How To Save Money With Archival Footage In Film?

“In feature films, the director is God. In documentary films, God is the director” ~ Alfred Hitchcock

Archival footage can be tough to work with in film and not to mention costly. But it can transcend you back in time when incredible history was made with very limited resources. I had the privilege of experiencing all three ends of the spectrum with archival material (good, bad and exciting) when I landed a part-time PA gig on the award-winning feature-length documentary, When Wire Was King (WWWK).

Let me tell you this film is worthing as it details the history of how our telecommunications industry came about today.

For this project, 90% of its footage was archival material (All praise to you Jennifer Manner!). It was during this experience where I learned how truly expensive and costly archival footage can be. And the word FREE isn’t looking too bad right now.

For the gig with WWWK I was required to obtain the full licensing rights (all media, excluding theatrical, worldwide, and in perpetuity) for all the archival clips in the project. I was given a huge spreadsheet to assist the editor with figuring out each archival clips’ timestamp in their rightful company’s stock.

Tedious? Yes, it was. The editor and I probably spent 10-12 hours getting all the clips’ timestamps. Most of the clips were barely 1-minute if not 15 seconds long.

Once all the timestamps for each archival clip/image were captured along with their descriptions, they were all sent to their respective companies to obtain their screeners. Screeners are the sometimes paid for samples of the requested clips sent to be verified by the purchaser.

This is very important because the actual cost of getting the rights for these clips can range from a couple hundred to a few thousand. So, if you’re shooting a full-length documentary, be very careful and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Any mistake can be crucial.

Once the screeners were approved, our orders were then submitted for processing, payment, and footage download. In one instance with this one particular archival film company, I did exactly as I described above. I submitted the order with no errors. Now remember, with archival footage companies usually charge between $55-$85 per second for their footage. This particular film company required a minimum financial amount for an order to be processed.

A day or two later, we receive an email back from one of the representatives informing us that a certain portion of our order couldn’t be fulfilled because they were owned by another company.

So, we proceed to look for alternate clips. It was our assumption that the company would remove those rejected clips from our order. They did not. They actually charged us for them.

We were so confused. We immediately began to plead our case because the amount they charged us for was not minimal at all. I mean, why would you advertise clips on your website that you couldn’t provide licensing for? Why would you charge us for clips that you said were owned by someone else? Can you do exchanges at least? What about a refund?

The responses we got to these questions astonished me. Even though WWWK has gone on to do extremely well in the film world, you always have to remember as a filmmaker, it’s all about business. Always be well-organized, ask questions, and keep a good paper trail.

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Disclaimer: The author is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions of failure to act related to the content in this article. If you need specific legal advice, consult with an attorney who specializes in your subject matter and jurisdiction.