Get It Now: Stock Footage on the Internet

Research is traditionally the most time-consuming stage of thestock-footage purchasing process. When demo reels arrive from stockcompanies, you laboriously search through each one for the clip you need.If you find the clip, you often wait a few days for it to arrive viaexpress mail before you can use it in your storyboard or comp. If you don'tfind the clip you need, or if the one you ordered isn't adequate, you startthe research process again. Sometimes, more than a week can pass before youhave a high-resolution version of your coveted clip in hand.

The Internet has presented an alternative to this tedious, inefficient, andtime-consuming process. An increasing number of stock-footage Web sitesprovide visitors access to a large portion of vendors' libraries. On manyof these sites, you can enter keywords or specify parameters, and, withinminutes, search engines will offer a selection of still images taken fromclips that match your criteria. At some sites, you can view QuickTimemovies of demo reels and download samples to use in rough cuts beforemaking your purchase. A few vendors offer the capability to downloaddirectly from their Web sites clips that are suitable for corporatepresentations and online applications. The Internet is helping to make thetask of researching and purchasing footage an easy, efficient, andexpeditious process.

That's good news not only for users but also for independentcinematographers and stock-footage vendors, says John Tariot, a formerbroadcast TV producer, director, and editor now with Footage.net. TheHanover, New Hampshire-based company builds and hosts Web sites for leadingstock-footage providers. "Obviously, the biggest benefit to producers anddirectors is that these Web sites provide a quick way to glean theinformation about a stock company's product line," Tariot says.

Independent cinematographers with their own Web sites can also benefit, hesays, because the Internet places them on equal footing with vendors oflarge libraries. "When you search online for, say, 'surfing,' you'll getthe top five names of footage providers that you'd get no matter whatyou're looking for," Tariot explains. "But you'll also get the nuggets, thespecial collections of unique imagery that you don't see in magazine adsand at trade shows. Researchers are always looking for the rare, unique,and never-before-seen. The Internet makes small cinematographers much moreaccessible."

According to Tariot, stock footage is a $200 million-per-year business thatis expected to reach $1 billion by 2010, and the Internet is playing amajor role in that growth. "Providing the ability to search, license, andpurchase stock footage online will mean major new forms of revenue forfootage vendors," he states. "It won't double a company's bottom line rightout of the gate, but over the next few years, it will become anincreasingly important part of every stock-footage company's business."

Words and PicturesAccording to owner Scott Dittrich, Malibu-based Action Sports/ScottDittrich Films receives requests over the Internet for footage on a dailybasis. However, he adds, the company uses its 21/2-year-old Web site mainlyas a method of communication. "Say someone's looking for football footage.They search our site based on keywords to see if we have that footage. Whenthey see that football is one of the categories we specialize in, they callus and give us more information as to what they're looking for," Dittrichexplains. "Then we e-mail them a QuickTime clip so that they can see thefootage in action, or we'll make up a tape and send it to them. They selectoff that tape, and we get a master-quality version out to them."

Dittrich prefers textual descriptions rather than images and clips becausehe feels current technology for viewing video on the Internet does not dohis footage justice. "Even if people could view the clips on our site, wefeel they'd still want to see a D1 tape before they approve anything."

Historic Films of East Hampton, New York, offers one of the mostcomprehensive text-based, online research tools at its four-year-old site.A search by keyword or collection generates short descriptions ofapplicable clips from thousands of hours of vintage and musical performancefootage. After finding something that they like, users can order ascreening cassette. Although he calls it a "bare-bones site," president JoeLauro adds that it's nevertheless responsible for about 15 percent of thecompany's revenues.

Historic Films will also test the potential of moving pictures later thisyear by making several thousand hours' worth of footage viewable asQuickTime clips. "I'm not convinced that having thumbnail representationsof our footage on the site will help users. I think people can find whatthey're looking for based on textual descriptions just as easily as theycan based on images and clips," Lauro states. "But I'm interested in anymeans of getting product out to people who will use it."

