Agencies take stock: Higher quality and more varied images, plus easier access, is making library footage more attractive to creatives - Commercial - Industry Overview

Post, March, 2002 by Edmond M. Rosenthal

Only a few years ago, when you wanted stock footage, it was hard to get much more than sunsets and aerial shots of London," asserts David Perry executive VP and head of broadcast production at Saatchi & Saatchi, New York (www.saatchi.com).

He and other agency executives are now quick to attest to the fact the stock footage providers have evolved from a limited, back-door resource to a highly disciplined, diversified provider of history, humor and inexpensive location substitutes.

"There is now more variety and things are shot more cinematically," notes Perry Their inventories are are digitized and you can find things more quickly Not only do the suppliers have a better handle on their own inventories, but technology has made a big difference. We can use their Web sites rather than leaving the office." Nevertheless, the easy availability of diverse content often pales when it runs headlong into the creative ego. In Perry's words, "One hurdle that's never going to be removed is that creative people don't want to buy something that exists. They would rather create it themselves." Then there's the difficulty of finding footage that will integrate with the rest of the spot.

SAATCHI: IMAGERY HAS COME A LONG WAY

As an example, he recalls shooting a Cheerios commercial on a snowy, cloudy day. Rather than dealing with the time and expense of holding up the shoot for better weather, Saatchi decided to open the spot with stock footage of mountains. The integration problem was solved in post production by using Discreet Flame to change density and color. "It was better than waiting live days for the perfect weather," Perry holds.

Even now, he notes, stock footage tends to offer only a generalized approach to creative demands, which typically are as specific as a dog catching a frisbee by a lake. "A lot of stock houses have people generating what they think will be used and, even if it's not specific enough, sometimes it's that or nothing when it's going to cost $100,000 to shoot or just a couple thousand to buy. And the beauty of stock footage is that you know exactly what you're going to get."

GREY WORLDWIDE FINDS STRENGTH IN ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE

"People are looking at the best way to get the highest quality of production at the best cost," comments Nancy Axthelm, executive VP and director of broadcast production at Grey Worldwide, New York (www.webmaster@grey.com). "Stock houses now have better quality, a wider range, easier search and more total clearance."

She has found great strength in archival footage and adds, "If you can't mount a shoot, there is more need for lifestyle footage -- but it tends to be too generic. This is inherent in the idea of stock footage." Nevertheless, her agency has used a range of stock images, including some manipulated footage in a Motorola corporate spot and "every man and every woman" stills in a US Postal Service campaign that was a show of support for postal workers.

Toy accounts are particularly appropriate for stock footage, she notes, because it's easy to get racecar or battle footage, for example, and it's cost prohibitive to shoot these scenes, Associate producer Todd Scheifele points to a campaign for Hasbro's Micro Machines, miniaturized play sets and vehicles, including aircraft carriers, cars, tanks, bunkers and mountains. In this campaign, the footage supplier was Air Boss in Louisville, KY, which provided shots of actual carriers, tanks and other military equipment in their environment.

In New York, Tapestry Productions, no longer in business, handled such special effects as integrating a child standing in water with the carrier footage.

In the past, Axthelm notes, AM Stock Exchange has been a significant supplier for Hasbro spots. Other primary suppliers have been Image Bank, National Geographic, Classic Films, Sekani and Action Sports Adventure. She adds that the Internet is used frequently for search and sometimes for downloading footage directly to the editor.

SEDGEWICK ROAD EMPLOYS SEARCH FIRM

"I don't see commercials being conceptualized around stock footage to save money," holds Jane Jacobsen, director of broadcast production at Sedgewick Road (www.sedgewickrd.com), a Seattle-based McCann-Erickson subsidiary. "What happens is the producer later finds an area where the footage may be appropriate. It may be a scene that needs landscape from another country. Stock houses have really been able to provide a vast array of choices. There's no problem getting what you need, in general terms. The variety is there." So much variety in fact, that Jacobsen avoids the burden of extensive telephone calls by using a search firm. Over the past decade, she has used LA's Searchworks exclusively.

She considers this option especially cost effective for a campaign like the one for Web site Keen.com, which involved receiving clips from two to three dozen stock footage houses -- from obscure commercials, films and TV shows. The Web site, which provides information from experts in a variety of fields, ranging from plumbing to computer science, was promoted by showing the thoughts of a thinking TV set that was lamenting the loss of viewers to the Web. In the process, programs and commercials that had once been on the air were shown. Involved was vintage 8mm and 16mm footage all the way from the '30s to the present. The spot was produced by LA's Imagininary Forces.