The filmmaker behind footage.cool
Every clip in this library was shot by one person: Phil Maher, an independent filmmaker and photographer. He holds 100% of the copyright, so when you license a clip here, you're licensing it from the man who filmed it.
What's in the library
54,000+ clips (54,026 as of September 2026), filmed between 2014 and 2024 with Phil's own cameras and drones; about three quarters of the library was shot from 2019 through 2023. Nearly every master is 4K UHD (about 96%; the rest are HD 1080p or 2.7K, and each clip page says which). The library leans hard into places he knows well rather than a little of everything:
- Baja California Sur, Mexico: the bulk of the catalog (Mexico is about 72% of all clips). Los Cabos (San José del Cabo, Cabo San Lucas, the resort corridor), the East Cape from Buzzards Beach to Los Barriles, the protected reefs of Cabo Pulmo, La Paz and La Ventana, Todos Santos and the Pacific surf beaches, and the remote Pacific side: La Bocana, Punta Abreojos, San Juanico, and the lagoons at Guerrero Negro.
- Marine and underwater: reef fish and schooling jacks underwater at Cabo Pulmo, whales filmed by drone off the coast, and the birdlife of the San José del Cabo estuary.
- The Colorado Rockies: about 12,500 clips from 2014 to 2023, most of them 2015, 2016 and 2019 (Westminster, Hidden Lake, Winter Park, Grand Junction).
- The California coast: about 1,600 clips from Huntington Beach and Pismo Beach, 2019 and 2020, plus aerial passes over Chicago.
- Resorts: pools, beaches, and architecture along the Los Cabos corridor at properties like Marquis, Dreams, Hilton, and Secrets.
Why he sells direct
Stock marketplaces put a broker between the buyer and the person who shot the footage. footage.cool removes it: you browse, pick a license ($79 royalty-free standard, $199 extended for broadcast), pay with Stripe, and the clean master downloads immediately with a license PDF. Because one person shot everything and owns everything, the chain-of-title is short and verifiable: no tangled rights, no third-party claims to chase down later.
"I shoot places and moments most people never get to see. I'd rather hand that footage straight to filmmakers, journalists, and creators than route it through a marketplace."
Work with Phil
Bulk pricing for clip sets, exclusive buyouts that take a clip off the market, and custom shoots in Baja, Colorado, or wherever a project needs to go: email licensing@footage.cool and you'll be talking to the filmmaker, not a support queue.
Invite Phil to speak
Bring footage.cool into your conference, workshop, podcast or interview. Phil can talk about drone filmmaking, shooting Baja and other locations, cutting and editing video, and the work of building a footage library. See the footage, explore session ideas, and prepare a booking inquiry on his speaking page.
Phil elsewhere
Phil has licensed footage for over a decade under his Stockfilm banner. You can find him at stockfilm.com, on YouTube, LinkedIn, Pond5, and Dreamstime, and on the Focal International member directory.