Buckle Up for a Trip through History with Global ImageWorks and the King Rose Archive

Take a trip through automotive history with Global ImageWorks and the King Rose Archives.
Look back at the pioneers of the automotive industry such as Carroll Shelby, John Z. DeLorean, Henry Ford, and Enzo Ferrari and remember their fabulous creations.
 
Race along with superstars Mario Andretti, Louis Chevrolet, Mickey Thompson, Sir Malcolm Campbell, and John Force and motorsports celebrities including Paul Newman and Tom Cruise.
 
From Hot Rods to exotics and everything in between, this incomparable automotive archive features unique and historical American and European automotive racing, off-road desert racing, drag racing, sports cars, Formula One cars, and more. Click here to see the footage.
 
More Historical Travel Films Available in HD & 2K
 
For those of you who love our historic travel film collection, you'll be excited to learn even more Global ImageWorks footage is now available in HD.  
 
Travel across the US in the 1960s and explore the West Coast in colorful HD. Cruise the south seas and visit Hawaii, Tahiti, and Australia in 2K. Explore Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and all points in between! These and many more destinations have recently been converted to HD from 16mm or 35mm prints. Click here to sample GIW's historic travel films.

Speaking of Riots...FootageBank Adds Vivid HD Coverage of Public Protests

Civil dissent, disorganization, herd behavior, police snatch squads rushing the chaos, young vandals jumping on the roofs of cars, fires burning in the turbulent streets - FootageBank has added more footage of riots and public protests to its collection, all shot in vivid HD. The man-in-the-crowd material comes from an aggressive news stringer and adds to FootageBank’s highly sought after playback collection. Used by scripted television to add to monitors within scenes or by documentary productions looking for vérité, FootageBank is proud to offer this new footage exclusively.

Click here to check out some of these powerful images.

ContentMint, a new Online Footage Library Specializing in Wildlife and Natural History Footage, is Now Up and Running

ContentMint, formerly Absolutely Wild Visuals, is an online premium footage library from Wildbear Entertainment, specializing in wildlife and natural history stock footage. The site is in active development and their database of footage is continuously growing. From stunning aerial footage of pronghorns bounding across the American Prairies; to ritualized combats between gila monsters; to graceful manta rays gliding through the ocean; ContentMint features diverse and visually sumptuous footage captured in 4k and HD from across the world.

Absolutely Wild Visuals was created by Bettina Dalton in 2000. Based in Australia, Absolutely Wild Visuals serviced a number of customers with footage both from Bettina’s own shows and with footage from expert cinematographers. When WildBear was formed in 2014, the Absolutely Wild Visuals library was rebranded and completely digitized to make it easily accessible and masters downloadable.

Currently featuring footage from more than fifty contributors, the ContentMint site will be updated in the next six months to include even more wildlife behavior footage in 4K and a new collection of historical reenactments. 

ContentMint caters to clients looking for one off clips, and to production companies looking to use ContentMint as a large contributor for their projects. Operating as a one-stop shop, clients are able to download low resolution files for offline editing; license; make payments; and download broadcast quality masters through the website.

If you are interested in having your footage represented by ContentMint, or for any sales enquiries, please contact sales@contentmint.com.au. 

Footage.net to Spotlight Stock Footage Partners at NAB 2016

Footage.net will feature a prestigious group of footage providers as part of its 2016 NAB exhibition, set to take place on April 18-21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. With the NAB Show forecasted to draw large numbers, and Footage.net moving to a central position on the show floor, traffic is expected to be strong. 

“Introducing attendees to the world-class footage companies available through Footage.net is always a top priority for us at NAB,” said David Seevers, Footage.net CMO. “So our partner companies will be front and center at our NAB booth.” 

Footage.net partner companies set to participate include: ABCNEWS VideoSource, AP Archive, Bridgeman Footage, FootageBank, Framepool, Global ImageWorks, INA, Producers Library and Reelin’ in the Years Productions. These companies represent the key footage categories available for search and screening through Footage.net, including television news, premium stock footage, arts & entertainment, archival footage and historic music performance. 

As one of the world’s largest production shows, NAB brings together a huge number of production professionals, the vast majority of which are there to learn about production resources and make purchase plans and decisions. Of the 103,119 attendees at last years NAB Show, 69,325 were listed as buyers, of which 8.4% identified stock footage as a primary interest -- meaning 5,823 attendees expressed an interest in stock footage. Similar numbers are expected this year.

“Based on the huge turnout and the great demographic mix, NAB has historically been a very good show for us,” said David Seevers. “And we got very lucky with our booth position this year, which makes a huge difference. We have a corner spot at a high-traffic intersection at the end of a long, central corridor, providing an unobstructed line of sight from quite a distance. Being the right spot makes a huge difference at NAB so we are really looking forward to a great show.”

NAB attendees will be able to demo Footage.net’s search engine, view partner samples and delve into the ins and outs of particular collections. Anyone with particular footage needs can be matched up on the spot with specific footage or an individual provider. Please stop by the Footage.net booth for more information (Booth #SL 14,811).

Featured Footage Partners

ABCNEWS VideoSource is the content licensing division for ABCNEWS. The VideoSource collection spans from 1896 to the present and includes the collections of ABCNEWS and British Movietone News. 

The Associated Press is the definitive source for images and video, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. The AP has the industry’s most sophisticated digital photo network, a 24-hr continuously updated online, multimedia news service and an expansive film and video archive. AP’s video archive collection includes over 1.7 million global news and entertainment stories dating back to 1895, sourced both from AP’s own coverage and from their premium content partners. Hours of new footage including HD content is added daily with coverage from AP’s 80 international news bureaus. Learn more about archive video at aparchive.com. 

Bridgeman Footage is the premier destination for art, culture and historic footage. Bridgeman Footage is a division of Bridgeman Images, the art and history licensing specialists, distributing multi-media packages to creative professionals and TV broadcasters worldwide.  Bridgeman’s rights managed footage collection is comprised of new and exclusive films, including historical archive, artist profiles and biographies, archaeological sites, world travel and vintage animation. Two thirds of their collection is represented exclusively by Bridgeman Footage. They have recently implemented an advanced download feature that allows clients to explore the diversity within their archive at their own leisure. They’re adding new clips daily, with thousands of clips available offline and their expert research team is available and ready to help you tell your story.
 
FootageBank took the lead in large format stock clip licensing over a decade ago and now takes the lead again in licensing fully released location content for scripted programming. With over 100,000 clips available online to search, preview and download, FootageBank is committed to representing high-value footage creators, and preserving and promoting value in clip licensing.

Framepool shows the world as it is, how it was and how it might be. In the categories Creative, Editorial and History, Framepool offers material from over 700 filmmakers, media companies and producers from all continents. Footage on all subjects, from all perspectives. The world as Framepool sees it, focusing on the unique, unusual, unexpected, as we have never seen them before.

The Global ImageWorks (GIW) archive is a large curated collection of amazing footage created by award winning filmmakers, cinematographers, correspondents and production companies. 
The archive contains both deep content and stock shots. Their growing selection of online “Buy Now” royalty free and rights ready footage is another way they make unique, high quality footage available to each and every production. Global ImageWorks is the exclusive clip administrator for several highly acclaimed iconic television shows including Austin City Limits, Time Life’s History of Rock & Roll Interviews, The Dick Cavett Show and Omnibus. They also represent the visually captivating films and photos of Harold Lloyd. Global ImageWorks offers a variety of licensing options including rights-managed, royalty-free and rights-ready. Clients can access Global ImageWorks Premium Collection, flexible pricing and free In-house Research. Global ImageWorks has the stock shots & the deep content producers need to connect with their audience.  

INA is now one of the largest footage sources in the world. Since 1975, INA has worked to gather and conserve the images and sounds that underpin our collective memory, give them meaning and share them with the world. For their professional clients, the INAmediapro website provides free and immediate access to over 1.5 million hours of digitized video and audio treasures spanning a century of modern and international history. INA’s content includes exciting collections added daily.

