High-definition (HD) programming continues to gradually make inroads into the living rooms of everyday consumers, and it has spurred on the growth of a new market for stock footage houses. As evidenced in recent announcements from a number of leading players in the footage market, HDTV has become an important tool in these stock houses’ arsenal. For example, Corbis Motion, a division of Corbis, which is headquartered in Seattle, recently began representing the HD collections of television stations WLIW and KOMO. Meanwhile, the National Geographic Film Library, Washington, D.C., is working with Minneapolis-based post house Hi-Wire, which is converting National Geographic’s film footage to HD. In addition, National Geographic and Microsoft recently announced a deal that makes high-definition movies from National Geographic available on DVD using the HD capabilities of Microsoft Windows’ Media 9 Series. Also, Getty Images, headquartered in Seattle, and Venice, Calif.-based FootageBank—the latter opened to expressly provide access to HD imagery—continue to expand their offerings. BBC Motion Gallery, headquartered in London with U.S. offices in New York and Burbank, Calif., is currently producing an HD series, Planet Earth, and has a hi-def collection that includes natural history footage and short films.
Despite all this activity, use of HD footage in the commercial production arena is only in the beginning stages. In fact, the jury is still out as to when commercials will move to HD acquisition, since advertising agencies are very much wedded to film production. Early advertising uses of HD footage include integration into film work and some theatrical advertising. But with such markets for HD stock footage as television show production and corporate presentation applications, there is certainly a business case to be made for HD footage, which is why stock houses are moving aggressively to build their inventories in order to meet growing demand.
On Demand
"Even though we don’t see a demand that equals film, the demand is going to grow forward," says New York-based Rick Wysocki, VP of Corbis Motion Brands. (Corbis also has offices in Los Angeles; Chicago; London; Paris; Vienna; Düsseldorf, Germany; Hong Kong; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Tokyo.) "We have transferred virtually all of our film footage into HD. Over the past two years, we have aggressively acquired HD material from a number of sources. We have KOMO [a Seattle TV station that is] a part of Fisher Broadcast [also in Seattle], which has been shooting HD for four years; WLIW, in Long Island, N.Y.; and Wilderness Video [in Ashland, Ore.], among others."
Corbis’ high-definition footage library includes travel, location, people, nature and wildlife, iconic objects, TV audiences, cooking shows and aerial photography. "Our customers are primarily TV producers, but we are also starting to do some work for commercial producers as well," relates Wysocki. "Because we can make HD match film pretty well, they can use it for a film project. [HD has] not completely turned the corner in advertising, but it will come."
Indeed, Wysocki is confident that the HD footage market has true potential. "It is absolutely a growth area for stock houses," he says, "and we are committed to being the leader in this area." Corbis has an all-digital work process and has taken its footage onto the Web for online browsing. "Everything from the time it comes in the door to when it is prepared for clips for clients who still want analog elements, exists in a digital environment. Also we’ve introduced a product called WebReel, which is a virtual screening room, and we can deliver research in a manner of minutes. It is an interactive tool so clients can send back clips with comments."
Jennifer Burak, VP of product marketing/film at Getty Images, agrees that offering HD footage has become important, as has having an online component to its catalog. "At the end of 1999, Getty Images antici-pated the trend toward HD and made a commitment to transfer its film libraries to high definition," she says. "In fact, the company initiated the first high definition transferring room to be built in the New York metro area. Also, we provide online search functionality, downloadable broadcast quality film files, access to researchers, and large screen viewing in 480×360 pixel resolution."
Founded in March ’95, Getty Images—which, in addition to its Seattle headquarters, has offices in New York, London and Sydney, as well as wholly-owned offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Thailand and the Netherlands—offers more than 70,000 clips from seven diverse film collections. Getty Images’ Archive Film collection includes 20th Century iconic and rare archival imagery, while divisions such as Image Bank Film and Photodisc offer more than 10,000 hours of commercial quality footage on a multitude of subjects. Getty Images also partners with such imagery collections as Artbeats, Digital Vision, Rubberball and Triangle Images.
Entertainment clients that produce television shows, as well as advertising agencies and corporate production companies have all used Getty’s HD content. "Customers realize the productivity and efficiency that pre-shot footage—HD in particular—affords, and have become increasingly interested in this format," Burak notes. "As the technology evolves and becomes more viable, Getty Images is committed to staying ahead of that curve."
