Stock footage

Stock footage companies began to emerge in the mid-1980s, offering clips mastered on Betacam SP, VHS, and film formats.

Many of the smaller libraries that specialized in niche topics such as extreme sports, technological or cultural collections were bought out by larger concerns such as Corbis or Getty Images over the next couple of decades.

The advances in computer graphics in the late 1990s and early 2000s helped to significantly reduce the cost of Star Trek's production and allowed for a much wider variety of shots than previous model and painting-based visuals.

Other films that re-used film footage from previous productions include Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Blade Runner, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Hitman, Jaws: The Revenge, Halloween II, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 & 2 and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

The playback footage of a hurricane featured in Disney's Smart House came from the vaults of the same San Diego firm.

Use of stock footage allows the filmmaker to tell the story of historical events such as World War II Why We Fight series, to document modern underwater archaeology activities, or to supplement content in natural history documentaries.

Budgets may not be sufficient to keep a production crew on site for long-term projects, and stock footage allows the producer to pick the moments in time that are most important to the story or to give context to historical events.

Companies throughout the world use stock footage in their video productions for in-house meetings, annual conventions, seminars, and other events.

There are a number of companies that own the copyrights to large libraries of stock footage and charge filmmakers a fee for using it, but they rarely demand royalties.

Betacam SP, VHS, and early digital footage was shot in standard-definition (SD), in 4:3 aspect ratio.