an article for Digital Content Producers/June 2007/Business Intelligence story (www.digitalcontentproducer.com)


The biggest niche in the world?
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by Paul Ambrose, Mammoth HD contributing artist

After an agonizingly slow birthing process, HD Video is finally coming to a living room near you. Or at least a corporate boardroom. Plagued by conflicting standards and an expensive civilian conversion, this new technology has taken longer to catch on than anything else in recent memory. As the stock photo world steadily becomes a commodities market, the stock footage world is facing an interesting challenge; virtually everything ever filmed has to be shot again to meet the new HD digital standards.

Existing film libraries are running hard to catch up. 35mm footage can be converted to digital, but the process involves costs that can be prohibitive for a large library. Not to mention the fact that one must sacrifice a good percentage of the top and bottom of the image as one converts to the widescreen format. Of course, one also has to deal with deteriorating film stock and film grain, dirt and scratches.

There is a huge standing standard definition video library out there, but again, it cannot be converted to the HD standard, so once more it seems the only choice is to re-shoot everything.

Unlike the stock photo industry, where most of the players have been gobbled up by the big three, (Getty, Corbis and Jupiter), the stock footage business seems to be headed in the opposite direction. Smaller, newer agencies are setting the pace and leaving the old behemoths floundering in their wake.

Unhampered by dusty vaults of outdated footage from another era, these new companies are responding to the market demands at the speed of light, uploading low-res clips of everything in their files for the shopping convenience of their customers. But, the innovation doesn't end there.

Some independent shooters are laying their HD cameras on their sides and creating a new vertical HD format. Exhibit houses and in-house display designers are going crazy for this. Libraries can't supply the images fast enough. This is reminiscent of the "old days" when stock photo agencies told photographers to shoot everything both vertical and horizontal.

Unencumbered by tradition and corporate stagnation, these new little shops are embracing the technology as fast as it is developed and using it to push the very edges of what's possible. Witness the enthusiastic reception the new Red One 4K camera. Some of the smaller agencies have already announced their commitment to this new format and at least one is already delivering 4K files.

Almost nobody needs a 4K file . . .yet. A few years ago, nobody needed HD either. But, the beauty is that larger files can be downsized (with amazing quality) to deliver a more modest product for today's client while giving one maximum flexibility for future projects.

There is a vibrant new energy running through the stock footage industry. One can only imagine what the next few years will bring.

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Paul Ambrose is just one of more than 50 photographers shooting for the Evergreen, Colorado based Mammoth HD, Inc., a three year old stock footage library founded to supply HD footage to the industry. Mammoth HD has engaged in all of the above mentioned innovations and more. www.Mammothhd.com