Stock footage, also termed archive footage, library pictures and file footage is film or video footage that is reused in a film. Stock footage is of great use to filmmakers as it is generally far cheaper than actually filming a needed scene. Stock footage can also be used to integrate news footage or notable figures into a film. For instance, the Academy Award-winning film Forrest Gump used stock footage extensively, modified with computer generated imagery to portray the lead character meeting historic figures such as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and John Lennon. Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... Video (Latin for I see, first person singular present, indicative of videre, to see) is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion. ... In film and video, footage is the raw, unedited material as it has been recorded by the camera, which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Forrest Gump is an Academy Award winning 1994 film based on a novel by Winston Groom, and the name of the title character of both. ... The seawater creature in The Abyss marked CGIs acceptance in the visual effects industry. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980), (born John Winston Lennon, known as John Ono Lennon) was an iconic English 20th century rock and roll songwriter and singer, best known as the founding member of The Beatles. ...

One of the largest producers of public domain stock footage is the United States government. All videos produced by the United States military, NASA, and other agencies are available for use as stock footage. There are a number of companies that own the copyrights to large libraries of stock footage and charge film makers a fee for using it, but they rarely demand royalties. Stock footage comes from a myriad of sources, including governments, other movies, and often news outlets. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an agency of the United States federal government, responsible for the nations public space program. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Television and movies series also often use stock footage taken from previous installments. For instance, all the Star Trek series kept a collection of shots of starships that would appear on a regular basis, being used most of the time a ship was seen. The current Star Trek franchise logo Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment series. ...

News programs use film footage from their archives often when more recent images are not available. Such usage is often labeled on-screen as "Library pictures".

Excessive use of stock footage in feature films tends to generate a great deal of negative criticism.

Examples in news media

• Obese people shown from the neck down
• Smokers shown focused on the mouth only
• Terrorist training camps with members swinging on monkey bars
• Pharmacists separating precription medicine from trays into bottles
• Coastal damage for hurricanes and tsunamis
• Health stories with a man on a treadmill with nodes attached to his body while running

Examples in film and television

• Overhead shots of cities
• Overhead shots of cities with traffic and movement sped up
• Scenes of crowded streets
• Airplanes, landing/taking off at an airport
• In anime, various attacks, transformations, and still images are often reused in many episodes
• City skylines and aerial shots
• Time lapse scenes

Examples in popular culture

• The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" used stock footage from the Star Trek: The Original Series episodes "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "Mirror, Mirror".
• Jaws: The Revenge used stock footage from the first Jaws film.
• A few Godzilla films have stock footage.
• The movie Airplane II: The Sequel uses stock footage of failed flying machines in a parody of a flashback scene. The same footage has appeared in several other productions, notably Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines.
• Various American television shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Late Show with David Letterman, have made use of the "Monkey washing a cat" footage for comic effect.
• Through the use of stock footage from Superman: The Movie and Superman 2, Marlon Brando was able to reprise his role as Jor-El in the 2006 film Superman Returns after his death.

Space station Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (ST:DS9 or STDS9 or DS9 for short) is a science fiction television series produced by Paramount and set in the Star Trek universe. ... Trials and Tribble-ations is a fifth season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that was written as a tribute to the original series of Star Trek. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... The Trouble with Tribbles is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast on December 29, 1967 and repeated June 21, 1968. ... Mirror, Mirror is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. ... Jaws The Revenge is a 1987s horror film. ... Jaws is a 1975 horror–thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on Peter Benchleys best-selling novel of the same name, which was inspired in turn by the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Parody of Back to the Future In contemporary usage, a parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ... In literature, film, television and other media, a flashback (also called analepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. ... 1963 Replica of the Bristol Boxkite, now hanging in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. ... Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart on the set of The Daily Show The Daily Show (currently The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, also known as TDS to fans and staffers) is a half-hour satirical fake news program produced by and run on the Comedy Central cable television network in... Late Show with David Letterman is an hour-long weeknight comedy and talk show broadcast by CBS from the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in New York City. ... The Monkey washing a cat footage, as it is generally known, is a comic scene of black and white stock footage which has been widely distributed on the internet, as well as played on a number of notable television programs, including Late Night with David Letterman and The Daily Show... Marlon Brando, Jr. ... Superman Returns is a 2006 superhero film based on the fictional DC Comics character Superman. ...

Examples of Popular Stock Footage Providers

• Artbeats [1]
• CNN Image Source [2]
• Corbis Motion [3]
• Creatas Footage [4]
• Footage Firm [5]
• Getty Images [6]
• Istock Video [7]
• ITN Source [8]
• Revostock [9]
• Shutterstock Footage [10]
• Thought Equity Motion [11]
• TVDATA [12]

References