While documentary producers are well familiar with the stock footage offerings of Getty Images, the Seattle company’s addition of clips from Warner Bros. Entertainment in March represents a shout-out to drama producers as well.

Now, for example, instead of physically or digitally creating a costly special effect, film and TV producers can simply buy the ready-made image from a Warner film. The hundreds of Warner clips and stills available range from bloodthirsty sharks to aerial views of the Pentagon, and two men tossing a body off a bridge.

Drawn from 80 years of productions including Goodfellas, Dr. Zhivago and Executive Decision, the clips are part of Getty’s larger collection that also incorporates its own archives and material from Discovery FootageSource and Universal Pictures. All the footage can be extensively searched, cross-referenced and previewed at gettyimages.com.

For drama producers, Getty’s bank of geographical sequences can eliminate the need for second-unit filming, and footage can also be used in backdrops or on TV or computer screens, where continuity and resolution differences won’t catch the viewer’s eye.

But relying on stock footage in the action of a film or TV show can be risky. If a filmmaker uses footage that doesn’t match the look of what they’ve already shot, the result could be as jarring as the discontinuities in Plan 9 from Outer Space.

It is this ‘double-edged sword’ aspect of the offering that makes it sometimes a useful tool for the likes of Montreal’s Muse Entertainment, a busy producer of miniseries and MOWs, but not always a perfect solution.

‘[Stock footage] allows us to establish American cities without actually shooting American cities, but it is not a cure-all,’ says Evan Tussman, Muse’s director of post-production. Because of continuity differences between stock and original, ‘finding the right shot can be a challenge.’

Prices for Getty material vary and are based on ‘the usage category (commercial, editorial or presentation) and media plan in which the stock footage is used,’ says Karen McLaughlin, Getty’s director of image partner development. But producers can download a watermarked, production-resolution video sequence that is good enough for rough cuts at a fixed price. For instance, a 17-second clip of the in-flight Oceanic 747 used in Executive Decision costs US$150 for rough-cut use.