
Action Shots: People eating, working, playing, driving; things in motion or transit
Analogue: Intriguing textures, effects, & treatments
Commercials: Spec commercials, pre and post roll ads, 15-30 seconds in length. All subject matter is welcome
Concept Stock: Deep Hidden Meanings (DHM), images that represent emotions
Corporate Footage: Office shots, conference room shots, presentation shots, people in their work environment, etc.
Cultural Footage: Images of people, races and cultures engaging in activities or cultural traditions
Documentary/Short Films: All issues and topics
Geographic: Video and images of people and places around the world past, present and future; reels of specific locations, domestic and international
Healthcare: Administrative footage, imagery of healthcare providers and staff attending to administrative tasks in hospital/office settings, images of prescriptions such as pills, medicine, etc.
Historical/Archival: Images and video that capture a moment in history, archive footage
Holiday & Seasonal Themes: Christmas, Yom Kippur, Valentines Day, Easter, Ramadan, Halloween, winter, spring, summer, fall, etc.
Illustrations: Original design, graphics and motion graphics
Journalism: News worthy images or video content of relevant issues around the world; local, national and international
Photography: Portraits, still-life, abstract, aerial shots, architecture, motion photography, photo journalism, satellite photography, infrared, cityscapes, travel photography
Rare Artifacts: Footage in King Tuts tomb, an archiaelogical digs, findings, etc. The more rare, the more downloads.
Religious/Spiritual: Footage of rituals, festivals, representative imagery, sermons, etc. Specialty/Niche Footage: For example, firefighting, extreme fighting, extreme weather reels, hard to find captivating footage
Sports: Squash, mountain biking, ping pong, beer pong, soccer, skateboarding, karate, billiards, Championship ceremonies and shots (ie the winning shot), etc. Remember you need your releases.

We are building a high definition library and seeking HD or HDV footage for almost any subject. Check out Cutcaster here.

Sign Up at Cutcaster.com

Cutcaster is getting ready for it's launch and we are reaching out to those content creators and buyers to sign up at the site for the alpha launch. You must sign up at the site to receive an invite and we are sorry but the alpha is closed unless you have an invite.

So sign up here.

If you have any questions you can email us or you can check out the FAQ page.