Shutterstock

Stock footage and still imagery are practical resources across every stage of production. Shutterstock is the largest commercial stock content library, with hundreds of millions of images, videos, music tracks, and sound effects available for licensing. For film and television productions, Shutterstock addresses specific workflow needs: stock footage for inserts and cutaways, reference imagery for pre-production, archival stills for documentary sequences, music for temp tracks and lower-budget deliverables, and sound effects for post-production.

In pre-production, Shutterstock's still image library serves as a visual reference resource. Directors and production designers use stock imagery to build mood boards and visual bibles that communicate a project's intended aesthetic to department heads before shooting begins. The ability to search by visual style, color palette, and subject makes Shutterstock faster to work with than general web image searches when you need commercially licensable reference material.

During post-production, Shutterstock's stock footage library fills gaps in original footage: aerial shots of locations that were not captured during principal photography, B-roll of equipment or processes that were not available during the shoot, archival-style footage for documentary inserts, or establishing shots of cities and landmarks. Licensed stock footage integrates directly into the editorial timeline with the confidence of cleared rights.

Shutterstock's music library provides licensed audio for corporate productions, promotional films, and branded content where original scoring is outside the budget. The licensing terms for Shutterstock music are clear and broadly applicable, covering most production and broadcast uses without the rights complexity of licensing existing commercial recordings.

As a Saturation partner, Shutterstock offers a discount through the perks program for production professionals who regularly use stock content in their workflow.

Access your Shutterstock discount through the Saturation Card perks portal. Use Shutterstock's advanced search filters to find content by media type, orientation, duration (for footage), and licensing type. Download watermarked previews to test in your edit before licensing. For footage, match frame rate and resolution to your sequence specifications before downloading. Review the standard license terms to confirm coverage for your distribution platform. Download licensed content and keep records of your license certificates for the production file.