Bless the filmmakers! There are more BIPOC and LGBTQ+ stock footage on the way!
According to Yahoo Finance, Storyblocks has recently announced a new campaign initiative to create and distribute more BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) and LGBTQ+-themed/focused videos to the front of the stock media world. This new campaign is titled Re:Stock, and it’s asking for filmmakers to actively create new collections of videos with diverse depictions of everyday life. Specifically, filmmakers are being tasked with creating collections made up of 50 videos each.
Storyblocks, a competitor for Shutterstock, decided on this campaign after recognizing that BIPOC footage makes up only 5 percent of its current library. Now, Storyblocks aims to double that representation by the end of this year and quadruple it by the end of 2021.
“Advertisers and creatives have the ability to influence stereotypes, yet one of the many barriers to creating fully inclusive ads and video content is the greater availability of diverse and representative creative assets,” said Sydney Carlton, Director of Brand Marketing at Storyblocks. “By developing content that reflects the humanity of underrepresented populations, we can reflect people in a more authentic light. Racial diversity – both in our footage and within our creative community – is just the first of many types of representation we plan on addressing within our library to better embody the diverse world we live in today.”
For Queer Non-White content creators working online, this is exciting news. Stock footage is important for the internet. It is used for news footage, advertisements, and more. In fact, you’ve probably unknowingly seen stock footage AT LEAST five times before reading this article today. But unfortunately, most of the footage out in the world and on the internet are made of straight white people. Even when you enter gay spaces, you’ll primarily see white faces on images and videos. Then even further, most stock footage and images of people of color are of light-skinned people.
As you can see, we have a long way to go when it comes to representation in stock footage and images. Thankfully, Storyblocks is taking the first step in making that change. Hopefully, more big-name stock footage/photo companies will do the same.
Source: Yahoo Finance,
