Where does the term footage come from?
When you watch a film or a movie, you know how it is shot or created. Different scenes are shot at different times and places under various settings joined together with various graphic, musical and voice effects. A lot of clips originally shot may get a miss in the final movie. So, the raw unedited material originally filmed by those big TV or movie cameras are not the final pictures that you see on your TV or theatre screens. In the film language these unedited versions are called ‘footage’.
The origin story of the term ‘footage’
Footage became the natural unit for measuring a film. But where did this term come from? And how was a film measured? Films were traditionally measured by length in feet and frames in the cutting rooms. The silent movies of the earlier days had 16 frames in a foot of 35 mm film and had a rough estimation of 1 second of screen time (frame rate). The origin of the term ‘footage’ comes from these 35 mm silent films. The term then came to be used figuratively to describe moving image material of any kind. But since the term originates in film, the footage is only used for recorded images, such as film stock, videotapes or digitised clips, not such images on live television. The signals from video cameras on the live shows are instead called sources. in the cutting rooms. There are 16 frames in a foot of 35 mm film which roughly represented 1 second of screen time (frame rate) in early silent films. The origin of term "footage" comes from early 35 mm silent film. The term then came to be used figuratively to describe moving image material of any kind. But since the term originates in film, the footage is only used for recorded images, such as film stock, videotapes or digitised clips, not such images on live television. The signals from video cameras on the live shows are instead called sources. . The term then came to be used figuratively to describe moving image material of any kind. But since the term originates in films, footage is only used for recorded images, such as film stock, videotapes or digitised clips, not images on live television. The signals from video cameras on the live shows are instead called sources.
Types of footage
So what are the different types of footage? They are film footages, television footage, amateur video footage and stock footage.
Film footage: Do you know that the films also trade or sell footages sometimes? These are mostly the materials which not used in the final version of the movie. For example, some beautiful shots of the landscape which go unused could be used by another movie or project without actually spending on shooting them. The footage can be processed in any way in a video editing room.
Stock footage: Stock footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. This footage may have been used in previous productions but may also be the footage not used. Examples of stock footage that might be utilised are moving images of cities and landmarks, wildlife in their natural environments, and historical footage. Suppliers of stock footage may be either rights managed or royalty-free. Many websites offer direct downloads of clips in various formats.
Television footage: Television footage is footage of the shows or the news that you see on TV. This footage too, especially news footage, is often traded between television networks and the price depends on its demand at that time, quality, duration of the footage, size of the intended audience and other factors.
Amateur video footage: This kind of footage is normally done by amateurs mainly driven by passion or as a hobby and not really for business purposes. Video footage of events done through camcorders or smartphones are the examples. These could, in some cases, also fetch high prices depending on the value and relevance of the footage at that time. For example, scenes shot inside the World Trade Centre during the September 11, 2001 attacks were reportedly sold for US$45,000. These could, in some cases, also fetch high prices depending on the value and relevance of the footage at that time.