Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/145624
F rom the Wright Brothers to the Mars Rover, the Arc de Triomphe to downtown LA, Civil War reenactments to Hurricane Katrina, stock footage can fill just about every need — whether archival or contemporary — for emotional, informational and beautiful content. It helps set the scene, sells products, tells fascinating stories and moves citizens to action. It's often a quick and cost-effective solution, too. Looks like it's time to take stock of stock. WELLS FARGO In the Wells Fargo television and web commercial, Iconic Conversations, the tag line, "When people talk, great things happen" is illustrated entirely with stock — and YouTube — imagery. The spot, from the LA office of DDB California, celebrates the amazing achievements that happen when people connect and communicate. "In any communication the most important thing is the story you tell. Where you find the visuals to illustrate the concept is not necessarily the most important thing," says executive creative director, Will Hammond. "Stock footage is merely an ingredient in a great communication dish. The intent of your recipe leads the story; the ingredients create it." Hammond led the large creative team, which produced the spot by weaving together archival and contemporary clips depicting the Wright Brothers and the dawn of motorized flight, Rosa Parks and her impact on the civil rights movement, Jane Goodall and her beloved chimpanzees, the Mars Rover landing on the Red Planet, Lucy and Ricky entertaining countless generations, a formerly deaf girl at the moment she hears her first sound, and blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer making a dizzying ascent. Iconic Conversations is the only spot in the campaign that uses stock footage to illustrate the "when people talk" concept. "The idea grew as we started to bring in footage," Hammond recalls. "It evolved to become more and more contemporary. It felt like the right story to tell: The concept of when people talk is equally relevant for going to Mars as it was for the Wright Brothers." In fact, the contemporary nature of much of the stock footage is what intrigued Hammond. "Most people think of 'stock' as old, but the Mars Rover is now, not 50 years ago. The more contemporary we made it, the more the spot felt really right." Stock clips were sourced from myriad libraries; the Mars Rover footage was cleared with JPL and NASA, which Hammond says were very helpful and supportive in securing the rights to "a big moment in space exploration." The Weihenmayer footage was sourced with the help of the climber. Hammond muses about whether the clip of the deaf girl, which was found on YouTube, qualifies as "stock" footage. "By definition, stock is imagery owned by the stock house. But you can find great footage today on YouTube — it has almost democratized the stock world. The challenge is that you can't necessarily follow the trail" back to the owner of the clip to secure the rights to its usage. Fortunately, the agency located the young woman whose hearing was restored and approached her directly. She had been contacted before to use the clip but gave her consent for the first time for the Wells Fargo spot. Hammond suspects "it was the intent of the spot celebrating all these great achievements," instead of just selling a product, that convinced her to allow its use. The creative team gave a color treatment to the footage "to tie it all together," he points out. "We have a timeline of color. It starts black and white and more and more color comes through" as the clips become more contemporary. Hammond gives kudos to Wells Fargo for "really understanding what we intended to do," by crafting a spot assembled from stock clips. "We were only half the equation in telling a good brand story. The other half was the client." DDB California's Iconic Conversations spot for Wells Fargo celebrates important moments. SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL As viewers might imagine, a number of the programs that air on the Smithsonian Channel (www.smithsonianchannel.com) take advantage of stock footage to supply historical context or illustrate moments impossible to capture by sending out a video crew. "Very few shows don't have at least one or two stock elements," says Karma Foley, Smithsonian Channel archivist. "Stock footage either captures the past or documents something outside the scope of the production schedule or budget. Stock goes a long way to increasing the options for storytelling." The quirky Incredible Flying Cars, which premiered in April, was produced by Pip Gilmour Productions and explores man's fascination with the prospect of combining air and automobile travel in one device. "The show had an interesting mix of needs, from silent footage of experimental contraptions to a fair amount of historic and contemporary material that tells the story of the long history of people wanting personal aviation devices," Foley says. www.postmagazine.com Post • July 2013 29