Producers Library has been providing stock footage since 1957 and is still going strong.   Their new motto reads “I’D RATHER BE SCANNING”, for all the 16mm to 2K and 35mm to 4K DPX files they are capturing from gems dug out of their vault.  Eclectic barely describes their holdings – the short list includes feature out-takes, locations around the world, movie clips & trailers from all decades, 4K video, stills, vintage, playback and more.  Additionally the Producers Library archive features a unique specialty in motion picture history. You can see their treasures at www.producerslibrary.com.

Reelin’ In The Years Productions is the world’s premier source for footage of musical artists, entertainers & history makers. Reelin' In The Years archive holds over 20,000 hours from the last 90 years available for license to all forms of media. In addition to their world renown music footage library, they also exclusively represent the rights to The Merv Griffin Show, The Sir David Frost Archive, The Rona Barrett Archive and numerous other extensive libraries which contain over 6,000 hours of in-depth interviews with the 20th century’s icons of film and television, politics, comedy, literature, art, science, fashion and sports, filmed between 1962-2012. The archive is so vast that whether you're looking for music footage from The Beatles to Beyonce, entertainment from Bette Davis to Jerry Seinfeld, history makers from Dr. Martin Luther King to President Bill Clinton, Reelin' In The Years Productions will have the perfect footage for your project.

Come learn about these and the other great collections available through Footage.net at booth #SL14811.

Global ImageWorks has Breathtaking Footage of Rio de Janeiro, the "The Marvelous City".

Start warming up for the Olympic Summer Games with Global ImageWorks' incredible collection of historic and contemporary Rio footage. Explore Rio de Janeiro in the 1920s -1960s. Captured in rich, beautiful 16mm or 35mm film just waiting to be brought to life in your next production. Experience Carnival circa 1955. Immerse yourself in the sounds of Salsa music and watch as ornate floats cruise down the crowded streets.  Their contemporary Rio de Janeiro footage documents daily life in Rio and includes hundreds of HD, Royalty Free and Rights Ready clips. There are beautiful beach scenes and landscapes, famous landmarks like Sugarloaf Mountain and Christ the Redeemer, and aerials from all around Rio de Janeiro.

Film Archives Relaunches Mobile Friendly, Multi-Purpose Website

FILM Archives Inc.'s newly overhauled website showcases the company's core philosophy: “We've always endeavored to sweep away obstacles and put absolutely no daylight between our customers and our footage,” says Mark Trost, president and co-founder of the 30 year-old NYC stock house. That meant creating a sleek, deceptively simple home page designed with the search box front and center. Whether producers prefer quick keyword hits or the most complex search, FILM's highly upgraded custom video search engine can unearth precisely desired clips from among the thousands of existing vintage and contemporary library reels as well as new film footage screeners and HD news topics added daily.

Search results now appear in multiple sizes and formats, such as clipboard, list and film strip. Greatly enlarged thumbnail images and improved video quality makes for fast and easy screener review. Clips also play faster within most popular browsers. The site can be viewed on any desktop or mobile platform including iPad, iPhone, and Chromebook. Research is always free and watermarked clips may be downloaded to any device for playback and test edits.

Additionally, FILM's web designer Timothy McGlynn put all the need-to-know info about collections, rates, and sample licenses at users' fingertips. “The whole new look is fresh and uncluttered,” McGlynn says. Trost notes: “We've always received compliments on ease of use. This time we tested and retested to make certain the site is easier than ever to use, accessible to more platforms, and adapts well to users' preferred search and view methods.” FILM's recent clients include The Dr. Oz Show, Gotham, Captain America: 75 Heroic Years, Vanity Fair Confidential, and the upcoming History Channel Series,
Generation X.

Renowned Film Preservationist Robert Gitt to Receive FOCAL International's 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award

Film preservationist Robert Gitt is to receive the FOCAL International Award for Lifetime Achievement at the thirteenth annual FOCAL International Awards, to be presented in association with AP Archive on 26th May, 2016. This Award is a gift of the FOCAL International Executive and has been endorsed by many eminent people, amongst them Director Martin Scorsese.

“Bob Gitt has dedicated his life to film preservation, and in all honesty I can't think of anyone more deserving of FOCAL's Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Director Martin Scorsese.

In 1970, Gitt joined The American Film Institute in Washington, D.C., where he served initially as film booking and technical manager of the AFI Theater at the Kennedy Center. Three years later, he became AFI’s technical officer and began to work on film restoration projects, including Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937), which he completed at UCLA, and The Blot (1921), influential in cementing Lois Weber’s reputation as an important pioneer woman director.

In 1977, Robert Gitt began work at UCLA Film & Television Archive as its first preservation officer, where he was actively involved in the preservation and restoration of hundreds of classic Hollywood films, both silent and sound. Most recently he was asked by Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker to supervise the digital restoration of perhaps the most beautiful Technicolor film of all time, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948), in collaboration with the BFI and ITV.
        
“Bob has led the preservation and restoration team at UCLA for many years and is one of the world's most admired and respected conservation and restoration experts,” said film historian Clyde Jeavons. “He has restored probably more important American movies - silent and sound, classic and obscure - than all the other US archivists put together, and has been a pioneer of techniques to recover early and late Technicolor and to restore the first Hollywood sound-on-disc systems, even working from cracked and broken shellac recordings. In short, he has helped to make available to the highest possible standards countless films threatened by loss and decay.”

“Bob Gitt set the standard for what we call film restoration,” said Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures EVP asset management, film restoration and digital mastering. “Film preservation existed prior to Bob Gitt, but the kind of restoration we know of today is the result of Bob’s standard setting work for almost forty years.”

Gitt has also specialized in resuscitating early sound films, including over one hundred 1926-1931 Vitaphone one reel short subjects, and has lectured widely on the subject of film and sound preservation. His latest project is Part II of his epic history of sound on film (A Century of Sound, 1933-1975) - described as "a gold mine for specialist researchers and technology buffs" - which was launched earlier this year on BluRay.

'It's great news that our FOCAL International Executive has voted to honor Bob Gitt in this way,' said FOCAL International's Chair Sue Malden, 'Bob has also accepted our invitation to present the Jane Mercer Memorial Lecture a few days prior to the Awards Ceremony on 26th May. It will be a wonderful bonus to a thrilling week of archive industry events.” 

Kate Adie OBE, the former Chief News Reporter for the BBC and current presenter of From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4 will host the gala FOCAL International Awards Ceremony on 26th May at the Lancaster London Hotel. Apart from the Lifetime Achievement Award, sixteen further awards will be presented on 26th May to celebrate achievement by producers and directors in the creative use of footage in all variety of genres, across all media platforms plus the contribution made to the global production industry by archivists, film libraries, researchers and technicians, as well as the work done to restore and preserve these irreplaceable assets.

Organizer of the Awards competition Julie Lewis went on, 'It's going to be another gripping competition. We received 191 submissions to the FOCAL International Awards 2016 from 17 countries - amazing archive heavy productions featuring, for example, Amy Winehouse, Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando and Kurt Cobain all vying for a place in the final nominations - and that is just in the Cinema category! We also have an unprecedented 12 nominations for the Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year Award so it’s going to be a very tight race in all 16 Award categories. Our amazing team of over 50 international jurors are already stuck into viewing their respective submissions and we will be announcing the final shortlist in the second week of March.'

Tickets for the Gala Awards Ceremony 26th May go on sale today, so you'll need to hurry if you want to book a table. 

Dramatic and Vivid 4K News Stringer Footage Adds to FootageBank’s Well Known Playback Collection

News stringers ride the knife-edge of cinematography and live action reporting. Rather than planning out shoots, they listen to police scanners and drop everything to document human events in real time. Shot in vivid 4K, FootageBank has added news stringer footage to its highly sought after playback collection. The stringer material currently includes crime scenes and investigations, car and pedestrian accident scenes, bomb scares, hazmat teams, and fires. Riots and civil unrest coverage will be added by Valentine’s Day. Known for their playback material - used by scripted television to add to monitors within scenes – FootageBank is proud to offer this new footage exclusively.

Click here to see sample clips.

Producers Library to Make Available 1956 Color Footage of Isfahan and Teheran

PLS is in the process of scanning over one hundred-forty shots of 35mm color out-takes from a never released re-make of the famous 1925 silent ethnographic film Grass. 
The original b&w documentary was highly successful, produced by Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Marguerite E. Harrison. The country was then called Persia; the name was changed to Iran in the mid-thirties.  (Cooper and Schoedsack went on to direct the 1933 King Kong).