According to Burak, the majority of the demand is for HD formats with 16:9 aspect ratio, rather than HD originated material. "Currently, most of our filmmakers shoot on 35millemeter original and are just beginning to explore shooting on HD," she says. "Our acquisition goals are to acquire the highest quality image regardless of what the original production element is. As we see more of our filmmakers become more comfortable shooting in HD, and the demand from the industry for HD-original content increases, we will begin to accept more HD material."
Getty Images is not seeing much demand for original high-definition imagery from its advertising agency clients. "Producers that work on broadcast spots continue to request content shot on 35millimeter to match the work they are creating," Burak says. "The few requests that have come in for HD format were for products such as TVs that offer HD formats. In general, agency producers have not been asking for HD-final element or for footage shot originally on HD." Consequently, Burak views HD as a growing trend—but one that is not commercially viable just yet.
Conversion Plans
Meanwhile, at National Geographic Television & Film (NGT&F), Matthew White, VP of the film library, attributes the company’s partnership with Hi-Wire to a growing demand for high-definition footage. "Over the past few years, we’ve seen a significant increase in clients requesting footage in the HD format," he says. "Our relationship with Hi-Wire allows us to utilize this technology to best meet the artistic and commercial needs of our clients. As such, we’ll be able to produce higher quality images for our clients in a quicker, more cost-efficient manner."
Hi-Wire is color correcting and transferring the National Geographic archive to the new 24p (progressive) format, making it readily available to both U.S. and international clients. The agreement involves more than 500 hours of footage, including both new and archived films. Subject matter varies from people and cultures to nature, wildlife, adventure and exploration. Also, in ’02, NGT&F made a commitment to increasing its slate of films available in high definition. Each of these films will be automatically added to the archives upon completion of production.
"Our TV group is starting to shoot a lot of HD programming," White says. "TV crews are now buying HD cameras, going out into the field and acquiring a lot of imagery, which really helps me tremendously. We have been doing film forever, and now except for long format, everything is being shot in HD."
The biggest customers for National Geographic’s HD library are museums, which utilize the footage for displays. "There are these welcome walls, like at the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, which are just draped with larger-than-life displays that are coming out of our libraries," White says, adding that TV television producers and advertising agencies are also starting to use HD footage. "TV companies want HD imagery that they will be able to cut in. Advertising agencies are a little slower coming to HD than TV shows. In general, they are still shooting on film and that’s their medium, but HD is slowly getting requested.
"We are certainly in transition, that’s for sure," he continues. "There is growth, but it is also the kind of thing where if you don’t have imagery, you are not going to be able to sell, so it’s more about keeping your customers and giving them what they want. We have to have our tools ready for them, but it is not new dollars for us, just a new media we have to support."
Meanwhile, FootageBank, founded in ’02 to specialize in HD native content, has recently launched a newly enhanced Web site that enables customers to search and preview motion clips online. "When I started the company, I knew that providing online clips for our clients would be imperative," says Paula Lumbard, founder/CEO of FootageBank. "We built this function into the architecture of the site from the beginning, allowing us to prepare all of our media for transfer to a moving digital format when the timing was right."
Lumbard, whose career in the stock footage market began in ’85, started the company because she saw a great opportunity and need for HD footage. "Our mission in life is to make HD stock footage available to the footage consuming world," she says. "We offer HD native footage and footage that has been converted from film."
At least 70 percent is HD native, for two reasons, according to Lumbard. She notes that if a project is created in HD, any stock images needed for it has to be in the same format. The other reason for shooting footage in HD, rather than converting it, is that it tends to be less expensive and faster than converted filmed images. "The risk I took—the hope I had two years ago—was that a market would emerge for people who are creating product in HD and would want HD content," Lumbard relates.
FootageBank offers aerials, landscapes and underwater collections, among other images. Additionally, FootageBank is working with animators at Butler Digital, Glendale, Calif., to output computer-generated 3-D images in high definition. "This is such a new market that we represent some of the best HD shooters in the world," Lumbard says. "We’ve signed the key underwater, aerial, travel and sports HD shooters. We have also been converting from film extreme sports footage, because there is not much yet created in HD."
Big markets for FootageBank include feature film, television and corporate production, and they are doing more and more commercials. However, Lumbard indicates that educating the industry is an important part of moving people to feeling comfortable with HD footage. "The nice thing about HD is that you can upgrade it to film; also, the film speed is 24p, and works with film quite nicely," she remarks. "It is becoming more and more acceptable, if not popular. As people are learning about HD, and seeing that it is stunningly beautiful, that it is a versatile medium and that we are not going to lose anything by working with it, they are more and more willing to accept HD."
