Owner: NHNZ Images News URL:http://nhnzimages-news.blogspot.com Join Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 18:01:10 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This monthly newsletter discusses topics of interest to the footage industry. NHNZ Images has over 30 years experience in the footage industry, specialises in stockshot footage from television documentary films produced by NHNZ and is also the agent for r Site statistics:Click here
How much is that doggy in the window? 2007-04-20 00:25:00 Or, how much is that shot of the wolf mother feeding her cubs? Well, there are several factors which influence the price that we charge for the use of our moving images in your production. They answer the questions, who, what, when (which is here interpreted as how long) and where?Firstly, the who part of the equation. If you are a regular client who buys frequently from us, you can expect a preferential rate - although this may not be stated as such. Unless you negotiate a bulk deal, as this is open to all-comers.If you are a first-time client you can expect a fair price.NHNZ Images operates in an international marketplace, and as far as we are able we will price royalties according to the local conditions.What you are making is a very strong influence.A US national television advertising campaign will clearly be set at a higher level, than will a small educational segment for a tertiary level NZ institution. We appreciate that sometimes it is hard to know exactly how many seconds yo Read more:doggy
On-line rights - a minefield? 2007-04-20 00:07:00 It seems to be that we are caught in an ever decreasing spiral, broadcasters want more rights for less budget.Case in point; producers now nearly always have to clear for internet or on-line rights, but with no concomitant increase in budget to cover this. Gone are the days when all rights all media meant exactly that, and beware if you have to go back to the footage supplier to increase the rights - they will charge you - and hopefully not like a wounded bull.And why?Where's the profit for the broadcasters in on-line rights, none to date. Or are they just securing their future as the notion of sitting down to watch television ofr the evening disappears. Probably.Two recent trials from BBC2 and Channel 4 saw hundred of thousands of punters downloading TV content online, a report in Broadcast (26 May 2006 p 13) revealed that there is a real demand for TV content over the internet. Curiously people are happy to pay per episode to view episodes of whatever on computer screens, whilst
Finding everything you want, every time 2007-03-18 23:08:00 People are a legitimate source of information. This was the mantra I learnt in the early days of my career at the BBC, more years ago than I care to remember. Back then finding out things was more difficult with no handy Google. But the adage still holds true, particularly for sourcing material that search engines do not cover. I am referring of course to databases, which cannot be interrogated by them and other similar data that forms part of the deep web.If you find yourself faced with a database that you've never used before, you may get lucky and find that a simple search term like for instance 'penguins' will retrieve all relevant hits. But you may find a significant number of irrelevant items amongst the search results. This could be due to a variety of factors, the most common being that the word 'penguins' occurs in more than one field so that the relevance of the retrieved item in the hit list is not obvious. If for instance you search for 'penguins' on NHNZ Image Read more:every
Is a royalty rate not simply money for old rope? 2007-03-18 22:57:00 A royalty
rate is not simply
icing on the cake, or money for old rope. It is a recognition that time and effort have been expended in acquiring the images in the first place. No matter how the images have been acquired - whether they are the result of productions that the company has made, or whether they are specially commissioned shoots for library purposes - they all need to be catalogued and stored. Each library will have its own techniques and methodologies and policies for maintaining the images, but it is the royalty rate negotiated separately with each client, which ultimately produces the income for libraries to staff and house the collections in adequate fashion.The royalty rate at NHNZ is not picked off a one-size-fits-all ratecard. We like to know how the footage will be used, the context if you will. Will it be a major component of your production, or not? Are you making a television programme or an audio visual element for an exhibition - will this be regional or nati
Welcome to our news blog 2007-03-08 04:18:00 G'day Everyone,as we say in this part of the world (New Zealand)Welcome
to our NHNZ Images news blog. In these postings I will be talking about aspects of the footage industry as they relate to our stockfootage library. Some postings will be of a general nature and some specific which I hope will answer queries you may have. In any event I hope they will stimulate your interest in the footage business and will bring you back so that you become a regular customer. I aim to publish postings monthly, and may seek guest editorials from other respected colleagues in the industry.This blog has arisen out of our major weekly blog strand, which brings you some of the stories behind the images that we have available for sale for your productionThank you for your interest, thus far, if you would like to subscribe to the feed, please check out the right hand panel.Stand by for real postings, coming soon.
