Archival Storytelling

A Filmmaker's Guide to Finding, Using, and Licensing Third-Party Visuals and Music

Sheila Curran Bernard, Kenn Rabin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000046991
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Películas y vídeos

Fully revised and updated, Archival Storytelling second edition is a timely, pragmatic look at the use of audiovisual materials available to filmmakers and scholars, from the earliest photographs of the 19th century to the work of media makers today.

Whether you're a top Hollywood filmmaker or a first-time documentarian, at some point you are going to want to find, use, and license third-party materials—images, audio, or music that you yourself did not create—to use them in your work. This book explains what's involved in researching and licensing visuals and music, and exactly what media makers need to know when filming in a world crowded with rights-protected images and sounds. Filled with insights from filmmakers, archivists, and intellectual property experts, this second edition defines key terms such as copyright, fair use, public domain, and orphan works. It guides readers through the complex archival process and challenges them to become not only archival users but also archival and copyright activists.

This book is an essential resource for both students and professionals, from seasoned filmmakers to those creating their first projects, offering practical advice for how to effectively and ethically draw on the wealth of cultural materials that surround us.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

We are surrounded by images and sounds that have been shaped by others into content intended to entertain, inform, educate, sell, persuade, and even mislead. Much of this visual and aural record has been and will continue to be preserved for future reference, including use by filmmakers, journalists, historians, educators, and others. The purpose of this book is to offer insight into:

◾ How archival materials came into being;

◾ Where these materials can be found;

◾ How they can be acquired and used in today’s digital editing workflow; and

◾ What’s involved in acquiring the rights needed to use this material in your own film or other media project, and the challenges—ethical, historical, and creative—that should be considered when drawing upon this audiovisual heritage.

“Archival” materials is a term we’re using to loosely mean any audiovisual material not created/originated by you. It may have been captured today, or a decade ago, or even in the mid-19th century, at the dawn of photography. By the 1890s cameras could capture motion and recorders could capture sound. By the mid-20th century, both image and sound could be transmitted over the air to receivers—television sets and radios—in people’s homes. By the late 20th century, cable technology and the internet had again transformed the audiovisual landscape. Now, as we enter the third decade of the 21st century, images and sounds can circumvent the globe in a matter of seconds.

There is a unique power to the audiovisual record: it seems to capture reality itself. Still and motion picture photography, along with recorded sounds, speech, and music, have long been tools for documenting our world, sharing stories, and selling products. And yet as we explore in this book, recorded images and audio, including those created for purposes of journalism or documentary, are not reality: they are representations of it, and their authenticity requires analysis and interpretation. Who created this material, for what purpose? What is beyond the frame? Does the image accurately represent the event, person, or place? How accurately does the spoken word reveal the circumstances in which the recording was made, or the purpose and selection of what was recorded, or what was edited out? Have these materials been altered or falsified in some way, whether at the point of creation or later? And what about events, people, or places that were not documented in some way? All of these questions apply, whether the material was generated a century ago or yesterday, although today the rise of increasingly sophisticated “deepfake” technology gives a new and troubling urgency to the need for media literacy.

When we first published Archival Storytelling in 2008, our primary goal was to engage and serve filmmakers, including those working on projects intended for Hollywood, broadcast, and streaming media; dramatic or documentary; and single films or multi-part series. These filmmakers weren’t necessarily focusing on “historical” stories. Projects often utilize at least some material not created by the filmmaking team. It was also our intent, however, to engage media makers who specifically do seek to interrogate the historical record through their work, challenging them to consider this material in its context and consider how they are using it as audiovisual evidence of the past.

The response to that book, not only from new and established filmmakers but also from readers working in a range of disciplines, led us to realize that this information has a broader use. For that reason, in addition to significant updating, this second edition was written to serve not only filmmakers but also media professionals in general (including those who deal routinely with issues of intellectual property), as well as historians, curators, and other scholars who rely on third-party materials in their research. We especially hope to reach public historians, a group that the National Council on Public History (ncph.org) describes as including “historical consultants, museum professionals, government historians, archivists, oral historians, cultural resource managers, curators, film and media producers, historical interpreters, historic preservationists, policy advisers, local historians, and community activists.”

