Like so many other producers utilizing stock footage, Brian Howlett of Axmith McIntyre Wicht Advertising in Toronto was motivated by budget.

The shot he needed was that of a snowboarder wiping out, and without stock the only option would have involved hiring a stuntman and taking a crew on location, which at that time (early fall) would have meant a glacier in British Columbia.

‘We needed a sequence to happen – a prolonged wipeout,’ says Howlett, a partner and creative director at the firm. ‘[In the spot] you see the snowboarder going down the hill and a title frame comes up and it says ‘Petroleum makes fleece skiwear’ and then he wipes out and another title card comes up saying ‘and medical supplies.’

‘It’s a very simple 15-second spot, we just wanted to let people know [petroleum is behind all these products]. And we didn’t have the money to shoot this one.

‘If we’d shot the snowboarder we would have had to find the location, it would have meant getting out and finding snow, and this was in early fall. We would have had to travel to find it and we would have had to take the crew to Whistler. [Stock] footage was definitely the way to go.’

The spot, for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, is running only in Alberta for now, with nationwide expansion planned for the new year.

Typically, Howlett says stock is used ‘in a year, not more than once or twice.’

‘We try not to use stock. It is convenient; you know for sure you’ve got it in the can. But if you’re looking for an intimate reaction from the talent, you don’t get that from stock. It depends on the job [whether stock is appropriate]. When we were looking for the snowboarder it was okay; we weren’t looking for some unexpected thing that wasn’t in the script.’

Howlett does think the simple nature of the idea behind the spot helped. ‘With a 15-second spot it’s a single moment you’re after, not a sustained story, and you can pull it off. With a :30, it might be tricky.’ *