 In 1956 Hollywood’s C. V. Whitney Productions tapped Cooper as executive producer and sent a fifteen member Hollywood crew to Iran. The film held by PLS covers aerials of Isfahan , moving povs of crowded street scenes, a train station, university buildings, rug making, a polo match, hospital scenes, Mosques and a handful of shots depicting tribes and their herds crossing the mountains.  A forty minute fund raising version with narration and music failed to pique enough interest and the re-make was never finished; perhaps the only surviving scenes are these out-takes.

WGBH Launches New Re-Designed Stock Footage Website

WGBH Stock Sales announces the launch of its newly updated and redesigned stock footage and licensing website: www.wgbhstocksales.org.  The new site allows the researcher to search and find footage clips, browse selected digitized interviews, discover online educational content and even search the entire catalog of WGBH programs. 

WGBH produces more programming for the PBS system than any other PBS station with an archive that dates back to 1955.  Series such as NOVA, Frontline, American Experience, and Antiques Roadshow comprise some of the footage collection, with an emphasis on science, current affairs and history.   One of the unique holdings of the archive are the numerous interviews which have been shot over the years for the many public television series WGBH produced.  These interviews range from world leaders (Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright) to policy makers, notable personalities (Steve Jobs), academics, scientists, historians, artists, musicians and experts in all fields spanning the time period from the 1950’s to 2015.   One of the treasures
of the archive is Eleanor Roosevelt hosting her own public affairs talk show in the 1950’s.  (She interviews JFK, among others!) 

In addition to new HD clips, the redesigned site includes twelve curated collections for the visitor to browse and explore.  Surprises include the WGBH Music collection (early soul and rock and roll), the Sports Collection (WGBH was the first television station to broadcast tennis), and more.  There is a Julia Child collection and a collection of WGBH mini-series, and of course a Boston Collection.  The site provides links to the WGBH collection in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and to the WGBH Archives sister site “Open Vault,” where a number of the digitized interviews can be screened.

“We hope that the redesigned and reorganized site will help viewers find WGBH content in all the various places it lives”, says Alison Smith, who heads up WGBH Stock Sales.  
The site also highlights and provides links to educational on-line materials on WGBH’s websites such as timelines, interactives and short videos which may also be licensed. 

WGBH’s goal with the redesigned website is to guide the viewer to find the wealth and variety of content available, particularly since only a small portion of the collection is clipped and digitized.  The sites online clip collection offers a simple pricing system of $180 for SD clips and $250 for HD clips.    Watermarked clips can be downloaded to the viewers desktop.   WGBH hopes to add e-commerce to the site in the near future. 

Explore Cuba with Global ImageWorks

Walk down the colorful streets of present-day Havana, marvel at the classic American cars still in use and experience the vibrant Cuban culture. This beautifully shot HD tour of Cuba also includes interior shots of Ernest Hemingway's legendary home Finca Vigia in San Francisco de Paula and the eclectic home of Cuban artist Jose Fuster.

Spectacular archival footage of Cuba in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s shows Havana as a tourist destination for wealthy Americans with scenes of lively nightlife, parades, and the magnificent neon that colored this cosmopolitan city. This footage is film backed and upon request, can be transferred to HD.

New INA Mediapro Site Provides Simplified User Experience

With new graphic design and ergonomics, and more intuitive navigation,  the new INA Mediapro website offers a simplified user experience to explore collections from INA and its partners more easily than before.

10 Editorial Paths Facilitate Content Exploration
Navigation is facilitated through INA's wide-ranging content collections thanks to 10 "themes" with links to more than 570 video and audio files: Art and Culture, the Economy, History, Media, Politics and Geopolitics, Science and the Environment, Society, Sports, Shows and Personalities.

INA MEDIAPRO, a Working Tool to Offer Made-to-Measure Solutions
A wide range of functions are available to expedite and refine footage searches. All the clips on offer can be time-coded, cut, shared, annotated, saved and downloaded. More than just an on-line database, INA MEDIAPRO is a dynamic working tool for professionals to assist them with all their audio-visual projects.

Click here for more information.

WGBH Boston and Reelin’ In The Years Productions Partner to License Music Footage

WGBH, the largest producer of content for public television, and Reelin’ In The Years Productions, the world’s premier footage source for musical artists and entertainers, have announced an exclusive licensing representation deal for WGBH’s music-related footage.

The deal will include more than four decades of material produced by WGBH between 1968 and 1995, much of which has not been seen since its original broadcast. The footage is part of the WGBH Media Library and Archives and will be made available through Reelin’ In The Years Productions (RITY).

“We are excited to have our music collection represented by such an experienced and trusted music licensing service,” says Alison Smith, associate director of the WGBH Media Library and Archives. “Reelin’ in the Years Productions recognizes the historic value of this footage and how to bring it forward to new audiences.”

Since its first television broadcast in 1955, WGBH has been the source of hundreds of award-winning news, documentary and drama programs, many of them featuring popular music. Perhaps best known is the James Brown concert at the Boston Garden in 1968, the day after Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr. was killed. WGBH filmed and broadcast the three- hour performance live at the request of Boston Mayor Kevin White in the hope of keeping residents at home and the city calm. It is credited with helping prevent riots which other cities were experiencing.

Other notable performances that will now be available through RITY, feature soul music artists who appeared live on WGBH’s public affairs TV series Say Brother (now Basic Black), including Gladys Knight & The Pips, David Ruffin, Earth, Wind & Fire, Carla Thomas, Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions, Smokey Robinson, Sly & The Family Stone, Isley Brothers and The Parliaments (featuring the earliest known footage of George Clinton). Other unique programs in the archive feature performances and interviews with artists such as James Taylor, Buddy Guy, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Big Mama Thornton, Taj Mahal, Bobby Blue Bland, George Thorogood, New Edition, Nancy Wilson, Eartha Kitt, B.B. King, J. Geils Band, Frank Zappa, and Tony Bennett.

In 1993, WGBH produced, in association with the BBC, a 10-part documentary mini-series series called Rock & Roll which traced the history and evolution of rock and roll music, from its rhythm and blues, country, gospel and jazz roots in the early 1950s, through the advent of folk, rock, soul, heavy metal, glam, funk, punk, and reggae, to the emergence of rap in the 1980s. WGBH saved and preserved all 80 of the raw interviews they filmed (ranging from 45-90 minutes in length). The archive contains a “who’s who” of notable artists being interviewed including songwriters and producers who rarely sat down for interviews. Artists include Little Richard, Ike Turner, Scotty Moore & DJ Fontana, Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, George Clinton, Wilson Pickett, Robbie Robertson, Jerry Lee Lewis and producers such as Berry Gordy, Jerry Wexler, Lieber & Stoller, Rick Hall, George Martin, Gamble & Huff, Phil & Marshall Chess, Tom Dowd and Jeff Barry. Sadly, many of these great artists are no longer alive, but thanks to this archive the stories of their significant contribution to the history of popular music can be seen and heard.

“To represent the performances and interviews from this major archive is truly a great honor,” says RITY founder and president David Peck. “The WGBH holdings feature many one-of-a-kind performances and interviews -- it’s the rediscovery of a great American treasure.”

RITY has begun the process of cataloguing the WGBH music footage and making it available for clips to be used in documentary productions.

Using SD Footage in an HD Production

Using standard definition footage in a high-definition production poses special challenges. But with so much irreplaceable SD footage out there, it's a puzzle producers must solve regularly. We talked with some of our friends on the archive side, including experts from FootageBank, Framepool, Global ImageWorks, INA and NBC News Archives to get their perspective on how they manage client requests for SD footage. Here's what we learned: 

Aspect Ratio is the Biggest Hurdle
Most clients these days understand and accept that SD footage will be lower res than HD. However, a more significant obstacle is the size and shape of the SD frame. With an aspect ratio of 4:3, the SD frame is smaller and nearly square, so conforming an SD shot to the larger, more rectangular dimensions of a 16:9 HD frame is the more vexing issue. As Sandrine Sacarrere of INA puts it, "aspect ratio may be the easiest setting to illustrate the differences between 4:3 and 16:9, especially with its consequences on anamorphosis or cropping." 
 
