Creator guidelines

These guidelines tell you what you can upload to BrollCollective, what you can’t, and what happens when something goes wrong. Read them before your first upload. They save you time, save us review cycles, and keep the catalog trustworthy.

The full legal terms governing creator content live in the Contributor Agreement and Terms of Service. This page summarizes those rules in plain language and adds practical guidance.

BrollCollective is a marketplace for real-estate-relevant B-roll: footage of homes, neighborhoods, lifestyle moments, and the visual context buyers need to tell property stories. We accept clips that fit at least one of these categories:

• Property exterior: Single-family homes, condos, multi-family, commercial real estate, drone-aerial views, dusk/dawn exterior light.
• Property interior: Living spaces, kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, primary suites, walk-throughs, architectural details, finishes.
• Neighborhood and lifestyle: Streets, walkable downtowns, parks, coffee shops, restaurants, schools (exterior only), community amenities, signage.
• Aerial and drone: Aerial property views, neighborhood flyovers, drone-stabilized exterior orbits. Subject to drone-specific rules below.
• Seasonal and contextual: Property in different seasons, lighting conditions, weather. Time-lapse welcome.
• B-roll people: Generic lifestyle footage where people are not the focus and identifying features are minimized. Subject to people-forward rules below.

If you’re unsure whether a clip fits, upload it. Our reviewers will tell you.

We reject clips that fall into any of these categories. Repeated violations lead to account termination. See “Enforcement” below.

• Hate, harassment, or discrimination. Footage that depicts, promotes, or could reasonably be interpreted as supporting hate or harassment based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected category.
• Sexually explicit or suggestive content. Real estate B-roll has no use case for this. Includes nudity, sexualized framing, or content that exists primarily for sexual appeal.
• Graphic violence or harm. Including depictions of violence, weapons in threatening contexts, accident scenes, or content depicting harm to people or animals.
• Illegal activity. Footage depicting illegal activity, including but not limited to: trespassing, vandalism, drug use, illegal gambling, or violation of local ordinances on the property shown.
• Drone footage over restricted airspace or non-consenting people. See drone-specific rules below.
• Recognizable third-party intellectual property. Including but not limited to: branded logos, copyrighted artwork, sports league imagery, recognizable music, copyrighted television or film content visible in frame, recognizable celebrity images, or trademarks displayed prominently.
• Recognizable private property without authorization. If a property is identifiable (street address visible, distinctive architectural features) and you do not have rights to film it, you cannot upload footage of it. Exterior footage of properties listed for sale or under your professional engagement is acceptable. Random houses you drove by are not.
• Recognizable people without releases. See people-forward rules below.
• Misleading content. Including: footage of one location labeled or tagged as another, manipulated footage that misrepresents the property or location, or false claims about the content (resolution, format, year captured).
• Watermarks from competing platforms. If a clip has a watermark indicating it was sourced from another stock platform, we reject it regardless of whether you have rights. We cannot verify rights chains across platforms.
• AI-generated or AI-assisted content. Footage created entirely or substantially by generative AI tools must be labeled as such on upload. We accept AI content as a distinct category with separate searchability so buyers can filter to see or exclude AI-generated clips. Hybrid clips that combine real footage with AI-assisted post-production (color grading, denoise, upscaling, minor element removal) do not require AI labeling. Clips that are AI-generated but presented as real footage are rejected and may result in a strike. We may require disclosure of the AI tools used for clips that fall into ambiguous territory.

Drone footage requires extra care because drones operate under FAA regulations and trigger privacy concerns.

Required to upload drone footage. You must operate under FAA Part 107 (commercial drone certification) or have a Part 107-certified pilot capture the footage on your behalf. You must not film over people without their consent, over private property without authorization, or in restricted airspace. Altitude must comply with FAA limits (generally 400 feet AGL) unless you have specific waivers.

We may request documentation for high-volume drone uploads, including:

• Part 107 certification.
• LAANC authorization for controlled airspace.
• Property owner authorization for filmed properties.

Rejected drone uploads:

• Footage over crowds, events, or non-consenting people.
• Footage in restricted airspace (airports, military zones, national parks where prohibited).
• Footage at altitudes inconsistent with Part 107.
• Footage where shadow of drone or pilot is prominent or distracting.

