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| Review: -Footage Firm's Super Slow Motion Royalty Free Footage |
January, 2011
 Footage Firm's Super Slow Motion Royalty Free Footage
http://www.footagefirm.com
$8.41 Shipping & Handling Costs per disc
Review by Steve Douglas
It's been almost a year since I last reviewed Footage Firm's Time Lapse Collection of royalty free footage and I see they haven't lost their touch. Given the opportunity to take a look at their latest collection of super slow motion offerings I wasn't going to turn them down.
There is a big need for affordable and high quality royalty free footage. No shooter can be expected to be able to travel to every destination around the world where footage might be needed from, or have the deep pockets to afford some of the cams that can cost up to $150,000 and more. Heck, 10k is a lot for me.
That's where a company like Footage Firm comes to the rescue, and while I will focus on only one of their genres here, they also provide all kinds of excellent, high quality footage from different cities and areas around the globe, nature and background effects and a plethora of other footage at prices far more reasonable than some companies I can recall.
Shot with the Phantom HD Gold Cam which costs about $150,000.00 and can shoot at speeds up to 1,000fps, Footage Firm has ensured purchasers that the quality of this collection of super slow motion footage will be exceptional.
There are 11 different discs in this collection, each of which can be purchased separately, enabling you to buy just the discs you need for any particular project. Each disc contains 15 HD clips and 15 of the same clips in SD as well as a shot list so that you can view a frame of each numbered clip. As you would expect, the HD clips cannot play off the DVD; you have to drag and copy the clip to your desktop or other intended folder. However, you can view the SD clips off the disc and, when you find one that fits your needs, then go to the HD version and import that.
The big problem I have is how to show you the beauty of so many of these clips in a single frame capture. Sorry, but it really can't be done. To save time, each of the screen grabs shown in this review were taken off the standard definition clips playing in Quicktime directly off the DVDs.
Naturally, I turned to the Water FX disc first and found a good variety of ultra slow moving water.
Review: -Footage Firm'sA good variety of different water sources and subject, all caught in ultra slow motion.
In the Liquid Flow Collection, are 15 more water effects that really are beautifully captured.
Screen grabs from the Breaking Glass DVD simply do not do the footage justice.
From the Burning Objects disc comes some unique slow motion footage from burning flags to wood piles.
In the Explosions category there were some unique slow motion explosions that I have not seen before in other explosion collections I have seen. Unique is good.
Paint of many colors splashed everywhere. Reminds me of Pollack on his canvas'.
The Wind and Falling Objects disc has some interesting clips
though I would have liked some falling objects being hit by wind so that they were moving left or right instead of just downward.
Other super slow motion discs in Footage Firm's collection consist of a Food & Beverage DVD, Fire Effects, Smoke Effects and more. Any one of the clips in these collections may be just the one you are looking for. They are all stunningly shot and composed.
Bottom line, it appears that Footage Firm is hell bent on securing a real foothold in the royalty free footage market. You can't beat their prices, their quality is great, and they continually enlarge their library of choices.
 Steve Douglas is a certified Apple Pro for Final Cut Pro 7 and underwater videographer. A winner of the 1999 Pacific Coast Underwater Film Competition, 2003 IVIE competition, 2004 Los Angeles Underwater Photographic competition, and the prestigious 2005 International Beneath the Sea Film Competition, where he also won the Stan Waterman Award for Excellence in Underwater Videography and 'Diver of the Year', Steve was a safety diver on the feature film "The Deep Blue Sea", contributed footage to the Seaworld Park's Atlantis production, and productions for National Geographic and the History channels. Steve was a feature writer for Asian Diver Magazine and is one of the founding organizers of the San Diego UnderSea Film Exhibition. He is available for both private and group seminars for Final Cut Pro and leads underwater filming expeditions and African safaris with upcoming excursions to the Cocos Islands, Costa Rica, Lembeh Straits, Indonesia, and Wakatobi. Feel free to contact him if you are interested in joining Steve on any of these exciting trips. www.worldfilmsandtravel.com
copyright © Steve Douglas 2011
This article first appeared on www.kenstone.net and is reprinted here with permission.
All screen captures and textual references are the property and trademark of their creators/owners/publishers.
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