Upscale Options
While these issues are generally understood by clients, our panelists make sure to remind them that SD clips will have to be upscaled. The most common upscaling methods are pillarboxing, wherein the image is scaled up until the top and bottom borders of the SD image align with the HD frame, leaving black space on either side of the image (pillars); cropping; or, in some cases, stretching the images. 

Go Native
Most of our panelists agree that it's better to deliver SD footage in its native format and let the clients handle the upscaling work on their own. As Paula Lumbard of FootageBank puts it, "we have found it works best for a client to convert on their end so they have control over what part of the frame is lost, whether it's the top or bottom." Jessica Berman-Bogdan at at Global ImageWorks takes a similar view: "in my experience, most editors/post supervisors want to control SD to HD upconverts so that the look and feel to the footage is consistent with the overall look and feel of the film. I have seen the successful results of following this policy on many a film. Therefore, Global ImageWorks encourages our clients to let us deliver the most native format and for them to do their own upconverts." 

Pillarbox, Don't Stretch
If they do perform the upconversion, most of our panelists agree that pillarboxing is the best method and image stretching is not an ideal solution. "The pillarbox process is the right way to upscale as the frames remain intact," says Stephen Bleek of Framepool. "If the clients need a crop to 16:9 full frame he/she can do that afterwards with the up-resed pillarbox version on his/her editing system. This way the client can choose exactly the crop he/she wishes." At NBC, "some clients ask us to up-convert SD footage," says Luis Aristondo, Operations Manager for NBC News Archives. "Most requests are for pillared and very few are for stretched." For Paula Lumbard, image "stretching is not an option. No matter what, the human eye can tell an object is stretched, even a flower let alone a face or animal." 
 
For Best Results, Start with Film
Of all the SD formats, 35mm film offers the best source material for an upconversion. "When it comes to film, 16mm is considered SD and 35mm is considered HD," says to Luis Aristondo at NBC. Stephen Bleek at Framepool puts it this way: "35mm still offers a great resolution, even up to 4K. But some film scans need de-graining in addition to match nowadays guidelines. The resolution of 16mm is too low to get really good HD results. But if you have archival images shot on 16mm it is better than nothing." According to INA, "scanners can transfer 16 mm films in DPX files in SD, HD or 2K. 35 mm can be scanned up to 4K and even 8K, but it is still rare. We consider 2K as the good resolution for remastering our collection. But 4K is on its way..." 
 
Proactive Upscaling
Consequently, most of our panelists do some proactive upscaling of film elements to HD. For example, Framepool "is constantly scanning archival film reels to HD formats." At NBC News, "new content being digitized by the network archives department from tape is being ingested as up-converted pillared." 
 
There Are No Magic Tools
At the moment, there do not appear to be any real alternative ways to scale up SD footage so that no data is lost, cropped or and the image is not stretched. As Stephen Bleek at Framepool puts it, "there are no magic tools that can produce detailed and realistic looking additional resolution. But in some cases an upres can look quite okay. Especially close-ups since they contain fewer details than wide shots."

Montage of Heck: An Innovative Documentary Born from the Archives of Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck traces the life of the Nirvana frontman from his early childhood in Aberdeen, Washington to his death by suicide at the age of 27. Challenged from the start by the relative dearth of archival footage of Cobain, director Brett Morgen utilized a variety of innovative visual and audio elements to convey the essential themes of Cobain’s short life and powerful artistic output. “Based on art, music, journals, super 8 films and audio montages provided by the family of Kurt Cobain,” the film captures his raw creative energy; the tension between his driving ambition and unease with fame; his alienation from his family; and, ultimately, his self destruction.

As with his past films, including The Kid Stays in the Picture, Chicago 10 and Crossfire Hurricane, Morgen’s experience with the archival source material was fundamental to the development of the film’s narrative structure. 

“I always write the scripts after I’ve evaluated all the material I have to work with,” said Morgen. “With a film like Montage of Heck, the bulk of the material came from Kurt’s storage facility. And when I went in to evaluate it, I had no idea what story I was going to tell. I knew I was doing a Kurt Cobain film and I knew it would sort of take place within the context of his life, but I didn’t know what that story would be. And the story emerged from, revealed itself through my experience with the archives.”

For Morgen, documentary filmmaking and archival research are interdependent skills. 

“I’ve made five or six films that are entirely archive based, and when working in that realm, you’re really limited by what material you’re able to collect,” he said. “And so I look at each piece of archival material as a letter, and a couple of pieces as a word and several pieces make a sentence. My ability to successfully direct a film can’t be separated from my ability to track down archival. It’s one and the same for me.”

But while Cobain’s private archive proved to be a rich trove of source materials, there turned out to be relatively little archival footage of Cobain himself to work with, a significant challenge for a film of this nature.

“There is almost no verite footage in existence of Kurt Cobain,” said Morgen. “In fact, outside of the material we found in Kurt’s storage facility, I would go so far as to say that there probably is none. He never participated in any sort of cinema verite documentary. And he never allowed any news crews to follow him around…and he was around in the pre-paparazzi days. So there’s a scattering of interviews with Kurt and performance footage and that’s it. There is nothing else.”

Additionally, Cobain was generally a reluctant interview subject. 

“When Montage started, I thought that Kurt would be narrating the film, but I didn’t think there would be any on camera interviews,” said Morgen. “I figured it would be Kurt’s art, which I would contextualize through with pre-existing archival interviews with Kurt. And it was after I had secured and listened to all the existing Cobain interviews I decided to not use him in that role. And to employ his family to be the sort of Greek chorus if you will. And that decision was based on the fact that…I found Kurt to be so expressive and articulate in his art and in all these other mediums, but in interviews it felt like it was painful for him and so rather than have him do the heavy lifting, and have to deal with the monotony of getting from A to B, I figured let’s have these other people” play that role.
 
And while the lack of archival footage of Cobain was initially daunting, Morgen and his crew responded with creativity and innovation. 
 
“It’s important to remember when you’re making these kinds of films, that often times that which you do not have can be a blessing, rather than a curse,” said Morgen. “When you don’t have material, it sort of forces us to find of creative ways to present those ideas, or that narrative information we’re missing. And I think that’s where a lot of the innovation in the documentary realm over the last fifteen or twenty years has come from.”
 
Morgen did catch one very big break in the making of the film, when he discovered a large cache of audiotapes in Cobain’s storage facility. 

“I was aware that [the storage facility] housed his art and his other content but no one had informed me that there were 200 hours of unreleased audio that were housed there as well,” said Morgen. “And that audio ran the gamut of Nirvana rehearsals to spoken word poetry, sound collages, sound design, films scores, just a plethora of material, that would both inform Montage of Heck aesthetically as well as narratively. And I would say that that finding probably had the greatest impact on the film.”
 
Morgen worked with Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing to create animated sequences to accompany the archival audio and, as a result, was “able to build 47 minutes of the film with nothing but audio. And I’m not saying with audio interviews, but random pieces of audio, Kurt’s sound collages or music or spoken word.”  

Having the animation to support the archival audio allowed Morgen to include lengthy audio clips in their entirety. In one extended sequence, single cell animation is used to fully illustrate a story “in which [Cobain] talks about losing his virginity.” The story “was something that [Kurt] had recorded, and I have yet to find anyone who had ever heard it, so for all practical purposes I know he recorded this tape, threw it into a box and there it sat until 2013 when we came across it,” said Morgen.
 
“This is archaeology work,” he said. “And part of the joy of doing a film like Montage of Heck is discovering this material that people haven’t heard in eons and sharing it with the world.”
 
The scarcity of archival footage of Cobain himself notwithstanding, Montage of Heck turned out to be an extremely complex archival project for both Morgen and Jessica Berman-Bogdan, who served as archival producer on the film. 
 
“For a band whose commercial lifespan really only lasted four years, it was amazing to see how much material was available,” said Berman-Bogdan. “We collected a staggering amount of footage and photos. In the end we ended up using materials from over 100 different sources.”
 
