The Ultimate Guide to Editing with Stock Footage

Thanks to the advent of stock video footage, filmmakers and videographers can now integrate shots into their projects that would have been otherwise unattainable. Based in Utah, but you need a cutaway of Paris for a dream sequence? Stock footage has you covered. Need aerial drone footage of your city but don’t own a drone? Stock footage can solve that problem for you.

However, stock footage can go beyond just establishing shots and inserts. With the depth of stock libraries like WeVideo's, you can create an entire video using stock footage alone. Yet, if you simply download a variety of video clips without considering how to edit them cohesively, you may end up with a disjointed montage lacking narrative flow and visual coherence.

To avoid that, let's review a few tips on how to edit a video using only stock footage and make it look unified. 

As a bonus, many of these tips are essential filmmaking principles, making them applicable to various aspects of the art form. Therefore, regardless of where you are in your video journey, you can utilize the lessons learned in this article.

180-degree rule

Consider this video clip from WeVideo’s stock library. The implied narrative through the edit is to show two friends catching up in the park.

Within the library, we’ve found a shot that matches the first shot’s characteristics; shallow depth of field, soft ambient light, vivid green grass in the background.

Yet, while the reverse shot matches, something about the scene feels off, especially in motion. 

This is because we've crossed the 180-degree line of action.

When filming a conversation between two characters, the cinematographer and director must identify the line of action. This theoretical line is one the camera should stay behind while filming. This practice helps maintain spatial alignment and continuity.

Visual example of 180-degree rule.

If you cross the line, i.e., place the camera on the opposite side of the second actor's shoulder, it can look visually confusing. Both actors will be facing the same way on the screen, making it seem like they are looking off at something rather than at each other.

Like all rules, this one can be broken, but it's typically done by physically moving the camera within the scene to establish a new spatial line. With this explained, keep that in mind when searching for your video clips throughout the library, as it will help maintain the fluidity of the stock footage edit. As such, using a clip like this would be better suited.

However, let’s say your script or storyboard calls for a sequence of two women talking in the park; this reverse shot wouldn’t work. And, well, the original reverse shot did look a lot better. If the original clip doesn't show any text, numbers, or logos, we're in luck because you can horizontally flip the footage, essentially mirroring it. You can do this in WeVideo by opening the Clip editor and selecting the horizontal flip icon.

You will now have a cohesive edit that obeys the 180-degree rule.

Edit direction

Continuing with the theme of pre-existing camera positions, let's create a better stock footage edit with movement. First, let's watch the first two minutes of this clip from the majestic HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers."

Video via Makhambet Torezhan

As the scene starts with the violist, note the flow of action from the extras:  

• Soldiers  
• Civilians 
• Cart
• Medics
• Horse and carriage

They all move in one direction: left, the same way the camera is moving. That is until 01:29, when the camera reaches its final destination and then starts to move right to follow the new line of action. At this point, what happens? The two civilians carrying a rug now walk to the right. This new direction finally leads us to several characters the series follows.

While the nature of the shot is unique in that it's nearly three minutes of uninterrupted footage, the way the action is presented is important in regard to visual unity. When the camera moves one way, and the action within the frame moves in the same direction, it's harmonious.

With stock video, the challenge is that you cannot dictate which way the action moves while on set. However, by carefully selecting video clips that move in a similar direction, you will add fluidity to your edit and, importantly, not disjoint the viewer, which may cause them to realize the video clips are from different sources.

Sport commercials are usually excellent homework studies for learning this concept. They have a limited amount of time to convey a story and sell sporting goods, which typically require a form of kinetic energy. Given this, there are usually a variety of disjointed clips, but they are edited together with great fluidity. Take a look at this example from Nike:

Video via Nike

Within a few seconds, we see:

• A young girl learning to swim
• A rower
• Someone swimming in a pool
• A surfer about to duck dive

Which way are they facing? They're all facing left until the surfer ducks underwater, at which point we cut to the swimmer rotating at the end of the pool, changing the direction of the action to the right. 

Color temperature

Given that most professional video footage is shot in LOG format and requires color grading, it's a good thing that all of the footage within the WeVideo stock library has already been professionally color-graded. This allows you to find and add the perfect clip to the timeline.

But what happens if you'd like to edit the white balance of a clip? If new to the concept, think of white balance as the function that informs the camera about the current lighting conditions you are shooting in to correctly render the colors of your location.

This is because the frequency of light emits at different temperatures depending on the source. Measured in Kelvin, you can classify light sources as either cold or warm, with the standard daylight sun considered a neutral white. Light from a beach fire will be golden and warm, whereas the light from a computer screen will be characteristically cold.

This information is essential as it will allow you to select clips with similar temperatures correctly. In doing so, your edit will have more visual cohesiveness than an edit with various clips with random color temperatures. And be aware just because a clip may have specific properties that are typically associated with a physical temperature, such as snow, it doesn't mean the video footage itself will be automatically classified as cold.

As seen in the screenshots below, even though the stock search is showing snow clips, there's a variety of warm and cold-based footage. In this sequence, we want to cut between a snowy close-up and then into a wide establishing shot.

This first shot is great. However, our second clip is too warm, and they won’t visually join well.

Thankfully, WeVideo’s online video editor allows you to edit the white balance even if you find the perfect clip for your edit but it's the wrong colour temperature. Open the Clip editor, then select the Color tab and scroll down to temperature and tint.

It's worth noting that because you're not working with the camera's RAW footage, you don't want to adjust the slider too much, as it can result in the video being washed in either blue or orange.

Implied action

While WeVideo’s stock library is filled with professional video footage from a variety of filmmakers across the world, if you look hard enough, you'll often find multiple clips from the same shoot. This allows you to blend different clips during your edit seamlessly. However, if you're still looking for a clip from the same filmmaker featuring the same actor, another technique to employ is cutting on action. This time-tested technique is used throughout the filmmaking and television industry with nearly every production.

Let's say the insert close-up shows Hannibal Lecter looking through his recipe box. Then, with the wide shot, we revert to Hannibal Lecter in his kitchen. To make the edit fluid with kinetic motion, the editor would look to create the edit point where the recipe is pulled out from the box.

So, close-up: His fingers grab a recipe and start to pull. Wide shot: The recipe is pulled out of the box.

Video via bytheway

While this technique is used in filmmaking to create a sense of continuity between shots, it can also be used in stock footage when there are no two shots by the same filmmaker.

Look for video clips within the WeVideo stock library that share similar properties, and look for one clip to be a close-up, as this allows for more flexibility when cutting to the wide shot. You can also get creative if the action is obscured, but the overall setting is consistent between the clips. For example, the below video clips of school children leaving a bus. Each video clip is from a different film shoot, but because the action and subjects within the clips are unclear, you can imply the movement through editing.

We have one clip of the children getting up from their seats.

An insert of the bus steps with their sneakers jumping down the bus steps.

And a wide shot of the children leaving the bus.

When watched back, this looks like one seamless continuation of shots. With implied action and cutting on the action, you can make a mixture of shots look like one unified scene.

Final thoughts

With this information, you should now be more than prepared to edit a wide variety of stock video clips into one cohesive edit 

If this article has your editing senses tingling, and you want to put your newfound editing skills into action, you can sign up for a free WeVideo plan to dive right in and edit some stock footage!