Stock footage had been offered in much the same manner for years. An agency producer who wanted to augment live action imagery or create a spot entirely of library shots would call up a sales rep at a stock library and relay the request. The rep would then compile the appropriate imagery and send a reel over to the producer, who may or may not find what he or she is looking for.
But that process has been changing. Most stock houses are now online, offering their extensive catalogues of imagery for viewing on the Web. In "e-Stock Exchange," executives at several libraries discuss their online presence. Many say that offering stock online will increase its use in advertising. "The importance of the Internet to advertisers is in the immediacy it offers," explains George Bartko, senior VP/operations of FootageNow. (FootageNow is headquartered in Atlanta, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Stuttgart, Germany.) "Whether you are trying to decide what footage is out there, or whether you’re just brainstorming for ideas, you don’t have to wait or guess. You have quicker access to ideas and can decide what you want to purchase immediately."
While stock houses have had Web sites for some time, many are now making their sites more complex and integrated. In October, FootageNow and the Second Line Search family of companies are scheduled to launch a new Web portal that will offer the footage from, among others, New York-based entities Hot Shots Cool Cuts and Action Sports Adventure, as well as the Los Angeles-headquartered Film Bank. FootageNow is a stock division launched by Internet services film iXL, which is based in Atlanta. The company merged with Second Line Search earlier this year. "Our site will be rich in content," explains Bartko, who notes that it will feature "clip-based functionality. You can go in and request the selected clips you would like to purchase, or you can have our research assistant create an interactive clip bin, and the clients can go in and look at clips we find for them."
Another new site, already up and running, is Busyboxpro.com, which offers royalty-free stock footage from a variety of sources. It features a selection of both streaming and downloadable broadcast-quality digital film and video clips, which can also be provided in any videotape format. Indeed, image quality is one hurdle that must be cleared before stock footage becomes essentially a "tapeless" product. But those stock execs that SHOOT spoke with believe that quality will be available soon. "Downloading the final elements is really just an issue of bandwidth," says Rick Wysocki, senior VP/motion brands and products, at the New York office of gettyone.
In "Creative Integration," SHOOT’s Susan Lin examines a recent campaign for Inktomi, an Internet technology company that provides software to run search engines. The spot package used select stock shots to enhance computer-generated graphics. The ads—"Soul," "Air" and "Mind" —were done via Arnold Ingalls Moranville, San Francisco. "If you’re going to use stock footage, ‘art spots’ [such as these] are the best arena for it," says Maury Rosenfeld, president/visual effects artist of Planet Blue, Santa Monica, the effects shop that created the original graphics for the ads. Photographic realism, Rosenfeld explains, has strict parameters for manipulation and creativity. Blending stock with an effects element, even though these two types of images have different lighting, color, and camera-angle requirements, was less rigorous for this job.
As evidenced by this Special Report, the world of stock footage is changing, so stay tuned to SHOOT for updates—and, as always, we welcome your feedback.
Kristin Wilcha
Senior Editor/Special Report