Why waste your time asking a question of anyone other than an expert? 2007-05-17 23:55:00 New Zealanders like to think of themselves as innovators, as people on the edge of things, and when presented with a problem or two we can come up with a neat ingenious solution because we have a heritage of being technologically savvy. This strong tradition is exemplified by two internationally famous New Zealanders. The first Lord Rutherford of Nelson the atomic physicist, who said to his Cambridge University colleagues ‘We don't have a lot of money, so we shall have to think hard.’ And the second famous person Sir Edmund Hillary who put this tenet into practice by taking a farm tractor, fitting it with home made caterpillar tracks, and driving it across Antarctica in 1957 in the first motorised crossing of the continent. Being able to utilise limited resources is of course not really a national trait much though Kiwis would like to think it is. Plenty of examples of technological solutions to bring footage before the customer abound worldwide in the footage industry. Read more:waste
, asking
What bulk deals can be done? 2007-05-17 07:17:00 Selling widgets or tins of beans is a lot more straightforward than selling footage, largely because you can offer customers two for the price of one, or buy three get one free deals.Footage tends to be bought for a single production and the price paid will depend upon several factors. However, there are ways to keep costs down, one of which is to negotiate a bulk deal. To us at NHNZ Images bulk means over 2 minutes, and can attract discounts on the per second royalty rate. But … funny, but there is always a ‘but’ isn't there? This ‘but’ concerns a guarantee that over two minutes will indeed be used. So a guarantee then,… but one with a difference.In contractual terms a guarantee is often best dealt with by pre-purchasing a set amount. To make things easier for our customers we are quite happy to prepare a sliding scale for a particular production. This in effect means you pay less per second the more you use, and to be frank we see it as an encouragement for you to use mo
Downloadable or streaming? 2007-06-17 21:28:00 In discussing and negotiating on-line rights often a distinction is made between streaming but not-downloadable, or streaming and downloadable. But hang on there, aren’t they really the same thing – at least in the sense that there is a mass audience paying for and watching content.Does the mode of delivery of that content really matter?Isn’t one of the key points of negotiating a price surely based on who will be watching and how many of them will there be?The audience is king and queen.This is certainly the view taken by ACSIL (Association of Commercial Stock Image Licensors) who recently launched a Licensing Grid, designed to ease the confusion around the pricing of royalties. As Jill Hawkins (ACSIL Executive Director ) says “there is no longer an old or new media, there is just media. Multiple delivery platforms have obscured the differences between definitions of markets and audiences and descriptions of technology. What we have lost sight of is the audience: who the
Naming nightmares 2007-06-17 20:46:00 In an ideal world every time you search a database you want all the relevant records presented to you. Not just those that the system can be bothered finding, or a heap of others that are totally irrelevant. Achieving this state of precision is almost impossible and depends on many factors some are and some are not under the control of you the user.For instance the vagaries of the language. With wildlife the problems associated with vernacular names are well known. To give an example moon-daisy and ox-eye daisy are one and the same thing (pretty flowering weeds in wheat fields). Purple gallinule and pukeko are the same bird both are water rails which are marsh loving birds, the first is the North American name and the second is the New Zealand name. Talk about purple gallinule in NZ or pukeko in USA and you're likely be given blank looks. This nomenclatural problem is not limited to wildlife; one person's shovel is another person's spade.Spelling variants of course are another we Read more:Naming
Tales From the Field: San Fransisco 2007-07-16 23:19:00 "On October 27th 1989 a magnitude 7.1 earthquake shook San Francisco, fans at the World Series in Candlestick Park watched in horror as masonry rained down, motorists slowed to a halt as a section of the Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed and somewhere amongst all this chaos there was a bar, with a security camera recording the event.A small number of cameras recorded images of the earthquake that day but the bar footage provides perhaps one of the most dramatic scenes, the bartender racing away from the shaking till and towards the camera as bottles fall and smash behind her.Such images of natural disasters occurring were of course exactly what the MEGA DISASTERS team wanted, but the bar security footage remained elusive. The usual and likely suspects, ITN/Reuters, NBC, CNN, ABC, NatGeo and the various local news broadcasters in San Francisco, all had a copy of the famous footage, and some had broadcasted it at the time, but none of them knew who owned it or were prepared to sell it to me. Read more:Tales
