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The Footage Log

Licensing, archives and research, entry by entry

Licensing moving images, entry by entry

Notes kept while researching, clearing and buying footage: what a license actually fixes, what it costs, where archive and newsreel material is held, and how to get a catalogue to give up the shot you need. Each entry carries the date it was written and stays where it was filed.

Entertainment formats are the hardest corner of this trade. A game show is shot by a production company, licensed as a format to a broadcaster in another country, then archived, if at all, by whoever happened to keep the tapes. The Wipeout Turkey archive shows what that looks like from the outside: an obstacle-course programme reconstructed season by season from broadcast records rather than from any rights holder's catalogue. Anyone who has tried to clear thirty seconds of a format show will recognise why that work had to be done by hand.

Editors who license pictures for a cut can read the photographer's side of the table at Light Table: photo licensing and usage, wire caption discipline and what a credit line owes the frame.

Buyers who already clear archive footage will recognise the same discipline applied to stills at The Rights Desk, a UK picture licensing guide to licences, releases and provenance checks written in plain terms.

Societies hunting actual prints and DCPs can turn to The Repertory Notebook, a reference written for volunteers that explains where copies come from, what a booking asks of a small hall, and how screening rights are cleared in the US.

On the making side, Syrian Talent keeps archive filmmaking notes on work that articulates archive material with new narratives, alongside the careers of Syrian creatives working across borders.

Footage taken between thirty and five hundred feet depends on how the camera got there; Low Altitude Review compares aerial camera platforms, tethered balloons against drones, on the criteria that actually decide a shot.

A supplier who cannot show a chain of custody presents a diligence problem before it becomes a rights problem, and the same method is applied to company records elsewhere: The Diligence Review explains corporate due diligence and background checks in plain English, from registers and ownership records to reputation checks and the paper trail a buyer may ask for.

Where the clip is licensed for a shop or a platform, it sits inside a trading story that began in 2020, and Shelf & Signal keeps a record of online retail since the pandemic built on the sales figures that were actually published: which categories moved online and stayed there, and which drifted back.

Entries
35
Years covered
3
Last entry

2026

30 entries, February to September

September 2026

  1. Testing a start-up idea in the Denbighshire

    How to test a business idea, choose between sole trader and limited company, and write a business plan that funders actually read, from a Denbighshire angle.

    ProductionResearch12 min read

  2. Odisha industrial approvals: policy, portal, fees

    Odisha's Industrial Policy Resolution 2022, the GO SWIFT single-window portal, and the approval timelines and fees that apply to industrial projects.

    LicensingResearch12 min read

  3. Maine courts and dockets: a working guide

    How Maine dockets work, how the Law Court, Superior Court and District Court differ, and where to read docket records, with the limits of public access.

    LicensingRights11 min read

  4. Will or trust: Iowa estate planning basics

    A plain look at wills and revocable living trusts in Iowa, naming a guardian for minor children, and what changes when a couple marries or remarries.

    RightsResearch11 min read

  5. Small business economics: what the street shows

    A working log entry on small business economics, drawn from street-level reporting on local trade, and what it means for anyone licensing footage of shops and

    ResearchProduction12 min read

  6. Finance in Sicily: what a lender reads first

    A working note on how Sicilian lenders read a finance file, and where the paperwork starts for small firms, artisans and farms.

    LicensingResearch10 min read

  7. Professional cleaning and hygiene: a working primer

    A working log entry on professional cleaning and hygiene: surface order, chemical safety, detergent labelling and traceability records for offices and kitchens.

    ProductionCraft11 min read

  8. Web tools and digital resources for small sites

    A working note on the web tools and digital resources small site teams actually keep: image formats, performance audits, link checks and documentation.

    TechnicalResearch11 min read

  9. Licensing footage: where the paper trail starts

    A working note on how rights, provenance and personal pages shape the paperwork behind a footage licence, and why the trail matters before a deal closes.

    LicensingRights9 min read

  10. Footage licensing and personal finance research

    A working note on how finance footage gets licensed, what buyers check, and why French personal finance material is a growing request category.

    LicensingResearch12 min read

  11. Finance basics for beginners: where to start

    A working guide to personal finance for beginners: emergency savings, index funds, fees, compounding, and the order in which to learn it all.

    ResearchMoney11 min read

  12. Freight rates and the cost of going slow

    A working note on how fuel prices, speed and charter terms feed into freight rates, and why the numbers behind a voyage are rarely visible in the shot.

    ProductionResearch12 min read

  13. Reading Japanese books as a daily habit

    A working note on reading Japanese books as a daily practice: choosing a first title, handling vocabulary, and recognising 単行本, 文庫 and 新書 formats.

