Another Found Footage Question

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  • Another Found Footage Question

    I didn't want to drag the three year old post over here;
    I've read all the threads I could find, but could not find the answer to my particular question;
    First: can "found footage" be clips from produced videos? with owner's permission, of course.
    Second: Do you need/have to write a description of what is happening in the clip.
    My application would be using actual, non-scripted action clips, that take place in the environment of the script, interspersed with one or two cuts to the scripted scene with brief dialog.
    Appreciate the input

  • #2
    Re: Another Found Footage Question

    Originally posted by Butch Jarvinen View Post
    I didn't want to drag the three year old post over here;
    I've read all the threads I could find, but could not find the answer to my particular question;
    First: can "found footage" be clips from produced videos? with owner's permission, of course.
    Second: Do you need/have to write a description of what is happening in the clip.
    My application would be using actual, non-scripted action clips, that take place in the environment of the script, interspersed with one or two cuts to the scripted scene with brief dialog.
    Appreciate the input
    You can obviously put whatever you want into your script -- if you want to cut away to footage from The Terminator or clips from Walt Disney cartoons, you can always put it in -- but chances of actually being able to get those clips, unless the script is bought by whoever owns the rights to the movies in question, would be slim.

    As for describing what's going on in the clips/cutaways -- that would depend on the clips.

    I suppose you can rely on certain images being part of our universal consciousness. So if you're cutting away to footage of Kennedy being shot, or to brief cuts of World Trade Center collapsing, then I suppose you don't need anything more than to simply reference it -- we've all seen it.

    But with anything else, I think you have to describe it. You can't rely on a reader filling in the blanks, and to write something that, maybe, fifty percent or seventy percent, or eighty percent of your readers are going to get -- that's always a bit risky.

    So my advice would be to describe what's in these "found footage" clips just as if they were cutaways to anything else.

    NMS

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Another Found Footage Question

      Thanks NMS,
      The footage I'm speaking of is from independent producers that have compiled snips from contributors that were in the Vietnam War. I have several of these that have 3,4, or 5 minute scenes, that would save $thousands in producing my script.
      My intention is that the snips would blend right in with the filming; no "CAMERA VIEW, POV, ETC".

      I'm assuming I could use;

      INSERT - FILM FOOTAGE
      EXT. FOUR PBRS EXITING THE CANAL AT FULL SPEED - DAY
      The wakes from the PBRs wash the village fishing boats ashore.

      BACK TO SCENE

      EXT.OLLIE'S PBR - DAY

      Ollie is trying to light his cigarette with his Zippo lighter.

      OLLIE
      ****, if I burn myself one more time,
      I'm going to quit smoking.

      INSERT - FILM FOOTAGE - PBRS COME UNDER FIRE
      The four PBRs return fire.

      BACK TO SCENE
      EXT.OLLIE'S PBR - DAY

      Ollie picks up the radio handset.

      OLLIE
      Sierra Bravo One, we're numbers five and
      six. Just fall in line and do whatever everyone
      is doing.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Another Found Footage Question

        It sounds like you want the footage to be used as just another scene(s), as if it were expressly produced for the movie, rather than appearing as "stock footage" or as newsreel or TV or documentary footage. If you do not want readers/viewers to perceive it as "stock," then I don't think you would need (or want) to use a phrase like, "INSERT FILM FOOTAGE." You would just cut to it like any other scene, without calling attention to the fact that it's actually a "real-life" piece of footage.

        It depends what perception you want the audience to have of the scene. If the style and appearance of the scenes are obviously from television news or documentary footage, then it might be necessary to lead into it as shown in your example, where you call attention to the fact that we're now watching the real thing. But if the footage can be credibly integrated into the movie simply as additional dramatic scenes, you may not need to tell the reader, "here is some 'found footage.'"

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Another Found Footage Question

          Originally posted by Butch Jarvinen View Post
          Thanks NMS,
          The footage I'm speaking of is from independent producers that have compiled snips from contributors that were in the Vietnam War. I have several of these that have 3,4, or 5 minute scenes, that would save $thousands in producing my script.
          My intention is that the snips would blend right in with the filming; no "CAMERA VIEW, POV, ETC".

          I'm assuming I could use;

          INSERT - FILM FOOTAGE
          EXT. FOUR PBRS EXITING THE CANAL AT FULL SPEED - DAY
          The wakes from the PBRs wash the village fishing boats ashore.

          BACK TO SCENE

          EXT.OLLIE'S PBR - DAY

          Ollie is trying to light his cigarette with his Zippo lighter.

          OLLIE
          ****, if I burn myself one more time,
          I'm going to quit smoking.

          INSERT - FILM FOOTAGE - PBRS COME UNDER FIRE
          The four PBRs return fire.

          BACK TO SCENE
          EXT.OLLIE'S PBR - DAY

          Ollie picks up the radio handset.

          OLLIE
          Sierra Bravo One, we're numbers five and
          six. Just fall in line and do whatever everyone
          is doing.
          I think we may be talking about two different things.

          One is a production issue. A number of WW II movies, for instance, used stock footage of various kinds, cutting it into production footage -- actual battle footage shot during real battles; things like kamikazes running into battle ships, or being shot down -- things which would be very difficult to duplicate on a Hollywood soundstage.

          Of course, all that stuff was shot on 16mm and, while I don't know about anybody else, I always knew when they cut back and forth between that grainier stuff and the shot-in-Hollywood 35mm stuff. It always looked totally different. Even when I was a little kid I knew it wasn't the same.

          But, in any case, that's a "production" issue -- whether you're going to save money by inter-cutting pre-existing footage to take the place of action that would otherwise have been shot as part of the movie.

          It's only really a *screenwriting* issue if your intention is for this inter-cut footage to appear to be what it, in fact, is -- which is documentary footage intercut into the body of the story, as if the fictional story is proceeding and then it briefly cuts away to this little piece of reality, and then comes back.

          If it's the latter, then fine.

          If it's the former, then unless this is a movie that you are producing or directing *and* you have the rights to the footage and are referencing this for production purposes, then I would probably not do it.

          There have been movies that have, to some extent, been shaped around pre-existing footage, whether documentary footage or footage from older, existing movies.

          But those movies were made under a very different producer-driven system of movie-making.

          If you're simply writing a spec script aiming to sell it to the market place in the same way that anyone might then, unless we're meant to see this footage as *actual* documentary cutaways, then there's no reason to describe them as such.

          Simply tell us what we're supposed to be seeing.

          NMS

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Another Found Footage Question

            I read a comedy where a man gets turned down after making advances towards a woman. In the script, it said something like...
            INSERT: Stock footage of a WWII plane getting shot down and spiraling towards the ground.
            ...and then went back to the scene.



            I also read a script where the scene started with the characters watching television. For example:

            INT. JIM'S LIVING ROOM - DAY

            The four bank robbers lay around around watching Sanford and Son. On screen, Redd Foxx clutches his chest and says this is the big one.

            JIM
            Hey guys, what if we distract the guard by having someone fake a heart attack?

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Another Found Footage Question

              Thanks again NMS
              I guess "stock footage" would better
              describe my intention.
              As this is a "docudrama", I think I
              should just write the few lines
              describing the scene, and let a
              producer decide how to film it.
              I do think the clips I've watched
              can be digitally massaged to blend
              in with the filming environment.
              3 or 4 pages and I'm done "writing".
              now to just put it all together.

              Comment

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