STOCK FOOTAGE
Artbeats
What's new: Based in Myrtle Creek, Oregon, Artbeats specializes in the esoteric and the everyday, with new collections including Line Elements (graphical line drawings that can be used for blending or as mattes), Fitness and Under the Water 2. Indeed, water footage is quite popular with its clientele, with a water drop from Water Effects 1 being the shop's most popular clip. New "Ultra" collections, featuring ultra-slow motion footage shot with the Phantom HD camera, will be released this year, as will new "Cloud Fly-Thru" collections, available for the first time in HD, and new HD aerial city collections.

Price points: Artbeats uses a royalty-free model, charging a flat fee regardless of usage as long as it's within the scope of its end user license agreement. Individual HD clips start at $300 and NTSC/PAL clips start at $199; HD collections start at $799 and SD collections start at $399 (prices in USD).

Ahead for '08: A new program called FootageHub, which will give customers access to other footage libraries when they search at Artbeats.com, will be ramping up over the next six months. "FootageHub and the release of our new HD aerials are two of the most exciting growth areas for Artbeats," says company president Phil Bates.

BBC Motion Gallery
What's new: HD footage from the BBC series Galapagos was recently made available, as was HD aerial footage from renowned cinematographers Brian J. Terwilliger and Gary Kauffman. "We are also continually adding new footage through relationships with NHK, CBS News, Blacklight and other blue chip collections," says Jan Ross, BBC Motion Gallery's senior VP of the Americas.

Other areas of expertise: "Rather than specializing in a genre, our collection is known for the production quality of the footage," says Ross. "Many clips are from programs that are backed by hours of research, and are from highly accomplished production teams and cinematographers."

Tech talk: The company has most recently added clickless, large format previews and a search widget to its online home.

Recent spotwork: BBC Motion Gallery clips have appeared in a new campaign from RPA for the Honda Accord as well as new Electronic Arts spots through San Francisco agency Heat. "We've also seen a lot of interest from the digital signage arena with clients licensing clips to screen on monitors in restaurant chains and airlines for in-flight entertainment," says Ross.

Ahead for '08: Ross says HD content collections will continue to be an area of focus, with growth expected in the multicultural genre as the global economy strengthens, and in digital signage.

Corbis
What's new: Boasting more than 30,000 hours of moving imagery, Corbis has added several new collections and grown others. New collections include Ron Chappel's America, featuring HD 4:4:4 aerial footage and stills shot across the US, and Oxford Scientific, featuring science and nature clips mainly available in HD. Other popular offerings include Hollywood Licensing, the Pan Am collection featuring iconic footage culled over 20 years, and Euro-oriented lifestyle clips from partners Fotospring (based in Slovenia) and Italy's Vision Images.

Recent spotwork: Corbis contributed two clips to Jeep "Heritage" out of Cutwater, San Francisco helmed by RSA's Jake Scott (Boards, September 2007), as well as HD footage for BBDO's online and in-cinema GE "Serengeti" campaigns. Corbis also licensed clips from the film Carry on Loving for a UK-market Bounty ad through Publicis and footage of famous Canadians for DDB, Canada's "Power of One" spot for BC Hydro.

Ahead for '08: Stacey Margolis, production and acquisition specialist at Corbis Motion, says the company is particularly interested in "responding to the desire for royalty-free content" in the year ahead. "We're planning to create a RF section on the Corbis Motion site where people can have easy access to high quality RF clips," she says. Corbis Broadcast Solutions continues to streamline the "find and clear" process for commercial producers in search of the right clip.

FootageBank HD
What's new: The HD-only motion house is kicking off the year with two new collections. World freestyle ski champion Richard Schabl will be featured in an extreme sports collection available via the company's extreme sports portal (www.extremefootageHD.com). Also, Ottawa's Fifth Wave Digital will be launching an HD time-lapse collection exclusively through FootageBank HD.

Price points: Licensing fees are based on footage use, with a range from $500 per clip for some web-only uses to worldwide "all rights" for $3,000 per clip.

Tech talk: FootageBank HD will be offering large format 4:2:2 clips shot on the highly-touted RED camera beginning this spring. Boasting higher resolution than the current HD standard of 1920x1080, look for RED Cam footage come March. The FootageBank HD site now hosts over 50,000 clips for downloadable preview.

Recent spotwork: Clips have been used recently in two web spots, Pepsi "Liquid Mountain" and Nike+ "Convergin'" through Crispin Porter + Bogusky.