, Field
Mobile Television, What a Load of ... 2007-07-16 22:59:00 Who would want to watch an episode, or even a short excerpt, on a tiny mobile phone screen? Certainly not me, but then I admit to being the wrong generation for such things. My kids laugh at me when I text, I can't manage with one thumb. I have to hold the phone in one hand, and use the index finger of the other to press the buttons. But, I venture that those that can use their mobiles with such ease don't want to screen whole programmes either. Of course, one limiting factor is cost, but I venture that even if services were free they wouldn't.This view has been better expressed by Jon Helmrich in a recent magazine article (RealScreen April/May2007), ‘As an industry, we're all aflutter over the potential revenue to be generated by the convergence of video and mobile platforms. You can't open a trade magazine without seeing at least one story on mobile video’ he says. He also cites a recent survey where only 1.5% of wireless subscribers streamed or played vid Read more:Mobile
, Television
Technical costs 2007-08-20 19:58:00 I've talked about royalty rates, before. On this occasion I shall talk about the other costs associated with using footage. These are often called technical costs, and will include, research, preview or screener tapes, freight, dubbing of masters and so on.Quick research, of the sort that answers have you got any shots of x y or z, a quick emailed response, with or without some emailed clips should really be free. Most of the major libraries have large databases full on clips viewable on-line, so the researcher can see for themselves whether there is anything suitable. A word to the wise however, all libraries (and I really mean all, every single library) has a backlog of material waiting to be catalogued, waiting to be digitised, or waiting to be uplifted to the on-line environment. So if your needs are not being met quickly, write, phone fax, email or carrier-pigeon the library and ask.Quick master shots can be delivered via our ftp site, it is not a completely painless process Read more:Technical
Sleuthing 2007-08-20 19:47:00 Sleuthing, that's often the name of the game. That fine line between understanding what the client wants compared to what they say they want. That moment of interpretation and guesswork. At NHNZ Images we are good at second and third guessing our clients, who may or may not have a command of either the medium in which they deal or the content.Museum exhibitions often have very detailed lists, with specific species requirements, which cannot be fulfilled from us or, anyone else for that matter. Today in my in-box someone wants a Many-Petalled Mangrove Bruguiera gymnorrhiza, a Dwarf Eel Seagrass Zostera japonica and this particular soldier crab Mictyris longicarpus only this one not any other! They are dreamers, the more so as their budgets defy their desires by some margin!On the other hand advertisers for instance tend to deal with concepts like beauty, wind, freedom, odd one out – these requests are challenging – but we usually manage to think of something appropriate. It's
The Challenges of Change 2007-09-20 22:03:00 Over the past few months we have spent a great deal of time assessing our future business needs and as a result we have launched a new group in the company to focus on new business initiatives and in particular on the many opportunities that are developing through various forms of emerging media, such as internet based programming and mobile content. We are very excited about these developments and believe that they will help us to capitalise on new opportunities, as well as continue to offer our existing clients the same great service that they have come to expect from NHNZ.The Emerging Media group, which will encompass our stock footage library and other existing non-broadcast activities such as DVD and mobile content sales, will be headed up by Caroline Cook, who brings with her extensive marketing and media experience. She will be joining us on 8 October.The establishment of the group was part of a restructure of various parts of our existing operation and regrettably this has Read more:Change
Introducing… The Emerging Media Group 2007-10-23 15:46:00 A Future Focus...The establishment of an Emerging Media group reflects NHNZ's most recent evolution in response to changing markets and technological innovations. Leading the group is Caroline Cook - Manager of Emerging Media.The group's focus is to find cost effective ways to deliver NHNZ's unique footage and stills to our emerging markets and our valued existing client base. There will be a strong focus on development of new technologies, whilst retaining and enhancing our ability to service the client, and provide the best cataloguing, search and delivery services available.Caroline has worked as a communications consultant for corporate and government organisations in Auckland and Wellington, and more recently with TVNZ. She has an extensive background at a senior level in media marketing, design, advertising, exhibitions and major event management. As director of the New Zealand International Science Festival in 2000 and 2001 and the Auckland Science Festival in 2001 she receiv Read more:Introducing