Joining the project in its early stages, Berman-Bogdan was able to conduct an especially deep and comprehensive archival excavation, mining both the big commercial archives as well as private collections, and assembling the bulk of the film’s internal archive in advance of Morgen’s production work.  
 
“Fortunately, Brett understands the research process,” said Berman-Bogdan. “I was brought on in pre-production and by the time the production team was fully assembled we had amassed a ton of footage and photos.” 
 
“My goal was to contact every single journalist/reporter who ever interviewed Kurt and see if they still had their original audiotapes,” she said.  “Surprisingly, many of these individuals still had this material.”
 
Because much of the archival material was in the hands of individuals, many of whom had close personal ties with Cobain, “the issue of trust was unique to this film,” said Berman-Bogdan. “A good deal of archival footage and photos came from people who had personal video or photos of Nirvana from back in the day.  My biggest challenge was not only to locate these individuals but more importantly to gain their trust. It was amazing and somewhat unexpected to see how protective everyone was of Kurt.  Most people felt Kurt had been so wronged in some way, especially in the media, and they had to be convinced that Montage of Heck was going to be different and treat Kurt fairly.”
 
“With films like Chicago 10, and Crossfire Hurricane, and more so with Montage of Heck, Jessica and I take a two tiered approach [to archival research],” said Morgen. “Which is, there’s the mainstream archives, then there’s the grassroots archives.  It’s like an air war and a ground war.  And obviously the air war is much easier to navigate then the ground war.”
 
Morgen and Berman-Bogdan have worked together on archive-based films since 2002, and their strong working relationship was essential to the success of an archival research project of this scope. Assembling the films complete internal archive was critical to Morgen’s production process, because he typically won’t start screening the archival materials until everything is in place.  
 
As archival producer, “it’s my job to make sure Brett gets everything he needs and asks for,” said Berman-Bogdan. “The best way to do that is to understand what’s driving the film creatively and to have a firm grasp on the production’s time line.  Let’s not underestimate the value of a long-term relationship. I’ve worked with Brett since The Kid Stays in the Picture back in 2002. By now I have a feel for how he works and what he expects. Staying ahead of, or at least on top of his expectations is key.” 
 
“On Montage of Heck I had Jessica come on board almost a year before we were planning to start screening,” said Morgen. “And then I usually take six to nine months to collect material, and once it’s collected it goes to the assistant editor who gets it into the system. Once everything is in the system then I sit down with the editor and we screen material chronologically. I find when you screen chronologically, certain themes get eliminated and reveal themselves. And I sort of refuse to start screening until I know everything is in there. It frustrates me to no end if I start screening and suddenly new footage comes in from a date which I’ve already passed and cleared. I’m very literal minded in that way.” 
 
Access to archival material has become something of a prerequisite for Morgen when he is considering a new documentary project.
 
“Over the course of the last fifteen years I’ve gotten to the point where when I’m approached about a subject, and generally these are high-profile subjects, I won’t engage in any meaningful conversations until I’ve done my own sort of initial footage search,” said Morgen. “To see what’s out there in the mainstream, the air war if you will. And then obviously in my initial meetings I’m inquiring about what material we will have to build this film from.”
 
One of the biggest shifts for Morgen’s archival filmmaking practice was the emergence of YouTube as an archival research tool. 
 
“My relationship with archive has changed since the advent of YouTube,” he said. “I started making archival films pre-YouTube.  And I think that it really changed the game quite a bit.”
 
“I look at YouTube in a way as a kind of lowest common denominator, meaning it's a great place to look when you are starting a project to see what’s out there” he said. “And I would say that probably without digging hard, you know 80% of what you’re ultimately going to find on a general subject you’re going to find on YouTube. Depending on the subject, but with entertainment subjects it’s crazy how much stuff is out there. And what it’s also useful for is when I get to a certain stage it is almost a way for me to do checks and balances with Jessica [Berman-Bogdan], where I can go and say okay did we make sure we located this piece? You’re able to become aware of its existence, and make sure that you’ve tracked it all down.”
 
That said, the presence of so much archival footage on sites like YouTube means that very little footage remains rare or unreleased - a real problem for a documentary filmmaker as “there is still an inherent pressure on a filmmaker to deliver new material when you are doing any sort of definitive portrait of a subject,” said Morgen.
 
“We were fortunate enough with Montage of Heck that most of the material came from Kurt’s own storage facility. And the bulk of that hadn’t been seen so it wasn’t as much of an issue for us as it was on Crossfire Hurricane,” Morgen’s portrait of the Rolling Stones.
 
Overall, this process of discovery, or media archaeology, is fundamental to Morgen’s passion for his work.
 
“I can’t think of a better job, because in essence as documentary filmmakers, as archivists, we have a sort of all access pass to these cultures, societies and events that we are personally so fascinated by. As I said, I grew up as a fan of the Rolling Stones, and next thing I know I’m holding [the master recording of] Brown Sugar in my hand. I never lose sight of the fact that we are incredibly privileged to work in this field and go off on these expeditions.”
 

A Conversation with Kate Griffiths, Winner of the Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year Award

Kate Griffiths, the winner of FOCAL's 2015 Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year Award, has developed something of a specialty in music-related projects over the course of her 27-year career in archival production and research. So it's fitting that she won this year's Jane Mercer award for her work on Soul Boys of the Western World, a critically acclaimed archival documentary about the British New Romantic band Spandau Ballet. We had the chance to speak with Kate recently about her work on Soul Boys and her experience as an archival producer.

Footage.net: Congratulations on winning the Jane Mercer Award. Can you say a little bit about what it means to you to win this award? 

Kate Griffiths: It's a huge honor and means an enormous amount to me. I've been judged by my peers and colleagues in the industry and they have acknowledged and appreciated my work.

FN: You won the Jan Mercer award for your work on Soul Boys of the Western World. Can you tell us about the experience of working on this film? 

KG: It was a fantastic film to work on not least because I was given the time and space to really go in-depth and seek out every bit of relevant material. I first met with [producer] Scott Millaney and Steve Dagger (the Band's manager and Exec Producer) and we agreed they were only going to do this once so it needed to be tackled properly. I began by reading the Bands' various biographies plus the film's preliminary script, making notes about key clips and following leads. Steve also gave me their wish list of archive to find. I spoke to others that were on the scene around that time as well as fans and visited Dame Alice Owens School (where the Band met and formed) to research their archives for early photos and stories. I scoured every part of the globe, pursued many leads, discovered some fantastic new sources and established and nurtured some great archive relationships. What was truly wonderful was the level of good will. There was a genuine affection for the Band and most people were extremely co-operative. 

FN: Soul Boys sounds like an enormous archival undertaking. Was this one of the more complex projects you've worked on? 

KG: Yes certainly, being that it was an archive-only film, they were relying on me finding everything they needed to tell the story. The different subject matters, sources and footage had to be comprehensively researched, catalogued, cleared and delivered to the highest specifications. 

FN: Scott Millaney is quoted as saying that your "role went well beyond the definition of archive producer as [you] were involved with meetings at an early stage with band members, writers and the two directors that were retained on the film." Is this a typical assignment for you?

KG: I've never had an assignment quite like this before - for a start in the beginning it was a very small production team - just myself, the producer and the original director who was also the editor. Normally I'm used to getting ongoing and specific archive requests as the project progresses but the amount of footage I was unearthing and delivering seemed more than adequate for them.  We then had a change of director and she (George Hencken) needed to catch up fast. Fortunately I had created a very detailed archive log (running over 230 pages) describing every bit of footage and organized under many different headings/keywords with unique reference numbers for each clip to make them identifiable in the EDL.   I delivered the archive on two drives and over 6 weeks she watched every frame.  There was supplementary material needed later on but the archive she needed to create the Band's story was all there.  

FN: Talk about your approach/process to archival research. For example, how do you identify the sources? How do you manage the workflow? How do you keep all this material and information organized?

