Advertisers are increasingly distributing content across multiple media platforms. This shift affects many parties in the production community, including stock footage companies across the country and around the world. Additionally on the technology front, stock footage houses are investing in their own online initiatives to provide improved search and download functions. And to keep up with demand, stock libraries are continually adding to their offerings and keeping up with their clients’ interest in high definition (HD) footage.
With more than 25,000 clips online, BBC Motion Gallery, which has offices in London, Burbank, Calif., New York, Sydney, Toronto and Tokyo, has one of the largest online collections at BBCMotionGallery.com; customers can download any of the available clips. While the site houses a great deal of footage, it’s merely a fraction of the approximately 600,000 hours of footage available via the firm’s collections. In the last month, the company has made the entire archive searchable with a text search service. To use the new feature, clients need to call the company and set up an account.
According to Michael Albright, creative director of BBC Motion Gallery, this new service “is your gateway so that you don’t have to rely on an intermediary to do that research for you. That was one piece of it for us–giving clients access to as much of our library as possible as we continue the long march towards getting all of it digitized.”
Recent additions to the BBC Motion Gallery are the NugusMartin Archive and the Huntley Archive, and more additions are expected in the coming months.
Getty Images Film, which is headquartered in Seattle, with offices worldwide, has a portfolio that includes Image Bank Film, Archive Film and Universal Studios, and recently added Air Hollywood and 3D4Medical to their collection. Air Hollywood includes aviation themed clips, while 3D4Medical has medical and surgical related footage. “We’re continuing to find innovative ways to make search, download, licensing and managing the content even more user friendly for our customers,” relates Kristl Date-Dopps, director of product marketing for film at Getty Images. “Getty Images actually has a usability team whose sole purpose it is to get feedback from our customers by doing field interviews and finding out how our Web site works with their workflow and then making enhancements to the site based on that research.”
At FootageBank, Venice, Calif., the focus is on high definition footage, and 90 percent of the firm’s offerings fall into that category. There are more than 40,000 images on FootageBank.com and it grows every week, president Paula Lumbard relates. The online tool allows for searches and downloads in QuickTime format.
At this point, Global ImageWorks, Haworth, N.J., has its collection online in a searchable text format and is in the process of digitizing its entire collection to make the clips available on its Web site. After a client decides which clips it would like from the text search, the company can provide them online for download to that customer. The company primarily represents independent filmmakers and production companies and has a library with 3,000-plus hours of footage that is available in HD, film and video formats.
MODERN DELIVERY At BBC Motion Gallery, staffers are fielding requests for footage that would go into mobile content, but generally it is part of a larger package, say Jan Ross, senior VP at the company. Increasing use of multiple media platforms like mobile phones does open up a whole new world for rights and clearance, Ross acknowledges–especially where talent is concerned.
“Contracts are carefully written allowing for multitude of uses, special market and territorial restrictions all key worded and easily tracked, and permissions obtained whenever necessary,” explains Curtis Bowden, VP of rights services and motion for Seattle-headquartered Corbis. “With Corbis rights services working hand-in-hand with our motion sales teams, we’re positioned to alert our clients to any third-party rights issues contained within any footage we’re licensing–and then we can clear those rights to unlock the footage for full commercial use.”
Though the deal didn’t include mobile distribution, the BBC Motion Gallery recently contributed footage to a multi-platform campaign for the film Good Night and Good Luck. Along with appearing in the movie, the content ran in trailers, spots and online to promote the feature.
Jennifer Berman-Bogdan, president of Global ImageWorks, says these new platforms bring with them many new questions regarding rights and clearance. “There’s all this new technology [like video downloads for mobile phones and iPods], which is yet to be defined and how that affects the copyrights.”
Lumbard notices that clients and researchers are increasingly thinking about broader rights. It’s not just about broadcast rights anymore. People are now considering how rights are impacted by theatrical releases as well as from technology that allows downloads and video-on-demand, she points out.
For a recent Coke project, FootageBank provided two shots for work that involved digitally placing NASCAR drivers in stock clips. The work was through Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore. The two clips were licensed for use on network television, on the Internet, in theaters and in mobile technology.
Berman-Bogdan knows that content is rapidly moving toward mobile distribution, but has not yet contributed footage for that medium. However a recent project from the library that included elements beyond broadcast was for the Atari video game Driver 4: Parallel Lines. The footage was licensed for use in two of the opening sequences for the game as well as for trailers, promotions and Internet streaming.
Stephen Bleek, CEO of Munich-headquartered framepool, also relates that providing footage for mobile outlets is not in high demand now, but it has increasing importance. On advising advertisers during a time when footage is used in so many outlets, he says, “They know well what they need. It’s just a question of combining the licenses–everything is possible.”
As Date-Dopps of Getty Images explains, emerging platforms go beyond mobile technology. “We are getting a lot of requests for mobile content as well as other new media platforms such as bus shelter videos, vending machine videos, projections on walls and in office buildings, podcasts and the Internet.”
Along with contributing footage for multi-platform campaigns like AOL’s “Discuss” campaign directed by Errol Morris of bicoastal/international Moxie Pictures and Grey Advertising, London, which included spots and a Web site, Getty Images is involved in providing content for mobile phones. The company is providing Kargo, a mobile content distribution firm in the U.S., with images for two mobile applications, Red Carpet and Game Day. The former allows users to view images of celebrities and the latter involves athletes and sporting events. The applications are available on mobile phones and devices through Verizon Get It Now and Cingular Wireless MediaNet.
HD ON THE RISE Commercialmakers are increasingly embracing HD technology because of the digital format, especially since more spots include digital compositing, Lumbard points out. “We have really found that commercial clients in the past fourteen months have dramatically opened up to HD,” she states. “And I think that a lot of that is coming also with the directors who want to work in the format,” she says. “Some of that has been driven by the Sony ‘Dreams’ project.”
On a recent project FootageBank partnered with Panasonic to produce a new collection of contemporary skateboarding footage. Panasonic commissioned the footage to showcase its VariCam HD Cinema camera and its high-contrast professional plasma displays and projectors.
Ross says HD requests are becoming more frequent at the BBC Motion Gallery, and Bleek of framepool notes that they are increasing their HD offerings. He adds that they are experiencing a lot of requests for HD footage from the U.S. and Japan.
Framepool’s site framepool.com features 2,000 hours of footage and download features for full resolution in standard definition or HD. The library represents approximately 300 filmmakers and has partnerships with other collections like Oxford Scientific Films.
Though the demand for HD is increasing, Getty Images Film has been working on its HD collection for years. “Since 1999 we’ve been transferring all of the content that’s been coming into our footage portfolio into HD as well as SD,” Date-Dopps explains.
Technology that impacts content delivery is evolving at a rapid pace; however, in the world of stock footage, leaders in the industry seem prepared for it all.
