Kathy O’Brien is a leading expert in the search, clearance and licensing of stock footage in Canada through her company Hot Pursuit. This piece was written in collaboration with Toronto-based writer Ross Jarvis.

There was a time in the advertising business when ‘stock footage’ was a dirty word. How times have changed. Once the last resort of small-budget spot production, stock footage is now one of advertising’s brightest and most creative toys. And alas, no longer cheap.

Stock footage includes John Wayne sashayin’ down the street in Dodge, or Steve McQueen doing Steve McQueen things. Advances in technology coupled with the manipulations of some very talented film editors, allow us to have these stars say or do almost anything. Imagine, instead of telling some guy, ‘Get on yer horse and get atta Dodge,’ you could have the Duke say, ‘Get in your Dodge and get atta town.’ Or, you can show a determined young Mountain Dew connoisseur butt heads with a real ram over his can of pop. You could have the ancestors of a Pontiac driver careen wildly down the trail in a buckboard. It can be more fun than shooting the real stuff.

And it’s more popular than ever.

But the trail is often long and bumpy before that piece of stock gets into a finished commercial – starting with the search. I spend days and nights on the hunt. The phone is glued to my head for hours on end. When I’m not on the phone, I’m on the Web, or I’m trying to track down a guy who knows a guy…

The first job is to find the footage; next, find the holder(s) of the rights; then find the talent/agent or, harder still, the heirs, who could be anywhere and usually are. And once all of these folk are gathered, negotiate a price range that they can all live with. Then break the news to the agency. This is usually followed by going back as many times as it takes to arrive at a final price that makes everyone happy.

Why does some stock footage cost more than other stock footage? Well, there’s stock footage and then there’s STOCK FOOTAGE. The term seems to have become a catch-all for any film or tape footage that you don’t go out and shoot, which is slightly misleading.

First, there is ‘real’ stock footage – footage that is purposely shot and filed and available to anyone for a fairly reasonable price. Then there’s John Wayne footage, or Steve McQueen footage, anything Hollywood, which is going to cost more. A lot more. Finally, there’s historical footage, like Paul Henderson’s goal against the Soviets, or Joe Carter’s World Series winning homer – you can’t go out and shoot this kind of thing, and if you want to use it to sell something, it’s going to cost you. Usually whatever the market will bear. I’ve negotiated footage from $1,800 for off-the-library shelf to US$150,000 for a four-second clip from a major Hollywood movie.

Every search presents its own set of challenges; sometimes the footage isn’t where it’s supposed to be; sometimes the people who own the rights aren’t where they’re supposed to be. So you search and eventually you find.

By far, the trickiest part of this whole business is understanding the intricacies and interpretations of the terms of ‘clearance.’ A piece of film may be cleared for one thing, but not another. A clip that is cleared for a documentary may not be cleared for a commercial. There are almost as many variations on clearance as there are requests.

All I can say is you can’t be too careful in this area. Let your obsessive compulsions reign. Don’t ever assume a unit has been cleared just because it’s been released to you. Release and clearance are two completely different things. Gaining clearance can be a minefield. Step carefully. Clients really get upset when they receive a letter from the lawyer of Oil Can Harry’s great-great-great-great grandson, asking for compensation for the use of his great4 grandfather’s oily self in a commercial.

One of the funniest requests I’ve had came from a producer who’d been asked to find Charlie the Karate Chimp. ‘Sure, says I. No probs,’ and off I go to search land. I mean, who would teach a chimp karate? I was about to find out.

I eventually found Charlie in Niagara Falls, NY, residing (where else?) in the Primate Rehabilitation Centre under the care and training of a charming and dedicated man named Carmen Presti. Presti taught Charlie everything he knew about karate, which must have been lots, because Charlie holds a bona fide black belt. And the footage they had to offer was hilarious and subsequently made it into a national TV spot.