    ResearchCraft10 min read

  14. Hardware upkeep: what a footage log borrows from repair logs

    A working note on how repair and maintenance documentation informs the way footage is described, checked and licensed for reuse.

    TechnicalCraft10 min read

  15. Private inquiry in Spain: what a licence file needs

    A working note on Spanish private investigation, evidence for disputes and leases, and what footage licensors should verify before signing.

    LicensingResearch10 min read

  16. Starting a postcard collection: filokartie basics

    What filokartie covers, how to begin collecting old postcards, and how to set a budget that holds up over years of buying.

    ArchiveResearch12 min read

  17. How a road project gets built in Australia

    From business case to opening: how Australian road projects are approved, funded and designed, and what level crossing removals and tunnels taught the industry.

    ProductionResearch10 min read

  18. What community development is, and who pays for it

    A plain explanation of community development, the stages of neighborhood revitalization, and the channels money moves through in the US, with a DC focus.

    ResearchSources13 min read

  19. Stock investing: what the licence log can and cannot show

    A working log on stock investing coverage: what market footage can document, what it cannot, and how to read financial media with sources in hand.

    MoneyResearch12 min read

  20. Filming in a rented venue: permissions, releases and the room itself

    The three permissions a camera in a hired room needs, how the room decides the lighting and the framing, and which releases the people on camera sign.

    ProductionRights9 min read

  21. When a footage licence is disputed: what a civil claim looks like

    The uses that break a licence, what a claim can recover, and how a civil case moves from a demand letter to filing, evidence and a hearing.

    LicensingRights9 min read

  22. Provenance before the licence: checking where archival material comes from

    The four kinds of record that make up a paper trail, how to check a document's origin before paying, and why small specialist archives show their workings.

    ArchiveResearch9 min read

  23. What makes a clip read as 1940s: a buyer's look at period images

    The cues that make footage read as its decade, how the noir image was built on set, and the checks to run before paying for a period clip.

    ArchiveCraft9 min read

August 2026

  1. What b-roll is for, and what makes a shot worth licensing

    Six jobs, the difference between coverage and filler, and the three technical points that decide whether archive b-roll can be cut at all.

    Craft8 min read

July 2026

  1. How to search a footage database and actually find the shot

    Rewrite the request as a filmed event, then let the filters do the work. Plus the tactics that only apply to archives.

    ResearchMethod9 min read

June 2026

  1. Choosing a footage library for documentary work

    Seven criteria, five kinds of supplier, and why a documentary buys a chain of title rather than a shot.

    Suppliers9 min read

May 2026

  1. The nine lines a footage research request needs

    A brief a stranger can search from: subject, period, place, people, shots, format, license scope, dates and scale.

    ResearchTemplate9 min read

April 2026

  1. What footage costs, and why nobody can quote it in the abstract

    Nine variables move a quote, and the clip fee is only one row of the budget. Plus the real comparison between licensing and shooting.

    Money10 min read

March 2026

  1. Where archival and newsreel footage actually lives

    National collections, newsreel libraries and the commercial archive houses, and how to tell a rights holder from a custodian.

    ArchiveSources10 min read

February 2026

  1. License it or shoot it: comparing the two costs honestly

    The clip fee against the day rate is the wrong comparison. What each side really carries, the four cases where a shoot cannot compete, and the reuse question that settles the rest.

    MoneyProduction10 min read

See all eleven entries from 2026, month by month

2025

2025 : Stock Footage Licensing, Archives and Research

4 entries, June to December

December 2025

  1. Public domain footage, and how to license old film that is not

    The 95 year line, the renewal window, federal works, and what still bites after the copyright has expired.

    RightsArchive12 min read

October 2025

  1. What you actually receive, and whether it will cut

    Resolution, frame rate, codec, colour and audio: the five fields on an item page that decide whether a licensed clip drops into the timeline or costs you an afternoon.

    TechnicalDelivery11 min read

September 2025

  1. Royalty free against rights managed, line by line

    One fee for a broad set of uses, or a fee calculated from the use you declare. The comparison table and the two traps that catch experienced buyers.

    Licensing8 min read

June 2025

  1. A working glossary of footage and licensing terms

    Around sixty terms from footage quotes and contracts, defined in one or two sentences and grouped by where they appear.

    Reference11 min read

2024

1 entry, in November

November 2024

  1. How footage licensing works, from first search to signed license

    The four parameters every license fixes, the difference between a library and a rights holder, and what a license never covers.

    LicensingReference9 min read

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