Introduction
Stock footage or archive footage is a film footage, which is shot, for use in a film or program. These footages are beneficial for filmmakers because they are not very expensive since it will be quite expensive to shoot something completely new. A stock shot is a single stock footage. The stock footage usually appear as outtakes or shots used for productions not being currently used. Some examples of stock footages can be the moving images and landmarks. Wildlife and historical footages are also stock footages. There are two categories of stock footage rights-managed and royalty-free. There are a lot of websites that offer direct downloads of these clips and they are also available in different formats, either compressed or uncompressed.
History
These began to come to rise after the 1980’s, coming in different film formats. Libraries that shot the stock footage for sports and other cultural events were bought by major concerns and then it become quite famous. Stock footages prove to be less expensive then shooting a new video all over again, that is why big concerns such as Corbis and Getty images bought these libraries so that they do not have to create these videos all over again.
Features
The stock footage can be used in news and also in some films. Many of the academy award winning films, such as the forest Gump, used these footages widely modifying them with computer generated imagery, so that the lead character can look like a historical figure. These footages help the news channel, because when new images are not available these footages are used. These footages are labeled on screen stated that this is a file footage. Many television series and movies have used these footages by recycling them. A good example for this can be the star trek which used the footages of starships, planets and explosions. Throughout the series the same footages were used on a regular basis. These helped to lower down the cost because the overall series was already very expensive. The computer graphics were not that advanced during the 1990s however, later, the 2000s helped to reduce a lot of expenses of the star trek production because they were able to reuse their footages without shooting a new scene all over again, because that would increase their costs and also waste a lot of money therefore reusing the previous models and footages would help them reduce their costs and increase profitability.
Tips and comments
Broadcast shows also use stock footage clips, using clips of a city so that they can make it look like they are on the exact location that they are showing, whereas they are shooting at a studio in reality. Some shows show the Great Wall of China behind their backdrop whereas; they are actually standing at a studio. These small things help to save a lot of money, excluding the costs of transporting the whole crew to a new country and paying for their living expenses therefore, stock footage has overall helped the media industry to lower their costs therefore it is a very useful thing for everyone.