KG: For Soul Boys I began by reading the Band's biographies and film script and drew up a time-line of key names, dates and places. I also had a wish list of archive from the producers. First of all I targeted the commercial archives around the world. Then I tracked down individuals who were witness to key events and might have filmed/recorded or know who would. I also spoke to fans thorough Spandau's official site as well as fan forums. I mainly worked from home, which meant I worked pretty much 24/7 and could deal with archives on different time zones. I created a detailed Master Archive Log with unique EDL reference numbers, shot descriptions, dates, places, people, quality and master issues (everything you'd need to know really). The archive screeners and masters were all digitized on drives and filed/labelled to correlate with the log. Once the clips were edited into the film, the EDL would tell me exactly what shots were used. 

FN: Are you typically in charge of managing your budget? 

KG: I'm usually told what the budget is and I try to come in on it, however, it's often under calculated so some sacrifices may be needed. With the Spandau film, however, I was consulted from the start and we set a realistic budget...which I'm proud to say we came in under. 

FN: Was there a big "eureka" moment in the Soul Boys research process where you found a really special shot? 

KG: There were quite a few actually! In my first meeting with Steve he gave me a list of important clips to find including the HMS Belfast concert and the New York interview. It took three years to track these down - one was discovered in a kitchen drawer in London, the other in a lock up in Queens. Also the Nationwide rushes were a great find - Steve remembered that he'd been given this big film can at the time of filming (1981) and for three years I searched and searched - eventually finding it in one of their storage facilities, in a flight case under some stage clothing where it had been sitting since 1986. Then there was Gary Kemp's first ever TV music performance at the age of 14, performing a song with Phil Daniels. He talked about the performance in his book saying..."Somewhere in the basement of a TV studio lies a tape of a boy who would eventually star in the movie 'Quadrophenia' and his mate...hopefully that tape will never be found!" Well of course I had to find this tape! I knew the show was filmed by Thames so would be in the Fremantle archives, but they had no listing of the performance, so I called in every episode of the show and searched through until I discovered it and Gary was rather glad I did! During the course of researching at Fremantle we also found a film can marked Beat Club...which turned out not to be the German TV program, but a piece on the London club 'Beat Route' including a great early interview with the Band. One of my particular favorites was the Birmingham NEC backstage rushes which I discovered at NEFA. The Band had never seen them and had no idea they still existed - thankfully due to David Parsons who kept the cans even though he was told to throw them away a few years earlier. Its beautiful pristine film footage of Spandau Ballet at their peak and the camaraderie and exuberance of the Band on the road is clear to see. 

FN: Did archival discoveries influence the film's narrative? If so, can you give us a good example?

KG: Absolutely - there were various Spandau Ballet interviews that seemed innocent at the time but when you knew the back-story they took on new meaning and you could then recognize the tensions and conflicts (e.g. the MTV Europe and US interviews which were being conducted oblivious to the fact that the band had split). 

FN: Much has improved in the world of footage archives over the last few years. That said, I am sure there are still some pretty big obstacles when working with archives. Can you talk a little bit about what has gotten better and what has not, or maybe what has gotten worse?

KG: A huge amount of archives now have an online presence and they are constantly working to improve their websites - to be able to instantly search, view, share, cost and download content has completely transformed the way I research and deliver archive material. The numerous digital formats, aspect ratios, frame rates, specs and codec's can be challenging, though. 

FN: So are you still a big fan of Spandau Ballet?

KG: I was at the time and I'm an even bigger fan now! 

How to Clear Footage Like a Rockstar

To kick off our monthly series featuring expert advice from professionals in the footage/production community, we asked David Peck, President of Reelin' in the Years Productions (RITY), the world's largest library of music footage and the exclusive representative of all footage from the Merv Griffin Show, to walk us through the basic steps involved in licensing entertainment and performance related footage.
 
"Probably the most important thing to keep in mind when working with a company like Reelin' in the Years," said Peck, "is that while we control the copyright to the footage in our collections, we typically do not hold the underlying rights, such as the rights to the performer's image and likeness."  
  
Which means that before using a clip from Reelin' in the Years of the Rolling Stones performing "Satisfaction" from a 1965 appearance on German TV, users will need to obtain clearances from, and often pay licenses fees to, a variety of other entities, such as music publishers, record companies, unions and directors and, of course, the band members themselves.   
 
"I can't tell you how many times people ask us with a straight face if we control the image and likeness to the Stones or other huge bands," Peck says with a chuckle. "To which I respond 'If we had the rights to the image and likeness of The Rolling Stones, I wouldn't be answering the phone.'" 
 
And there are many critical nuances to consider as well, according to Peck. For example, if the song was lip-synced during the performance or if any part of the audio from the original recording was used in the performance, then a clearance from the record label would be necessary. Alternatively, if the song was performed live then the rights to the live recording would be owned by Reelin' as part of their rights to the footage.
 
Performers tend to maintain close control of their image and likeness, so clearing these rights generally means reaching out directly to the individual performer, the performer's management or the performer's estate if he/she has passed away. 
 
Some bands and performers pose special challenges, according to Peck. For example, when trying to license footage of the Beatles, producers will need to approach Apple Records, who will then seek permission directly from Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono (John Lennon's widow) and Olivia Harrison (George Harrison's widow) who are all very protective of the Beatles legacy and how their image is used. 
  
And it's important to note that when you receive a license from RITY (or most other rights-managed footage houses) that you are 100% responsible for clearing all of these additional rights and will be required to hold the footage holder harmless from any and all legal issues that may arise from your failure to clear those rights, according to Peck. 
 
Sound complicated? It is. Consequently, Peck and his team at RITY always recommend working with an experienced clearance professional like Cathy Carapella (at Global ImageWorks) or Chris Robertson (at Diamond Time). "They are truly the best in the clearance business," said Peck. "I've used them for every single DVD I've released and not only are they the quickest I've seen but their decades of experience has allowed them to work through very difficult situations."  
   
"In the hands of a professional this work is not always difficult but it does take a lot of patience and experience to do it right," said Peck. "Artists and their representatives move at their own pace and are rarely concerned with a producer's deadline." 
  
Peck also takes pains to remind clients that while he has years of experience in the footage licensing and production business, he isn't a lawyer, and recommends that producers always seek the advice of a copyright or entertainment attorney when attempting to license entertainment and performance related footage.  
 
"In my experience, clearance is a very specialized field so don't try to do it yourself," said Peck. "If you only take one thing away from my comments then please pay the money and get it done right because you don't want clearance issues to bite you later."   

Insights on the Art of Archival Production from Tom Jennings, Documentary Filmmaker

Tom Jennings, a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist, has written, produced and directed more than 400 hours of programming for networks including CBS, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Investigation Discovery, and The History Channel. Tom's work runs the gamut of subject matter, from politics and religion to history, crime, sports, mystery and travel, and he has extensive experience with archival production. His most recent film, The Fidel Castro Tapes, premiered on PBS on September 2, 2014. We recently spoke with Tom about the archival filmmaking process. 

Footage.net: Your latest film is The Fidel Castro Tapes. How did this project get started? 

Tom Jennings: The project was suggested to me by Hamish Mykura, the head of National Geographic International. Haymish very much liked our style of doing films with no narration and no interviews -- using only the media available at the time of the event to tell the story. We had done a similar film for National Geographic U.S. about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Hamish had been thinking about doing a project about Fidel Castro. When he and I met at the MIPCOM conference in Cannes, France, he asked if we could do the same with Castro. That's how it started. 

FN: Your films bring a great sense of immediacy to historical narratives. How do you achieve this effect? 

TJ: We don't use a narrator or interviews in almost all of our archive-driven films. So there's no "looking back" to explain to viewers what happened. Instead, everything we use is in present tense -- from the time in which the story is told. That gives our films the sense that these things are happening right now. It's an interactive experience, instead of images just bouncing off people's eyes. I like to describe our films this way -- the audience starts watching and they are waiting for the narrator to come in and "save them." But the narrator never shows up. Once they realize that they are part of the experience of the story, instead of having the story told to them, we've got them.

FN: What do you want the viewer to take away from the experience of seeing your film? 

TJ: I want people to feel like they have just lived through the event -- and to realize that if they thought they knew the story, they really didn't. For our film about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, we used only footage taken from the local stations -- no national coverage. We didn't have Dan Rather or Walter Cronkite on screen. Instead we had only local reporters who followed the story. For viewers, I like to describe this film as if they are sitting in their living rooms in Memphis in 1968, flipping channels, and having the story unfold before them in real time.