For New York-based Archive Films, the Web has served as both a marketingand customer-service tool. "Not only is the site attracting business frompeople who hadn't heard of us," says director of marketing Jim Wood, "we'realso getting requests from people who want our footage delivered inQuickTime format so that they can use it on other Web sites. Thisrepresents a new type of user for us."

In November, Archive Films enhanced its 18-month-old, text-based site with13 QuickTime demo reels. According to Wood, Archive now plans to add avisual component to the site's search function that will allow visitors tosee images that correspond with their search results.

For Miami-based Sharpshooters, the Web is about getting the word out. "Weknew we had to have a [Web] presence to be competitive," says director offootage Carol Higgins. "But we also think it's a great tool for people toget to know a little bit about us-more than they can get out of a magazinead."

The new site offers four low-bandwidth samples and a one-minute demo reel.It does not yet include text-based research and preview clips, though suchcapabilities should be available later this year.

At this point, Sharpshooters is not planning to offer downloadableready-to-use clips directly from the site. "Our customers still want to gettheir final product in high-quality tape format," says Higgins.

Downloading the Future?Whatever the potential of moving pictures on the Web or the pros and consof online video, for some companies the downloadable future is here now-atleast at low res.

One such company is Myrtle Creek, Oregon-based Artbeats, which offers alibrary of more than 1,000 royalty-free clips in several categories,including backgrounds, effects, nature, concepts, archival, and reference.The company launched its Web site when it formed four years ago. "TheInternet plays a large role in our business," says president Phil Bates."I'd say half of the people who place an order with us viewed our footageon the Internet."

At the Artbeats Web site, visitors can view short QuickTime movies of eachclip or see each image at full screen. As of this writing, ordering can bedone online or by phone, fax, or mail. Later this year, Bates says that thecompany will offer downloadable "broadcast-quality" clips at the site."People have been asking for this for some time," he says. "But before wecan offer it, we need to transfer our site to a location that can handlethe required bandwidth."

Energy Film Library, Studio City, also plans to offer downloadable,ready-to-use clips at its site. The company, which provides footage oneverything from cutting-edge lifestyles to time-lapse sequences, currentlyhas tens of thousands of sample clips available online. Visitors search fora clip by keyword or clip ID number; specify the shot speed, format, andcomposition; and select either contemporary or archival and color orblack-and-white. A proprietary search engine presents clips matching thecriteria. After playing a QuickTime movie of the clips, users can order theones that they want or add the clips to the Clip Bin. "A Clip Bin is aworkgroup tool that lets you save a clip by project name and e-mail to yourclient a link to that clip," explains Michael Albright, vice president ofsales and marketing. "The client can view the clip by clicking on that linkand decide whether it satisfies his or her needs. If it does, you e-mail usto order the clip."

Although visitors can already download sample clips that are adequate foruse in rough cuts, Energy doesn't plan to let users download and purchaseready-to-use clips directly from the site until later this year. "And whenwe do, these clips will be Web-quality initially," cautions Albright. "Wedon't think the Internet will be able to deliver final elements in higherquality quickly for some time."

The Image Bank, New York, is not offering downloadable clips until thebandwidth is there for D1 quality. In the meantime, the company's Web sitecontains more than 100,000 full-motion clips and about 80 demo reels. Userscan search by keyword, subject, or clip ID number; view thumbnails andQuickTime movies of clips; and add clips they find interesting to aClipboard. "The user e-mails the Clipboard to us, and we compile a viewingcassette for them," says Rick Wysocki, senior vice president/managingdirector of the Image Bank Film Division (and CEO of Archive Films andArchive Photos, an Image Bank holding).

New York-based Second Line Search owns the footage companies Action SportsAdventure, Hot Shots Cool Cuts, Film Bank, and Modern Video Library and haslaunched Web sites for all of them. According to Second Line Searchprincipal Todd Pavlin, the most sophisticated by far is the Action SportsAdventure site, which has been online for nine months.

At ASA's site, visitors can search the company's entire footage database or3,000 MPEG-1 video clips. Users can view just textual descriptions of thefootage or descriptions and images. Clicking on an image opens a close-upversion, and the play button activates the clip. The site's search engineis based on VideoQ, a searching technology developed by a research team atColumbia University's Center for New Media Technology. According to Pavlin,VideoQ expands the traditional search methods-keywords and subjectnavigation-with a novel search technique that enables users to search videobased on visual features and spatio-temporal relationships. The Hot Shotssite also uses the VideoQ technology.

