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Complete Guide To Describing And Keywording Footage

To put it simply, a stock footage content piece is like a moving image. A footage clip does not only capture a special moment but also takes you on a journey to experience different cultures and places. The production and creation of footage content may take a little of one's time but for others using additional cinematic techniques to enhance the quality of their footage, it may be longer. Examples of stock footage are moving images of cities and landmarks, wildlife in their natural environments and historical footage.


Describing and Keywording Footage


After you have uploaded your Footage, you will have to describe and keyword the content accordingly before they are reviewed by our team. Writing a clear, concise but detailed description of what you see is best for your Royalty Free/Editorial footage. You may give out the exact location name as long as you're very confident about it. However, do take note that trademarked words should NOT be included for Royalty Free footage.


Before we launch into the details, here’s a quick outline of the basics of describing and keywording your footage content:

  1. Describe the image as accurately as possible.

  2. Enter a minimum of 7 keywords for each footage.

  3. Keywords should be separated by commas, everything between commas is treated as a keyword or a key phrase.

  4. Kindly provide description and keywords in English.

  5. Remember to highlight the techniques in your footage.

  6. Refrain from adding unrelated keywords (spamming).

  7. Do NOT put in dates of the event in the keyword list.

  8. Copyrighted keywords of famous brands and names like Audi, McDonald's, and Ferrari are allowed to be included in the keyword list for Editorial Footage only.

  9. Be a little more meticulous when filling in the keywords to avoid any errors (spelling, typo, sentence grammar) as it's not possible for you to edit once the images have been accepted.

Note: If your keywords are in another language other than English, they will be automatically translated once you click on the 'SUBMIT FOR REVIEW' button. Our system will help you translate all foreign words into English.



Here’s How You Can Go About Describing Footage

Now that you have gone through the basic guidelines on describing and keywording your Footage, here are a few strategies/tips to ensure that you have described and keyworded your footage to its finest especially if this is your initial submission to 123RF.


Strategy for Describing Your Footage

As mentioned earlier, footage content are comprised of moving images. Therefore, you may describe and keyword using the Complete Guide To Describing & Keywording Photos & Vectors.


Strategy for Keywording Your Footage

Once you have keyworded according to our guide with reference to the Describe and Keyword Your Photos & Illustrations, it is recommended that you add some cinematic techniques into your footage keyword list:

  1. Chromakey

  2. Deep Focus

  3. Dolly

  4. Fade In/Out

  5. Iris In/Out

  6. Key Light

  7. Macro

  8. Pan

  9. Point of View (POV)

  10. Pull Back Shot

  11. Quick Focus

  12. Reverse Angle

  13. Shallow Depth of Field

  14. Tilt Shot

  15. Tilt-Shift

  16. Timelapse

  17. Whip pan

  18. Zoom

Be specific in highlighting the techniques in your footage. Keyword appropriately and as accurately as possible to enhance searchability on the site.


Using 123RF’s Web Interface to Describe and Keyword Your Footage

For your convenience, once you have uploaded your footage content to 123RF, here's how you can keyword them quickly and painlessly.


You have to login to 123RF.com.



Click on ‘Manage Content’ and select 'Footage' at Types of content.


There are 4 tabs in your Manage Media page;

  • All – Shows you all your content

  • Accepted – Content reviewed and approved

  • Rejected – Content reviewed and rejected

  • Incomplete – Content pending for review or content missing description and keywords



123RF’s review policy dictates that if a footage is NOT keyworded or described adequately and accurately, our reviewers will not review them.


You should see your pending Footage as below. If your footage content has not been keyworded or described, you will see red text above the relevant text fields instructing you on what you should do.


In our example, an apt description should be : Flames of fire on black background in slow motion


In this example, appropriate keywords could be : blazing, bonfire, burn, burning, close, closeup, danger, effect, element, energy, explode, explosion, fiery, fire, fireplace, flame and etc.


If you have other pending footage content missing descriptions and keywords, work right through them as well.


When you're done, click on the ‘Save’ button.


Below, check out the complete set of description and keywords for this footage:

Footage courtesy of cookelma.

Description : Flames of fire on black background in slow motion


Keywords : abstract, background, black, blazing, bonfire, burn, burning, close, closeup, danger, effect, element, energy, explode, explosion, fiery, fire, fireplace, flame, flames, flammable, fuel, heat, hell, hot, impact, inferno, light, motion, outburst, slow, slow motion, texture, warm


Next, is an example of Editorial Footage where you can apply the steps above by using the Complete Guide to Describing & Keywording Editorial Photos.

In our example, an apt description should be : Toronto, Canada - February 20, 2018: A new model of the Subaru Ascent on the stand. Exhibition of cars in Toronto.


In this example, appropriate keywords could be : auto, automobile, autoshow, blue, canada, car, center, centre, concept, crowd, design, exhibit, exhibition, expensive, indoors, innovation, international, light, luxury, model, modern, motor, people, performance, power, show, subaru, subaru ascent, toronto, transport, vehicle, visitors


If you have other pending footage content missing descriptions and keywords, work right through them as well.


When you're done, click on the ‘Save’ button.


Now let’s look at the Editorial footage's complete set of description and keywords below:

Footage courtesy of vitaliyukr.

Description: Toronto, Canada - February 20, 2018: A new model of the Subaru Ascent on the stand. Exhibition of cars in Toronto


Keywords : auto, automobile, autoshow, blue, canada, car, center, centre, concept, crowd, design, exhibit, exhibition, expensive, indoors, innovation, international, light, luxury, model, modern, motor, people, performance, power, show, subaru, subaru ascent, toronto, transport, vehicle, visitors


That wraps up our tips to ensure that you can begin describing and keywording your Royalty Free and Editorial Footage on 123RF’s platform. Happy Keywording!



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