FN: How critical is the storytelling element to you when you are making these films? 

TJ: Without a good storytelling point of view, an archival film is sunk -- it will never work. I've seen some other archive-based films that wind up feeling like clip shows -- where one clip is attached to another in attempt to make a story out of something. If you dig deep enough, there are always more than enough images (footage, audio, police recordings, photos, etc.) to bring a story to life. Our goal is wherever possible not use any images that are familiar to an event. That's how you make the story feel fresh, and it gives us the opportunity to make the story feel brand new. That's key.

FN: Can archival footage be an impediment to creativity?

TJ: Not at all. I think archival footage is another tool to pull from the creativity toolbox. Not every film we make using archival images uses only archival images. When we're approaching a program my team will look at the story and step back to get perspective -- what is out there that we can use and what do we need to create ourselves to help tell the story. If a producer has a story to tell and the network wants to use archival footage it should be a help to creativity because you're starting from the actual images for inspiration.

FN: Is there a bias against archival films on the part of networks, and if so, how do you overcome it?

TJ: Absolutely. I believe many networks are afraid of archival footage -- that their viewers will think they are watching something "old" and therefore not relevant. And if you're showing black-and-white images it's really a struggle. Certain networks will simply not go for shows that have a lot of black and white -- even though those images can be some of the most awe-inspiring ones to watch. For me, archival images can be used as a type of art. We create a story combining as many media elements as possible. By doing this, we believe we get the viewers past the idea that their watching a show filled with archival images. Instead, they're watching a well-crafted film. We edit our images in a way that feels more modern -- a bit quicker paced, more surprises. I used to tell networks that a story using archival film was something "that people should know about." It turns out the best way to convince them to put something on the air is to let them know that we have discovered images from a familiar event that no one has ever seen before.

FN: So discovering a new source of footage is critical to your filmmaking? 

TJ: It's very critical - not just to make a sale, but for me to be excited about the project. When you tell a network you've found something no one has seen before, they get excited. You have to remember their needs. They want to set this program apart from others that may have been done about the topic. For them, it's a marketing tool -- we have something new. For me, it's being able to see something that I think is familiar through new eyes. That's a major part of making these films feel special. 
 
We do documentaries for television and because of that we have to make sure our projects are as compelling as anything else on TV -- after all everyone wants good ratings.  I think some producers stay away from archive because they haven't figured out a way to make it feel compelling.  It's easier to do a re-enactment and get the exact scene you want instead of figuring out how to use the real images.  

FN: You seem to be able unearth some amazing source material. Are you constantly scouting for new footage sources? Do people come to you at this point with leads? 

TJ: I wish people would come to me with leads! There have been a few instances of people looking us up and talking about some images they have or know of, but they're usually not thinking about how to make a story out of them. For me and my team, we're always on the lookout. Always. My staff knows my passion for this kind of storytelling -- and it's rubbed off on them. You never know where you will find it. But we're always keeping channels open. For example, if we work with an archive house on a project I will always ask their researchers, "what else have you got." Those are the point people who deal with archival footage all day. Once they know how we tell stories, they can tell us about their favorite treasure troves. In my first career, I was an investigative journalist, so the "hunt" comes easy to me and it's a lot of fun. It may sound funny, but I'll sometimes ask myself -- if I were footage of this event, where would I be? 

FN: Was there a big "eureka" moment in the Castro film where you found a really special shot? 

TJ: There was a big eureka moment -- and I wound up not being able to use it! We had discovered a lot of rare footage from Castro's revolution, including interviews with American journalists in the months following his takeover. I think we found every frame of Castro speaking English, which he did quite well back then. And then I found his first interview... with Ed Sullivan, the variety show host. I fell in love with the footage, which is always a bad thing. It turned out that Ed Sullivan footage is very expensive -- it's a premium fee from the network. And we most likely would have had to pay the Sullivan estate as well. My researchers had to convince me that using the 30 seconds of Sullivan footage would eat up 25 percent of the footage budget. So, unfortunately, my eureka moment was left on the cutting room floor.

FN: Much has improved in the world of footage archives over the last few years. That said, I am sure there are still some pretty big obstacle when working with archives. Can you talk a little bit about what has gotten better and what has not, or maybe what has gotten worse? 

TJ: There is so much more footage available to view online. It's great to go to a website and start looking at clip after clip. However, there is a danger to fall into the same trap that producers have before. We see a clip, we like it, we buy it, put it in our film and move on -- forgetting that the clip came from a reel with a lot more footage on it. It would be impossible for archive facilities to digitize everything. So you always have to ask, "where did that clip come from? Is there more?"

FN: What is the biggest challenge in this sort of filmmaking? 

TJ: Getting the rights. It's so easy to find clips online -- my researchers have made me swear-off looking at Youtube. The biggest challenge is not falling in love with footage before you know it can be cleared. My clearance researcher, Liza Maddrey, is the best at making sure every image that goes into our shows is cleared to the point that they can never be questioned. It's extremely critical that producers have someone like Liza looking over their shoulders. Some people may want to rely on "Fair Use" to use images they can't afford or get rights to, but we choose not to go that way. When we complete a project we want to know that we will never be questioned about use of footage.

FN: What's next for you?

TJ: We're going to be doing something on the Atomic Age and a film about the serial killer Ted Bundy. That's what I love about doing these programs.  Life is never dull. 

Getting Started with 4K Footage

With roughly four times the pixels of standard HD footage (8.3 million versus 2 million), 4K footage offers remarkable sharpness, a great sense of depth and a much subtler color range. As 4K is quickly becoming commonplace in the footage business, we thought we'd ask a group of experts, including Carol Martin of FootageBank, Sterling Zunbrunn of Nature Footage and Peter Carstens of Framepool, to weigh in on the ins and outs of working with this exciting format.

Footage.net: What are the two or three most critical things a client needs to know about obtaining and using 4K stock footage?

Carol Martin: Size, size and size.  The large file sizes have an impact on storage space needed, delivery options and viewability.  Assuming a high-end codec is being used to preserve as much data as possible, the files will be cumbersome in many ways.  Whatever editing system is being used, a lightning fast processor will be needed to view the clips, storage space will burn up at roughly three to four times the rate of HD, and files are generally too large to transfer over the internet. 
 
Sterling Zumbrunn: 4K has to be seen to be believed. Once you move past screens that are 70 inches or larger, the differences are unmistakable. The additional resolution is a massive leap forward over HD. That said, 4K takes serious computing horsepower to work with. Even just viewing 4K footage at full resolution requires a computer with a fast processor and strong graphics card.

Peter Carstens: The client should consider if a 4K format is needed indeed, or is it just a trend or something he has heard of. The 4K shots can also be delivered in 1920x1080. The client also needs to consider higher production/editing costs, longer download times for master footage, and huge file sizes which are not easy to handle or to view.

FN: Given the dauntingly large file sizes, how do you deliver 4K footage to clients?

Carol Martin: Hard drive transfers are preferred.  One to two small files can also fit on a Data DVD.

Sterling Zumbrunn: We deliver 4K+ files to our clients via our FTP server, but the files are so large that the speeds available are not adequate for transferring media in a reasonable timeframe. For this reason, we have invested in Aspera technology, which allows for peer-to-peer transfers using nearly 100% of available bandwidth. This is going to make it easier for our contributors to submit their 4K+ files, and it will deliver a better experience to our clients accessing their purchased clips.

Peter Carstens: Most shots are delivered via FTP like all other footage. Growing Internet speeds (and possible compression formats) make this possible. So far, we're able to provide 4K to the remote places of the world. In specific cases, and if the amount of shots exceed somebody's download possibilities and patience (since it would have to be done overnight, or even longer), 4K footage is delivered on hard drives.
  
FN: Is all 4K footage the same or are some versions of 4K better than others? 
CM: As with any video format, codec is key to quality.  A 4K file in the H.264 codec, for example, may have the aspect ratio of 4K but not an acceptable resolution for some end users.  The cameras that capture with the least compression create the largest but highest resolution files.

