The Reals Beta access
Launching soon
Video clips · Still photographs · Cleared · Managed

Your camera roll is worth something.

The Reals connects companies with video clips and still photographs taken by real people, and runs everything in between: capture, consent, clearance, indexing and the paperwork that keeps it all safe to use.

Why we built it How it works
Where it started

A producer’s problem, seen from the inside.

Alina Blackwood, Founder
  1. 01
    The ask
    “Can we use this clip?”
    Producing campaigns at WPP, I was asked again and again by creative directors for clips they’d found online: real moments no shoot could recreate.
  2. 02
    The problem
    No agent to call.
    Ordinary people aren’t influencers or talent with representation. So every request was a manual process starting from scratch (tracing the owner, getting consent, agreeing usage), racking up billable hours across business affairs, editors and project managers.
  3. 03
    The fix
    A simple way to clear them.
    So I built a simple solution: find the clip, reach the person, clear it properly, and keep the process visible across teams.
  4. 04
    The bigger picture
    Bigger than a tool.
    As I built it, I realised the value was much bigger than a simple producer tool. That became The Reals.
Our mission

Keep human craft valuable.

Generative AI is going after real footage. Every day, people post clips and photos online and, sometimes without even realising, give away their full camera rolls (the very material AI models learn from) for free.

Gen-AI is here to stay, and we know it.

But many of us care about real moments, captured by real people. We want to be the alternative: real footage, from real people, used with their say and their ownership acknowledged.

The shift

Your camera roll is your IP.

People are starting to realise the moments they’ve captured have real value: to brands, to event organisers, to each other. But how do we unlock that value?

Today
Scattered.
The same moment lives on dozens of phones, across Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp groups and cloud drives. Owned by different people, undiscovered, uncredited, unusable.
With The Reals
Pooled into one collection.
Every contributor’s video clips and still photographs come together in a single pool, each one credited to its owner, with consent attached.
One pool, many collections

Everyone gets their own cut.

Every asset in the pool is indexed by many different aspects. That makes it easy to share back out to everyone involved, with a personalised collection for each.

By brand
Every frame a logo or product appears in.
By person
Everything one contributor shot, gathered back to them.
By type of shot
Wides, close-ups, crowds, aerials, portraits.
By timecode
Every angle of the same moment, side by side.
By mood
Joy, tension, calm, celebration, found in seconds.
How it works

One clearance engine. Five steps.

01
Capture
People upload or share clips and photos from their phone, their socials, or a QR prompt at an event.
02
Consent
Permission and credit are captured at the moment of upload, in plain language.
03
Clear & index
We check ownership, who’s in shot and what’s in frame, and index every asset. Software flags, a person decides.
04
License
Usage, term and channel are clear before anyone pays. The owner is credited and paid.
05
Manage
Every asset keeps a full record (consent, licence, negotiation) for as long as it’s in use.

Who it’s for

Advertising agencies

Clips and photos that can’t be shot or faked, from real lives, illustrating a culture shift, a trend or just genuine reactions.
Bring something you’ve found online and we’ll clear it for you.
Licence terms you can read before you buy.
A full audit trail behind every asset you use.
Test each clip in the edit with our plugin before committing.

Event organisers

Ask attendees to upload their shots via a QR code.
Attendees’ clips and photos arrive with consent for your use built in.
You get more videos to choose from, at various angles.
Sell attendees their own personalised collections, directly.
More visibility: attending companies can find every clip their logo or stand appears in, so they share more of your event on social.

Brands

Unscripted customer moments, cleared for your campaigns.
A QR on a pack, a stand or a shop floor invites customers to share.
Write your own briefs: ask customers to capture specific moments with your product.
Find every frame your logo or product appears in.

Production teams

Send us the clips your creatives found, or search our library: we constantly trace clip owners and pre-clear footage for campaigns.
One visible process for production, business affairs and client teams.
Fewer billable hours spent clearing from scratch.
Every consent, licence and negotiation logged for audit.

Real people

Your camera roll, your credit, your cut.
You keep ownership. We never buy your work outright.
Credited and paid every time a brand licenses it.
Your own collection of everything you contributed.

Where it applies

Wherever real people are filming and photographing, The Reals can turn it into assets a brand can use.

Piloting now
Clearance on demand
Spotted a clip or photo online? Send us the link and we’ll trace the owner and clear it.
Agency work & campaigns
Pitch, mood and award films, plus paid and organic social, digital out-of-home and broadcast. The clips creative directors reach for, cleared instead of borrowed.
Events & conferences
Attendees capture the day; the organiser gets a credited, cleared package.
Next
Travel & hospitality
Guests’ real experiences, captured on site and ready for the brand to share.
Brand moments
A QR on a pack, a stand or a shop floor invites customers to share, cleared from the start.
Corporate internal communications
Employees’ own clips and photos from offsites, launches and everyday work, cleared for internal films and channels.
Why us

Built by a producer, not just a platform.

Alina Blackwood, founder of The Reals

Over 20 years in media, as a journalist, a senior broadcast producer and an advertising agency producer, I’ve worked across many sides of rights management.

Campaign, pitch room or conference floor, the job hasn’t changed: get it made, get it cleared, keep it under control.

Alina Blackwood, Founder
Production
Briefs, capture prompts and on-the-ground set-up, designed by people who know what a usable shot looks like.
Clearance
Consent, people in shot, brands in frame, chain of ownership and usage terms, checked before anything goes out.
Management
Every asset indexed, credited and logged, with licences, payments and renewals tracked in one place.
Our network
Ready for every kind of complexity.
We work with IP lawyers, archive researchers and licensing specialists (including rare footage and celebrity clearance), as well as Gen-AI production teams and creator networks. Whatever a brief throws at us, we know who to call.

Real people. Real moments. Properly cleared.

Running an event, planning a campaign or holding a clip you want to use? Tell us what you need.

Get in touch Visit the beta
The Reals Tech Ltd · UK Company No. 17233442 · 124 City Road, London EC1V 2NX · info@thereals.io 100% human. A person in the loop on every asset.