In addition, we seek to inform an argument for the importance of ongoing preservation of audiovisual records, as well as to call attention to obstacles regarding access to some of these important archives, including, but not limited to, the rising cost to license materials. Media makers are free, of course, to eschew the use of archival materials and instead rely on re-enactments, generic imagery, and perhaps animation to convey historical stories. These choices, however, should be made for creative and content purposes, and not because access to archival material is restricted or licensing costs prohibitive. In some cases, of course, use of third-party materials may not require licensing, as we discuss in chapters dealing with the public domain, and with fair use, a legal exception to U.S. copyright law.

Lastly, we hope that this book may help to raise awareness among funding organizations, policymakers, elected officials, and especially entertainment industry executives that quality programming requires resources. Much has changed since the first edition was published, and there has been an encouraging increase in venues through which topnotch independent programming can reach audiences. With that said, the push to turn out media “product” faster and cheaper has also intensified, and we hope that this book offers a reminder that good, ethical, effective media production—especially when it seeks to tell the stories of history—takes time, expertise, and money.

What Are “Archival” Materials?

The range of acquired images and sound generally described in this book as archival audiovisual materials includes:

◾ Illustrative moving images, such as “beauty” shots of famous landmarks, sunsets, time-lapse photography (such as flowers opening, or the sun rising), weather photography, and aerial photography (such as footage shot from a helicopter or drone). These are often owned by commercial enterprises and sometimes by the individuals who shot them.

◾ Historical and news-related moving images, such as footage of newsworthy events. In general, the greater the importance of the moment and those involved, the more likely it is that you can find this material at commercial entities, such as television networks or newsreel houses. But historical moving images exist for a wide range of events, some of which may have never reached the national news and instead were documented by local crews and archived at local television stations, libraries, universities, historical societies, and even in personal collections.

◾ Industrial and educational materials, which have long been and continue to be created by industries and social organizations all around the world for purposes of advertising, sales, and education. These can afford a fascinating look into the past (as well as the present) and include every possible genre.

◾ Government-produced materials from around the world, including important works of record, such as those created by branches of the military. Government works have documented wars; social programs and movements; federally funded projects including infrastructure projects; public art of various kinds; advances in medicine and science; and, of course, government-produced propaganda (which could include any of the above).

◾ Personal moving images and still photographs, an ever-expanding body of materials created by individuals and families that reflects ongoing changes in technology, from tintypes to Kodachrome slides, Super 8 home movies to cell phone videos and stills.

◾ Commercially-owned or produced photographs of any kind, generic or specific, including news photos from newspapers and magazines, stock photos from agencies, wire service photos, Hollywood publicity portraits, celebrity service photos, and others.

◾ Graphics such as antique maps, fine art (including paintings, textiles, and such), editorial cartoons, lithographic illustrations, movie posters, and newspaper headlines. Flat art may be used to augment visuals for events that predate the invention of photography or to provide context and commentary on historical events; a newspaper headline may serve when there is no film or still coverage of an event, and it can also efficiently push the story ahead.

◾ Music, including music not created expressly for your project (as a “work for hire” by a composer, for example), and preexisting recordings that come from downloads, CDs, LPs, or other sources not originally recorded by you.

◾ Sound; for example, the “wild” (unsynchronized) audio of events in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001, or a radio broadcast of Edward R. Murrow reporting on the London blitz in the 1940s, or the early recordings made on wax cylinders by folklorists eager to preserve traditional cultures.

Who Uses Archival Materials?

When people think of archival use, they often think first about historical filmmakers such as Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, who co-directed the 2017 PBS series The Vietnam War. But a surprisingly diverse group of people uses archival materials, including not only documentary filmmakers but also advertising agencies, public relations firms, news organizations, fiction filmmakers, historians and makers of educational material, students, and the general public. Any time you order a photograph from the collection of ship images at Ellis Island, search through military records at Ancestry. com, or visit a local museum or historical society, you’re benefiting from the preservation and accessibility of archival materials.

