How EditStock Supports Independent Filmmakers
Need I state the obvious? Most short films lose money. A crew, equipment, location, actors—it costs cash. And the independent filmmakers who produce shorts almost never turn a profit. So why do shorts get made? Historically, shorts are a proof of concept. They are made to get people noticed; actors, directors, writers and yes, editors.
This method is what indie filmmakers use to pay for those films. They scrape together savings from restruant jobs, have friends volunteer time, borrow from their parents and run up bills on their credit cards. This effort is all in the name of finding an agent or getting into a film festival so that maybe they can get noticed and produce a feature.
That's how the indie filmmaking business model worked for a generation.
The film gets made, people watch it, festivals premiere it maybe. Six months later it's a hard drive sitting on a shelf. The people who made it have spent thousands of dollars on a project that generates no income, and they start dreaming of shooting their next project with the same business plan.
EditStock has changed that equation, at least a little.
How Indie Films Make Money Selling on EditStock
When anyone buys an EditStock project, a royalty is paid to the filmmakers whose work was purchased. Through this process EditStock has made more than fifty indie films earn not just a few dollars but actually become profitable. Some many times over. The deal is non-exclusive, which means the filmmakers can sell their film elsewhere, too. Unlike traditional film distributors, EditStock does not with hold money for marketing expenses. It's a clear percentage with a month statement, always honored and paid within 30 days.
Filmmakers who want to submit their project for sale should review our sell page.
Why This Model Serves Schools
EditStock projects aren't a random assortment of clips. They come with a narrative, which is exactly what film schools need in order to teach editing. EditStock projects come from real productions. Every time a student cuts one, they're working with material that comes from someone with who they hope to work in the near future. And the school's purchase supports the people who made it. That's an ethical, symbiotic relationship to the material.
For schools buying in bulk, there are discounts for three or more projects. The more material a department buys, the more the filmmakers earn per project, which compounds the benefit. Over the years, EditStock has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars to filmmakers which is meaningful revenue to the indie filmmaking cohort.
When a school buys EditStock projects for a class, the money supports the very filmmakers who are likely to hire their students. In fact, there have been a couple instances where the purchase literally pays a former student. That's different from buying textbooks or worksheets, which don't fund anyone's creative work. It's different from using freely available footage, which is usually stripped of context or copyright.
Why EditStock works for students
Using real industry material teaches students something that traditional stock footage footage can't. The story and technical problems they encounter are real. The problems you solve when you cut them are the problems you'll solve on actual productions.
Using material that pays filmmakers teaches students something, too. That they can make films in a profitable way. In fact, that they must. The more students can appreciate the business side of filmmaking the more likely they are to found production companies.
Learning the business is a big part of learning the work. The technical stuff, the editing itself, is only half the job. The other half is understanding your place in a community of filmmakers and respecting that community by supporting it.
If you're a student or school, start with our free sample projects. See how the material works for your students. If it's useful, scale up.