If a recognizable person appears in your footage, you need a model release on file with us. Recognizable means: their face is visible, they are identifiable from distinctive features, or they are the subject of the shot rather than an incidental element.

Acceptable without a release:

• Crowds where individuals are not the focus.
• Distant or back-of-head shots where people are not identifiable.
• Hands or body parts where the person is not identifiable.

Required with a release:

• Any clip where a person’s face is recognizable.
• Any clip where a person is the focal subject.
• Any clip where the person could plausibly object to the use.

We provide a Model Release form you and your subjects can use. Upload signed releases through your creator dashboard.

We reject clips that don’t meet basic technical quality bars. AI scoring runs on every upload and assesses these:

• Resolution: 1080p minimum. 4K preferred. Vertical 9:16 renditions auto-generated.
• Sharpness: Subject must be in focus. Soft or motion-blurred footage rejected.
• Stability: Handheld shake, especially in non-action contexts, is grounds for rejection. Use stabilization or a tripod.
• Exposure: Footage must be properly exposed. Heavily blown-out highlights or crushed shadows rejected.
• Composition: Subject framing should follow standard composition rules (rule of thirds, leading lines, intentional asymmetry).
• Audio: If the clip has audio, it must be clean. Wind noise, hum, conversation, or background music that doesn’t belong is grounds for rejection.

If your clip is rejected on quality grounds, you’ll receive a specific reason and a one-click resubmit option after re-editing.

Every clip goes through a two-stage review:

Stage 1: AI scoring (instant). Quality assessment, scene detection, auto-tagging, content scanning for prohibited categories. Most clips that fail Stage 1 fail on quality, not policy.

Stage 2: Human review (selective). A human reviewer checks any clip that:

• Was flagged by AI for potential policy issues.
• Comes from a new creator (first 5 uploads).
• Contains drone footage.
• Contains recognizable people.
• Falls into edge categories the AI is uncertain about.

Timing. Most clips: live within 30-60 minutes of upload. Human-reviewed clips: usually same day, always within 24 hours.

Outcomes:

• Approved: Clip goes live in the catalog.
• Approved with warning: Clip goes live; we note the issue for context (e.g., “borderline lighting, would benefit from re-edit”).
• Rejected: Clip is not published. You receive a specific reason and a one-click resubmit option after fixing the issue.
• Rejected without resubmit: Reserved for clips that cannot be remediated (illegal content, deeply prohibited categories).

Violations of these guidelines are tracked per creator. We apply a strike-based system with judgment based on severity.

Minor violations (quality below threshold, missing release for low-impact subject, technical issues): result in clip rejection with resubmit option. No strike.

Standard violations (prohibited content categories, missing drone documentation, missing release for prominent subject): result in clip rejection and a strike.

Serious violations (clear policy violations, repeated minor violations, evidence of bad-faith uploads): result in immediate account suspension pending review.

Three strikes within 12 months trigger termination per the Contributor Agreement. Termination consequences include removal of all uploaded content from the catalog, forfeiture of pending earnings (per the Contributor Agreement’s earnings-on-termination clause), and prohibition from creating new accounts.

Single severe violations may trigger immediate termination, including: uploading clearly illegal content, attempting to upload content the creator does not own, deliberate misrepresentation of clip metadata, or creating multiple accounts to circumvent prior termination.

Appeals. If you believe a rejection or strike was incorrect, contact support@brollcollective.com within 14 days of the action. Include the clip ID, the action taken, and your basis for appeal. We respond to appeals within 5 business days. The full appeals process is described in the Contributor Agreement.

If you see content on BrollCollective that violates these guidelines, report it to support@brollcollective.com with:

• The clip URL.
• A brief description of the violation.
• Any supporting context (e.g., “this is a watermarked clip from another platform”).

If your report is a copyright infringement claim specifically, use the DMCA process instead. That has its own legal procedure and cannot be handled through general support.

We update these guidelines periodically as the catalog grows and edge cases emerge. Material changes will be communicated to all creators via email and announced on the platform. Your continued use of BrollCollective after a guidelines update constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

For questions about specific situations not covered here, contact support@brollcollective.com. Real cases help us refine the guidelines.