In some cases, as noted, archival material adds real-world verisimilitude to fictionalized storytelling. For example, director Ava DuVernay’s Academy Award-nominated Selma (2014) dramatized the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. In the film, as the march reached its conclusion with the protesters’ arrival in the city of Montgomery, the visuals shifted from the present-day actors to archival footage of the real marchers, filmed 50 years earlier by newsreel cameras and network news crews. The fictional AMC television series, Mad Men (2007–2015), set in the 1960s and 1970s, at times showed their characters watching televised, actual news reports of events from that era. For the Oscar-nominated Straight Outta Compton (2015), a fictionalized drama about the musical group N.W.A., director F. Gary Gray evoked the 1980s and 1990s through the use of period news footage from CNN, NBC, and ABC; music video clips from MTV; film clips from director John Singleton’s 1991 feature Boyz n the Hood; and clips from a 1970s TV sitcom, What’s Happening!!

In documentary programming and in academic scholarship, archival materials may be used as visual and aural evidence of the past. This was the case with Eyes on the Prize, the 14-hour archival history of the modern U.S. civil rights movement that was broadcast on PBS in two parts (1987 and 1990). Director Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005) relied on a video diary shot by naturalist Timothy Treadwell before his death in 2003, in his efforts to understand why Treadwell would risk his own life—and others’—to live among wild bears.

At other times, archival materials are used to fill a general need for visuals that evoke a specific time or place. This can provide a valuable context for a subject. Filmmaker Raoul Peck, for example, used home movies, talk show clips, and period footage of New York, Paris, and other cities in I Am Not Your Negro (2017). The documentary is built upon a book that author and activist James Baldwin began in 1979, in which he pays tribute to three close friends who were assassinated in the 1960s: civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (The book remained unfinished at the time of Baldwin’s death, in 1987.)

Among the most influential users of archival materials are advertising agencies, whose (relatively) high budgets have shaped today’s market and, to a large extent, driven prices up from what they were just a decade or two ago. These agencies tend to rely on commercial stock houses, whose fees may be higher than elsewhere but whose material may be available almost immediately: a simple click and download after a credit card payment. In contrast, independent filmmakers may have less money but more time to do the digging that’s often required to find material in alternative, less expensive places—and to dig deeper for material that may be less well-known or more relevant, or that might push their research in new directions.

Nearly all media makers, at some point in their careers, will want to use third-party materials. Despite perceptions, this use does not need to destroy your budget or schedule. With some creative thinking and perseverance, even those with limited funding should be able to find useful and affordable materials. Additionally, you’ll be better informed when asked to license your own work to others.

Who Owns Archival Materials?

The short answer is: everybody, from you and your family (those boxes of photographs you’ve been meaning to sort, along with home movies, audiotapes, school papers, and more) to some of the wealthiest individuals, institutions, and corporations in the world. Getty Images, the U.S. government, and the British Crown are just a few of the world’s notable collectors.

Challenges of Archival Storytelling

The complexity of finding, using, and (as needed) licensing archival images and sound can be daunting. The following are some of the challenges media makers routinely face:

◾ The rights holder to photos, footage, or music you want to use refuses to grant a license, or is charging a fee so high you can’t possibly afford it;

◾ You found footage that was perfect, but in it, people are singing a song, which may mean that you need to also negotiate permission to use the song;

◾ Although you cleared the necessary rights for your project five years ago, some of them were time limited and are now expiring, so you can no longer sell or distribute your work;

◾ You found material that you want to use on YouTube, but have no idea how to locate the rights holder;

◾ You’ve discovered that someone else has incorporated portions of your work in their program without your consent.

We’ll address these issues and others in the following pages, drawing not only on our own experiences but also those of other media professionals, legal experts, film and music researchers, insurance executives, archivists, and others.

The Importance of Access

Although it can be difficult to find and use third-party sounds and visuals,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 Introduction
• Part 1 About Archival Materials
• Part 2 Working with Archival Materials
• Part 3 Rights and Licenses
• Part 4 Additional Material
• About the Authors
• Index
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