Searching for stock: finding the imagery you need has never been easier

Post, Nov, 2003 by Edmond M. Rosenthal

The comfort level is improving for those wishing to research and even download stock footage online, but the comforting voice of an expert house researcher remains a major factor.

Online research appears to be more prominent with libraries that have a relatively limited and definable inventory. Footage conveying moods, for example, will be more difficult to research on a Web site than simple clips of cats and dogs. Meanwhile, the massive workload of digitizing an enormous inventory has kept news libraries like ITN Archives and BBC Library Sales from becoming highly Web oriented.

Even where staff research remains the solution to customer needs, though, the Web site plays a major role. James Jordan, head of North American sales for ITN Archives in New York, comments, "The majority of customers will hear of us [via a random search of Web sites] but end up calling us."

Larry Aubrey, sales director of BBC Library Sales in New York, reports that some 90 percent of its research is still done by the BBC library staff.

The role of the Internet as a finder of undirected customers is defined by Jim Jarrard, president of Cinenet in Simi Valley, CA, which tracked its hits with an analyzer last August. He reports some 240,000 files were downloaded or reviewed that month. This amounted to about 8,000 individuals accessing the site and some 24,000 pages viewed by one or more persons.

Clients are quick to move into online search and downloading once they have established personal contact with a library, says Phil Bates, president of Artbeats in Myrtle Creek, OR. He elaborates, "Once people have talked to us and established pricing and terms, they're more comfortable using the Internet. We're now getting three times the number of orders on the Web than we get on the phone."

Similar progress is seen by Nick Napp, VP of marketing at 12-Inch Design in Phoenix. He reports about 40 percent of customers have bought online and 60 percent have at least expressed interest.

For ITN Archives (www.itnarchives.com), the search mechanism--once prospective clients register with contact details--is largely through text description for material from ITN, Reuters and the UK's Channel 4. Digitized footage for the British Pathe library is viewable online, but US and Canadian orders are taken only by WPA in Chicago.

Jordan says clients can search via keywords and break them down to "all of," "any of," "exact phrase" or "without these words." There are also date options, zeroing in on periods from an entire century to a single day. To present a feel for the library, ITN Archives runs some samples of moving images. It is looking into expanding the moving image base, but Jordan points out that the library embraces about 500,000 hours of material, with ITN having reported the news since 1955 and Reuters since 1896. He estimates it would take 10 to 12 years to digitize all of that material. While individual clips from the entire library are listed on the site, customers may also indicate "collections" and call up collections on such subjects as Bill Clinton or World War II.

CORBIS DROPS RESEARCH FEE

"Most customers want assisted searches, and we're very committed to providing that service," says Rick Wysocki, VP of Corbis Motion Brands (www.corbismotion.com) in New York. Noting that most stock houses charge for research, typically running about $150, he reports Corbis is now offering free research, with customer service people available all week, around-the-clock.

"We can eliminate the fee," he explains, "because we now have an all-digital process internally, allowing our researchers to locate material and create cassettes more quickly."

Customers have the option of keyword or Boolean (combinations of words such as "boy" and "dog") search. Advanced search can be done for characteristics of a shot, such as timelapse or archival, which can be modified to narrow down the choices. When site visitors click on the thumbnail picture representing a clip, Corbis can put the clip into a bin for screening or e-mail it to someone else. When customers click on "add to request," the library will e-mail an identifier of the shot, allowing the client to request a viewing cassette. Low-resolution files can be downloaded for audition.

A new service is WebReel, where the requested imagery is put on the Web in a matter of minutes, with a cassette being made while the customer is viewing the clip. Clients can watch a number of videos strung together this way, as if they were watching a reel. A recent user of this service was Philadelphia agency Red Tettemer, which wanted graduation hats flying in the air for an Optimum Online commercial. The agency wanted fast action on a request called in at 5:20 p.m. Wysocki recalls, "We were able to access it immediately and send them a Web reel. The next morning at 9 a.m., they ordered the shot and got it that day."

Corbis recently introduced a more powerful Web site, which allows faster searching and larger files, which can be downloaded into an editing system for a rough cut.