Businesses Launch Saint John Stock (Footage) Exchange
SAINT JOHN– Two Saint John businesses have created a way for business and non-profits to access quality footage of Saint John for marketing purposes while simultaneously helping a good cause.
Hemming House Pictures and ICS Creative Agency have launched the Saint John Stock Exchange, a website consisting of quality video footage of Port City which can be used on the web or television. All the money made from the footage will go to the Saint John Learning Exchange.
“As we’ve been creating the films for the city for so many years, especially for projects like City on Fire, for example, we got all this extra b-roll that we’ve already used that other agencies are always looking for. If you’re a marketing agency, usually there is a budget. Typically you would either hire a video company to go get the nice footage or pay Hemmings House or ICS or anybody else to purchase stock footage,” says Greg Hemmings, CEO of Hemmings House. “What I wanted to do was create a bank of footage we have the rights to and we don’t need to make money off of because it’s just sitting on a shelf and if an agency wants to buy footage, the money can go directly to the Learning Exchange just as a little give-back.”
Non-profits, students and anyone doing a project about or for the city are welcome to use the pictures for free. Others, such as marketing agencies, are asked to pay a suggested donation based on how much footage they want and where they plan to use it.
“It helps us give more to the people who are investing. Not just put money in to tell stories, but let’s put money in to tell a story and the outcome is going to be nicer footage for the city to be able to share,” Hemmings said.
The exchange will help non-profits and others on limited budgets create quality work.
“This allows them to use the funds they might have once put towards paying an agency like ICS or Hemmings House to do video production to go another need they might have to generate donations, volunteers, etcetera,” said Caitlyn Millberry, marketing and content creator with ICS.
Both Hemmings House and ICS will continue to upload new images to the site on an ongoing basis, but they also encourage others to submit footage to help the cause.
“We would love to get other filmmakers and production companies to do the same,” Hemmings said. “It’s not just for Hemmings House and ICS. If it’s footage that another organization has that promotes our city, whether it be the Saint John Riptide or cruise ship stuff, anything that we don’t have, people can get in touch with us with their good footage and we will upload it.