Stills and clips are also available for download at the ASA site, althoughPavlin says that broadcast and film users do not tend to take advantage ofthis capability because "it's not worth it time-wise."

As Internet Limitations FadeAlthough it's technically feasible to download high-quality footage fromthe Net, many vendors and users feel it's impractical at this point. "It'scumbersome. If you want to sit there for three hours to download threeseconds of footage, you can probably get reasonable quality," says ASA'sPavlin.

"The lack of bandwidth is keeping us from letting clients do what theyreally want, which is download directly at high quality," agrees Wysocki."With the Internet today, you can screen clips at the quality they existin, but it takes you too long to download them at that quality. Some peopleare sending D1-quality material over fiber. But most people don't haveaccess to a heavy-duty broadband connection, so for them, you're talkingabout essentially hours to download one clip."

This limitation may be temporary, though. Footage.net's Tariot says thatreasonable estimates show bandwidth doubling every nine months. Andaccording to a recent report by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based ForresterResearch Inc., more than one million North American subscribers alreadyenjoy broadband access to the Internet, a number that is expected to reachalmost 26 million subscribers by 2003. "We're not really worried that it'snever going to happen. It's not a matter of if, but when," Tariot says.

Another factor to consider is that online searches are inherently limitedbecause the Internet cannot duplicate a person's artistic sensibilities."Footage isn't a commodity, like a book or toy," states Sharpshooters'Higgins. "People look at footage because they're trying to illustrate aconcept, idea, or emotion. And many times the image that first comes intosomeone's head when they're writing a script isn't the only or best way tosay what they want."

This is where footage agencies come into play. "We're experienced withhelping people find the right image for their productions," Higginscontinues. "We have an intimate knowledge of our product lines and cansuggest several alternatives that can work just as well as the client'sinitial idea."

But just as the lack of bandwidth may be temporary, it appears as thoughsearch limitations may be temporary as well. According to Wysocki, the MITMedia Lab, for one, is working on search systems that are almost intuitive."Say you're looking through a library for footage of lions. You can startpicking your images, and the computer will infer that you're pickingpictures of lions that look ferocious, so the search system will startspitting out pictures that were keyworded 'ferocious,'" he says. "So now,in addition to ferocious lions, the search engine starts suggesting footageof ferocious gorillas."

Such sophisticated systems would benefit not only footage researchers butalso those who are logging the footage. "We have to log thousands oftouchdown passes," says Second Line Search's Pavlin. "If a system couldunderstand what a touchdown looks like, the next time we log a clip inwhich a player crosses the goal line, the system could automatically logthat as a touchdown," he enthuses. According to Pavlin, Columbia Universityis currently working on such a technology.

As technology continues to improve, we may see more footage vendors sellingonline and more users taking delivery of their footage online. "The stockcinematography business is at a major crossroads. It's about to changedramatically," says Energy Film Library's Albright. "In a few years you'llsee many more creative people using stock cinematography, just as they'reusing stock photography now."

"We believe this market is ready to explode, and the Internet is helpingthat happen," Albright concludes. "This is one way creative people canquickly give their clients exactly what they want. They can actually takecontrol into their own hands and play God. And what could be more fun thanthat?"

ABC News VideoSource www.abcnewsvsource.comAction Sports Adventure www.actionsports.comAction Sports/Scott Dittrich Films www.sdfilms.comArchive Films www.archivefilms.comArtbeats www.artbeats.comCNN ImageSource www.cnnimagesource.comEnergy Film Library www.energyfilm.comFilm Bank www.filmbank.comFootage.net www.footage.netHistoric Films Archive, LLC www.historicfilms.comHot Shots Cool Cuts www.hotshotscoolcuts.comThe Image Bank www.imagebank.comNational Geographic Film Library www.natgeostock.comSecond Line Search access via www.footage.netSharpshooters www.sharpshooters.comWPA Film Library www,mpimedia.com