Florida-based GlamourKey is a stock business that uses green-screen technology to offer royalty-free fashion and glamour stock footage of models with keyed-out backgrounds. The company says it is the first in the world to offer this type of product.
GlamourKey says that its royalty-free footage is the answer to budget-strapped productions that need to showcase high-end models but cannot afford the costs of studip time, equipment, crews and other expenses. The company positions itself as an alternative to typical stock media, because GlamourKey footage allows overlaying high-definition footage of models over any background, resulting in a product that is as effective as a commissioned shoot while remaining economical.
The company says it is working with highest-end video technology, including the Red One, which produces ultra-high-definition footage. GlamourKey is first to offer keyed-out footage in this quality. It also offers downsized footage and Flash files, tailoring the offering to online producers. Clip prices range from $50 for Flash files to $250 for high-definition footage; GlamourKey also offers still stock for $30 to $80, depending on file size.
“It goes beyond the technology. What makes us different is our style,” says Jon Schellenger, GlamourKey vice president of production. The style Schellenger refers to is certainly distinct; however, it is also quite limiting from a client suitability perspective in the broader context of the stock-licensing industry. The apparent majority of stills and footage, which the company refers to as glamorous, is rather prurient: most models are scantily clad and generally styled in a fashion that targets the lowest common denominator of the 18 to 24 male demographic.
This approach to art direction instantly eliminates the possibility of practically all high-end advertising and marketing uses of GlamourKey footage. The models’ styling makes them entirely unsuitable to a number of lucrative product and service categories—for instance, household or children’s products and most business products and services. From a technical, practical and pricing perspective, offering royalty-free high-definition footage of models in action could have tremendous potential, if the company were to expand the narrow appeal of its art direction.