When producing a clip based show, you have ideas of what clips would work but unless you actually see the footage in the rough cut, it’s a gamble as to whether or not they will work in your story.  Typically, you’ll have your researcher, associate producer, or production assistant contact the studios to inquire if the footage is available for licensing, send a letter of intent and then pay for a screener.  The screener will usually arrive within a day or a week depending on how many other orders the one studio person assigned to rights and clearances has to fill.  If you’re in a hurry, be prepared to plead with said studio person on the phone hoping he or she will understand that your project is more important than any other order.

Meanwhile, back at the production offices, the producer and the editor are ‘pacing’ the edit room wondering where the heck the footage is because the story their telling depends on whether the footage will work, and of course they won’t know that until they see it.  When the screener finally arrives, it’s got the biggest visual time code embedded into the clip to ensure you don’t ‘steal’ the footage.  The clip from the screener won’t be replaced with clean footage until everyone has signed off on the rough cut, and if your delivery deadline is approaching you may just be biting the last of your finger nails waiting for the clean footage.  It takes time to get a clean copy of the footage, rights have to negotiated with the studio and with each actor that appears in the clip, contracts will need to be signed and in some cases the studio will have to pull the original footage out of a vault just to get a print made and duplicated onto a format you need.

As you can see, in a production if you’re using clips you practically need a department devoted to securing clips and obtaining the rights and clearances. That’s why I was happily surprised to see that Paramount Pictures has decided to make the process easier.  I don’t believe it was out of sense of altruism, but rather due to declining DVD sales and poor box office revenues. I’m sure someone said, “Hey we’ve got a gold mine in the basement vaults, let’s make the process easier and make some money.”

By logging onto ParamountClips.com, you can search for the exact clip you want with the licensing parameters you need.  Once you’ve located the clip, press the checkout button and you’re done. Paramount will electronically deliver the selection in the format and resolution desired. Most scenes are available in multiple languages.

I love when companies use technology to make the process easier.

What kind of technology makes your production work easier?

Ten minute newsreels aired before the ‘double feature’ and began with world events, followed by stories of national interest.  Typically a segment on fashion, entertainment, or the latest pop culture craze like the hulu hoop or ping pong would round out the reel before ending with a sports segment.  Sound familiar?  It’s the news format of today, or if you separate each segment you’ve got YouTube.

Considering there were no PDA’s, no internet and Twitter was a word associated with a bird – newsreels were a surprisingly swift way to get visual information.  In 1927 when Charles Lindberg took off from Roosevelt Field for his historic trans-Atlantic flight it was captured on film.  The negative was then rushed back from Long Island and later that evening audiences at the Roxy Theatre in Manhattan were able to relive that moment on film.

There wasn’t anything newsreels didn’t capture.  From the Wright Brothers first attempt at flying in 1903¸ to the Great Depression, on through to WWII, Babe Ruth, The Duke of Windsor’s abdication and the Dionne Quintuplets – the men behind the cameras were recording it all and it was being watched by millions in theaters across America.

Today, many cringe at what is posted on YouTube, or seen in the news. Some complain that we’ve become a culture who glorify ‘gore’ and that images are too graphic, but it’s not a new trend and it’s not a result of the internet.  This type of visual, in your face graphic recording was captured by newsreels long before TV News, YouTube or the Internet was a thought in any one’s mind. The assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia was explicit, yet it was shown in newsreels throughout the country.  Every moment of the shocking Hindenburg disaster was watched by horrified theater goers.

The technology of YouTube is new, the idea – not so much.  We’re a people that want information, as fast as we can get it, and that’s been going on since man could communicate.

I tend to follow TV production people and film makers.  I would definitely call this group ‘rule breakers’.  Seriously, can you make a film or television show without breaking some rules?  By nature, this is a group that likes to talk and needs a place to promote their work.  That’s why I follow this group, I enjoy the conversation and I want to know what’s happening in the industry.  When some of the people I follow converse 50% of the time, promote 30% of the time and share information 20% of the time, it doesn’t bother me – we’re creatives not mathematicians.

Without a little rule breaking I would never have seen the film “Snow Bunny” at the Queens International Film Festival last night by the talented filmmakers @kingisafink Jessica King and Julie Keck from Chicago. (It was great meeting you Jessica and Julie, nice to put faces to the tweets.)

I also wouldn’t have known that  @MatiasB just completed shooting a profile of the US alpine ski team that will air on NBC January 30th at 8pm.

I would never have had ‘conversations’ with TV producers @jokeandbiagio and discovered their terrific insights into making reality TV shows

I wouldn’t have discovered the truly remarkable viral distribution David Baker is creating with his film MissionX. @indiemoviemaker

And I wouldn’t have seen the very clever shorts created by filmmaker @philontilt

If you want to meet people in your industry, be inspired by others, then get on Twitter.  Break some rules, follow and unfollow people as you like.  And when you read about how things are ‘supposed’ to be done in a social media venue, be a creative, question it.  Is it right for you?

What has Twitter done for you lately?