We’re back with another update to the Videvo library and this time it’s a big one – the Big Apple to be precise. Yes, it’s New York City. We’re delighted to offer 134 brand new clips of the city that never sleeps, shot in a variety of locations by our dedicated cameraman and filmmaker, Maarten Roos. Here are a selection of some of our favourites!

These free stock clips feature shots of famous landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge, the World Trade Centre, Wall Street, Times Square, and many more. Maarten did a fantastic job of capturing the key landmarks that have become icons in their own right. Additionally, there are a number of clips that capture the atmosphere of the city, including traffic, people commuting, tourism and nighttime traffic shots.

All these clips were shot on a Panasonic GH4, which allowed Maarten to shoot in multiple locations in a discreet fashion, capturing shots of people and places that would usually be tricky with larger equipment.

We hope you enjoy this selection of clips from New York, and as ever we continue to update the Videvo library on a weekly basis, so be sure to check back for more updates.

HD Stock Footage | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Free Downloads!

20 new clips from www.videvo.net

Rows of parked bikes and a view of Amsterdam's canals, houses, and Centraal Station.

That’s right! Videvo has just added 20 brand new stock video clips of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Last week we highlighted our collection of free HD video clip downloads feat. Paris, France, and now we are happy to reveal even more HD city clips.

In this post, we take you along our journey of filming your free Amsterdam clips, unveiling the processes underwent to capture this awesome footage and deliver it to your computer screen.

Film Protocol / Getting Around

View of the Muntorren and its Netherlands flag, with the busy Muntplein square below.

Lucky for us and other videographers, filming in Amsterdam doesn’t require any sort of permit — you can capture any images of their stunning city hassle-free, unless you are a part of a production team (i.e. a small or large film set), which would require either a ‘Notification’ or ‘Appointment’ with the Amsterdam city officials.

Even better, Amsterdam makes transportation easy for its residents, with plenty of options to choose from, such as traveling by metro, bus, train, tram, or even ferry. We decided to make use of the city’s trams, with a multi-day GVB ticket. Trams are frequent around the city, and we simply hopped on and off throughout the weekend with our Sony EX1 and tripod in tow. This allowed us to capture footage of Amsterdam’s most notable sights, such as the Cenraal Station, Magere Brug, Rijksmuseum, and many of its rivers and canals, in just a few days.

Blue and Gray Skies

A shot of the Bloemgracht canal in Amsterdam, with its surrounding canoes and canoers.

Of course there were a few setbacks along our video shooting journey, the most notable one being the weather. While July is typically the warmest month of the year in Amsterdam, it is also one of the rainiest – but because we’re British we’re used to that!

It is often advised to carry an umbrella whenever you step outdoors during Amsterdam’s rainy months, and we experienced this unfortunate weather firsthand during our first day of shooting. While the umbrellas helped, the rain made for some dull looking footage, and the clear skies you see in Videvo’s Amsterdam collection are all from the more ideal shooting conditions of Saturday and Sunday. Good thing Friday was the only dreary day of our shoot — there were clear and perfect skies for the rest of the weekend!

A Wide-Angle View

The city's central railway station, Amsterdam Centraal, and its busy traffic.

When shooting in cities like Amsterdam, it is important to have a wide-angled lens to capture the large landmarks and stunning landscapes in their entirety. We had just purchased a 16×9 inc. EXII 0.6x wide angle lens adaptor for our Sony EX1, so it was easy to capture the large shots that we needed. This lens adapter provides HD quality and allows for 40% wider coverage than a regular lens. Without it, our shots of the iAmsterdam sign, River Amstel, and other key landmarks simply would not be as wide, likely leaving out important features of the shot.

That concludes our Amsterdam journey! It was a great three days and we are happy to be able to produce many free HD stock footage clips for you as a result. Remember to click any of the featured images to download the video clips in full 1920×1080 HD resolution, royalty free. You can also view the collection in its entirety by clicking here.

See you soon!

The Videvo team
www.videvo.net – free stock footage and motion graphics

When we launched Videvo, we had lost a little bit of faith in stock footage websites.

Before we go on, let us just say that there are some fantastic sites out there, with some incredible stock footage shot by world-class videographers… but there is a lot of rubbish too, especially when you consider some of the prices. Mostly you get what you pay for, but this is not always the case. We have, and still do download stock video for our own projects, because it’s cheaper and easier to buy before going through the effort of shooting/creating it ourselves. But what about the solo video maker, the hobbyist, the enthusiast, who wants to add production value quickly and easily on a budget? Well there aren’t many options.

And so this is where the idea of Videvo was born; a website that offers completely free stock footage and motion graphics for anyone, with no complicated (and expensive) licenses. We already have over 4,000 free stock videos on the site, all in HD, and this number is growing rapidly.
One feature we’ve created is user accounts, where users can log in, upload their own stock footage clips, chat with other members through the forum, share ideas and more. This is important for a number of reasons, but the idea of sharing is a powerful one. The number of solo video makers who practice the art of film making for a hobby is growing at a staggering rate, largely due to the fact that high spec HD camcorders are now more accessible than ever. To add to this, we are now surrounded by online video content, with everything from video blogging, promo videos, product videos and so on. However, not everyone that creates this kind of video content is a professional. Perhaps they are good at operating a camera, but have no idea about creating an animated motion background for a simple title introduction. This is where the idea of sharing has unlimited benefits. It opens up opportunity for people with differing skill-sets to connect, and in by doing so enhance their own productions and other people’s. What you now have is a community of video makers with and extensive tool kit for creating great video content.

This is the long term vision for Videvo.net, and although it may take some time, we’re excited for what the future holds.

So if you’re visiting us for the first time, jump into our free stock footage library, have a browse, and if you feel like it then register for an account and upload one of your own clips to help others with their projects.

We hope you enjoy using the site, and feel free to send us feedback.

All the best,

The Videvo Team