Sterling Zumbrunn: There is a big difference among various 4K cameras. Consumer cameras such as the GoPro or the new Panasonic GH4 capture footage in a highly compressed format that is not optimal for many of our clients' needs. Further, the GoPro only captures at 15 frames per second, so the clips must be sped up. It's not a serious solution for 4K capture. The industry has gravitated toward the RED workflow, and nearly all of our clients request RED R3D RAW files when they are available. The advantages of starting with a raw file are numerous, as it offers colorists incredible flexibility for matching the look of their production while maintaining maximum quality. The RED DRAGON promises to deliver the best quality yet at 6K resolution, which is an astonishing 19 Megapixels per frame. Clients working on IMAX features and other large format film projects are excited about the additional resolution.

Peter Carstens: While people talk in common about 4K, the 4K standard image sizes for cinema and consumer TV (UHDTV) vary. Various clients have been asking for 4K in different sizes, but sometimes it was just a mistake since people still have to adjust to the new high-end format. The final 4K format to be delivered depends on the production type or depends on what the producer wants to achieve. Important is not only the size, but the technical recording parameters and technology. 

FN: Is demand increasing for 4K?

Carol Martin: The demand for 4K is steadily increasing.  Just like television was protecting for future HD delivery fifteen to twenty years ago by preferring access to film elements, many productions are currently protecting for future 2K and 4K delivery by accessing those formats when possible, even if the end product is not currently being delivered in 4K.

Sterling Zumbrunn: Demand is quickly increasing for 4K+, among all sorts of clients. We are in the process of re-acquiring all of our subjects in 4K. It's a great opportunity for cinematographers to re-shoot existing content.

Peter Carstens: Yes, with 4K TV prices falling, the consumers constantly wanting to have better picture quality, and channels now creating 4K VOD outlets, the demand for 4K is growing quickly. In order not to miss out in the future distribution of their productions, producers adapt to high end formats if costs are feasible.

FN: What kinds of clients are asking for 4K?

Carol Martin: Primarily feature films are asking for 4K.  Secondarily, venues such as museums have embraced the format for its ability to stun the viewer in an educational setting.  Some aesthetically higher-end television shows are currently being produced in 4K and some television shows which have proved hugely popular are using 4K for archiving reasons, even though neither are being broadcast in 4K yet.

Sterling Zumbrunn: All kinds of clients are asking for 4K. Theatrical clients always want 4K to deliver maximum on-screen quality. But even broadcast clients want to future-proof their productions in the event that they have the opportunity to repurpose it. We are also seeing growing demand from businesses and consumers that want to feature 4K displays for video decor.

Peter Carstens: Movie productions (cinema) and shots for CGI/VFX work, but also often TV movies, and high end corporate productions, as well some commercials.

How To: Negotiate with Footage Archives and Get the Rights You Need

For the second installment in our regular series featuring expert advice from professionals in the footage/production community, we asked our friends at Global ImageWorks, Jessica Berman-Bogdan and Cathy Carapella,  for some tips on negotiating with footage archives and getting the rights your need. As leaders in both footage licensing and footage research & clearance, Jessica and Cathy are in a unique position to offer insights on this fundamental step in the footage acquisition process.

Footage.net: What would you tell someone who has never licensed footage before? 

Global ImageWorks: The best way to negotiate with a footage archive and get the rights you need is for you to know what you need and what you can afford before you approach the archive. If you're a knowledgeable consumer of archival & stock footage, the licensing process will be smooth and straightforward. If you jump into the process without any forethought, information or knowledge, your experience will be less favorable. In 2014 the footage and moving imagery eco-system offers something for everyone at price points that did not exist a decade ago. Do your homework. If you truly have no money, explore the world of microstock and find sources that will license footage for a few dollars. Don't expect to get the money shot, when you have no money.  

FN: What role do rights play in setting a price? 

GIW: When calculating an appropriate licensing fee, the Grant of Rights (GOR) can account for 50% or more of the equation and, typically, the broader the GOR, the higher the license fee. The type of footage you're licensing and how you plan to incorporate the footage into the new work are also key factors. Often the more unique, one-of-a-kind footage will be licensed for a higher fee.

FN: What are the key components of a rights grant? 

GIW: The key components of the rights grant are term, territory and media. The tricky part is defining the "media." At Global ImageWorks, we look at how and where the new work is being viewed or consumed as opposed to the technology that delivers the program. 

FN: Is there a fairly standard set of terms used in the archive business to refer to specific rights or does each archive have its own vocabulary? 

GIW: The language used in the footage-licensing field has become more or less standardized over the past 5 to 7 years. Spend an hour or so on a few different archives' websites and you can learn the terminology of the trade. If you're consistent with your requests, you'll increase the likelihood of producing consistent results.

FN: How do you figure out which rights you need?

GIW: The primary GOR should run parallel to your known distribution. Secondary, more speculative distribution options can be negotiated up front and then exercised at a later time. If you know where the program will air, tell the archive. You never know, you may qualify for a preferred rate that has been pre-negotiated by a broadcaster.

FN: Do all producers want All Media Rights? 

GIW: While footage is licensed by a variety of users who do not request or require broad rights (like museums, corporate videos, educational institutions, public location), most producers of consumer-based programs do ask for all media, worldwide, in perpetuity. Usually, this broad grant of rights is required by broadcasters or distributors. 

FN: How critical is it to clear All Media rights up front?

GIW: It's certainly preferable all around to secure all the required rights up front. Securing all rights up front rather than building in multiple step-up options will usually get you a better overall rate. However, it's not always affordable or feasible to do this, especially if there is no distribution mechanism in place.

FN: What if you can't afford All Media rights?

GIW: If you can't afford to secure all rights up front, it's advisable to discuss licensing options with an archive and have these options included as possible upgrades in the licensing agreement. Options usually have some type of time limitation as to when they can be exercised. It's also helpful to know the costs you'll need to pay to secure additional rights when negotiating with distributors. Narrowing the GOR is another good cost control option. In our experience, oftentimes clients really don't need "theatrical rights," for example. Overall, if you're not required to deliver this broad rights package or if the budget isn't there, don't ask for rights you really don't need. 

FN: What if you need to come back at some later date to clear more rights? Are most archives willing to work with you on this? 

GIW: Most archives are quite pleased when you come back and are willing to negotiate additional licensing fees in good faith. 

FN: Generally speaking, are archives willing to provide the rights you need or are there specific rights or categories of rights that are difficult to clear? 

GIW: Footage archives will almost always grant broad rights if you have the budget to acquire them. If there are complicated third party rights or restricted rights, a license agreement might indicate that you will be required to clear such third party rights as required or necessary.

FN: Are the archives willing to negotiate on price?

GIW: Absolutely! Most archives want to have their footage licensed and want to support the production community. Archives can be flexible but only to a point. Keep in mind there's a range within which archives can operate. If you're outside that range, you need to be able to justify why you should get a reduced fee. 

FN: How do you generally initiate a conversation about price?

GIW: Before the conversation even begins, educate yourself. Visit the archive's website. Don't begin by saying you have no budget. Know what footage they have and how they charge and if the archive has what you want within a price range you can possibly afford. Fill out the archive's request form or send a thorough request. Both parties need to have the same primary information in front of them when they begin the negotiation.

FN: Should you talk about your budget?

GIW: Yes. The requestor is equally responsible for driving the money talks. Know what you want, know what you have to spend and know when you need it. If an archive asks you to recommend a fee - do so thoughtfully. We, at Global ImageWorks, want to make our clients happy with the licensing fees as well as with our footage. If your offer is reasonable and doable, we will accept the offer and move quickly to close the deal.

FN: Is it a good idea to focus your order on one archive? 

GIW: Volume is definitely one way to bring down your costs. 

FN: Are there some best practices you would recommend adopting that tend to lead to better deal making?

GIW: Plan your footage use, costs and schedule in pre-production. Do good research; know who has what content, know what fees to expect and be aware of the other costs you might encounter (i.e. screeners & masters). Know about possible third party rights that will require additional consideration (i.e. music, talent, guilds & unions). Put a plan together for dealing with these in pre-production. Trying to figure this out towards the end of the project can be very stressful. Know that the "best" deal is not always the one with the lowest fee. Consider consulting with or hiring a professional footage researcher or clearance professional.