Irish Filmmaker, Sean Kirkpatrick had just spent a week in Rome, Italy filming b-roll for a documentary on Tour Guides that he was doing for a PBS special, when his camera bag and laptop were stolen at the Dublin airport. Not only was his EX-1 Camera, Mac Book Pro, and several Lacie drives gone, but so was all of the b-roll footage he had acquired.
With a deadline looming and no budget to return to Rome, Kirkpatrick turned to B-Roll Cloud where he searched for Rome, Italy, quickly browsed the clips that appeared, and easily downloaded the footage he needed. B-roll Cloud not only saved his assignment, but it didn't cost him a dime.
In India, Sasha Mehta had recently graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India where she specialized in cinematography and was awarded best in her class. Her ambition was to be a Director of Photography one day, but the opportunities in her country were very limited. Her best chance would be to relocate to London or Los Angeles where she could possibly find work as an AC and work her way up to DP. But moving would require sponsorship or a lifetime of savings, neither one of which her family had. Sasha heard about B-Roll Cloud and uploaded some of her footage. Several producers in London and L.A. saw her b-roll, downloaded it, and used it in their productions. Today she is working as a DP on her first feature film in L.A. with a $10,000,000 budget, and her b-roll footage is sought after by producers from all over the world. Not bad for a girl fresh out of film school a year earlier.
“These scenarios are fictitious, but the convenience, resources, and opportunities that B-Roll Cloud offers are real”, said its creator, Paul Gorman.
As a filmmaker himself, Gorman saw the need for brollcloud.com while filming his feature documentary "Beagle Boogie Babe". He was unable to find free b-roll footage of some shots he needed and wished for a site where filmmakers could share b-roll with other filmmakers. "I needed footage I didn’t have and I had all of this unused b-roll that I was probably never going to use. I saw no reason why others shouldn't be able to use it in their projects. When you think about it, probably everything imaginable has been filmed and most of it is just sitting there. It's unproductive and selfish,” said Gorman.
Gorman has spent the past two years traveling the world collecting b-roll for his website "It's there for the taking, no strings attached, and is a good opportunity for young filmmakers to get their name out there to build recognition,” said Gorman.
Gorman envisions a day when B-roll cloud will be a vast library of footage that will change the way films are made. "It's a new paradigm,” said Gorman. "Almost every industry has been transformed by the Internet. Older filmmakers may resist, but the young generation grew up sharing music, games and information. B-Roll Cloud makes sense to them, and is what the new ‘sharing economy’ is all about."
When asked what things make B-Roll Cloud different from the competition, Gorman listed the following:
1.) It's absolutely free.
2.) You can network.
3.) You can find the footage you need.
4.) You can get recognition for your work.
5.) It's a win - win situation for everyone involved.
Paul Gorman is an award winning filmmaker and graduate of the University of Washington's Advanced Filmmaking Program. He lives in Redmond, Washington.
http://brollcloud.com