While many stock footage houses provide producers raw material to shape as they see fit, Calgary’s Veer looks to offer a more all-inclusive product line.

‘We believe that images and motion footage don’t live in isolation,’ says Jacqueline Wallace, Veer’s director, public relations and strategic alliances. ‘They’re part of a design, and that includes type faces, still imagery, motion imagery and illustrations. So we bring creatives all of those products.’

Veer reps five motion collections: Digital Vision, RubberBall, FPS, Corbis and Bigshot Media. The collections include lifestyle, business and travel footage, as well as CG motion clips. Wallace says the space and technology images, especially the digital material, are Veer’s most popular.

‘It’s something that’s intriguing and different, and that clients can’t necessarily create quickly and easily,’ she says.

Although motion imagery is currently a smaller part of Veer’s business than its still imagery, Wallace says that Veer has increased its motion database about 50% in the past couple of months. Footage clients include broadcasters Fox Television, MTV, Discovery Channel and a number of programs and films.

Wallace says creating high-end special effects can cost filmmakers hundreds of thousands of dollars, but royalty-free stock footage can be used in multiple productions and costs much less.

‘Stock footage is certainly the most economical and highest quality way to produce something [high-end] within a budget,’ she says. ‘It almost doesn’t make sense for [low-budget producers] to go and shoot it themselves.’

Clients can preview all Veer’s clips online, which Wallace feels is essential.

‘When you put footage in print, you see one frame of what a clip might be, so the Web is critical to see how it’s going to move,’ she says.

Veer’s clips are available as full-screen NTSC or PAL QuickTime movies on CD.

-www.veer.com