, Group
Superscavengers 2007-11-22 14:46:00 Wild, fast and fun, Super Scavengers takes in search of the truth - the real truth - about scavengers. Australian zoologist Chris Coupland is an authority on the Tasmanian Devil, a tough marsupial carnivore that's also a scavenger. Chris's day job is to care for, and educate the public, about these unique Australian animals. Interestingly, some biologists believe that only two animals have stronger jaws than the Tasmanian Devil, the great white shark and the hyena. Chris broadens his horizons in this programme, leaving Tasmania in search of the world's iconic scavenger species, including the vulture, dingo, jackal and hyena.Nature's great opportunists, scavengers are feared and loathed in the environments they inhabit. But Chris aims to change that as he teaches the world about the animals close to his heart. He will referee an eating competition between dingo pups; narrowly avoid giving his fingers to a Cape Griffin vulture; have his room trashed by a gang of p
Icebergs 2007-11-20 15:44:00 Icebergs and sheep. A strange combination even for a country renowned for its woolly quadrupeds. This footage results from two rather unusual events.In November 2006, icebergs were sighted 60 kilometres off the Dunedin coast, on the eastern side of New Zealand. This was a rare enough event in itself. It was thought that the parent of these icebergs had broken off the Ronne Ice Shelf in Antarctica six years previously and was disintegrating as it was carried by ocean currents far from home. Although visible from the hills around Dunedin to the naked eye, binoculars were better. But NHNZ staff decided to take to the air for an even better look. And some stunning shots resulted.They weren't the only ones making the most of the unusual occurrence…Shrek, a merino sheep who shot to stardom nearly three years earlier, celebrated his tenth birthday with another blade shearing on an iceberg 90 kilometres off the Dunedin coast. Shrek first lost his fleece for charity in 2004, amidst huge m
NHNZ agent for HD footage from Greg Hensley Productions 2008-02-19 17:30:00 Greg Hensley
Productions have over 30 years of footage filmed across America. NHNZ has represented Greg Hensley Productions since December 2000 but has only recently signed a contract to represent their HD collections. Hensley Productions are known for their time-lapse cinematography and wildlife footage in the remote areas of the United States. Hensley Productions has provided us with SD and HD 35mm stock footage.North America's celebrated bird of prey, the bald eagle, primarily eats fish and will scavenge from what it finds on river and lake shores in addition to catching it live. Unlike the distinctive adult, the plumage of the immature birds is brown specked with white until usually the fifth year. Hensley has footage of both mature and immature birds going about their daily li
NHNZ represents HD footage from Gulliver Media 2008-02-19 17:05:00 NHNZ has recently expanded its HD collection through becoming agents for several companies. Although having just recently joined the list of companies we represent, Gulliver Media have been independent film makers since 1981 and specialise in wildlife and natural history projects. Gulliver also produces a wide variety of educational video programs on topic areas such as ecosystems, conservation and sustainability. As well as filming Australian wildlife and landscapes, they have also filmed in China. Australian HD Australia's birds and wildlife are represented amongst the footage: from black necked storks and black cockatoos to wallabies and water buffalo. A wide range of domestic and native wildlife footage is available. Water buffalo were introduced into Australia in the 19th cent
The New Movers and Shakers in the HD Market 2008-01-21 15:49:00 Our recently revamped footage service, NHNZ Moving Images, is aiming to establish NHNZ as a leading supplier of quality, factual HD footage to the film industry. NHNZ is well known for leading the way in innovative factual television production. As an early adapter of new technology and to ensure maximum marketing versatility, it has been our policy for some years to shoot exclusively in HD at a frame rate of 25p for NHNZ-owned productions. Consequently, NHNZ owns an enviable and constantly growing collection of quality HD footage. This has now been greatly increased by NHNZ's HD Project, begun last year when we negotiated representation deals with some of the best international film makers and production houses to sell their HD stock footage thereby increasing our extensive collec Read more:Movers
, Shakers
, Market
China Footage 2008-03-17 20:00:00 A construction boom has been taking place in China
resulting in the investment in massive building projects, including ports, railways, roads, airports and commercial buildings and residential housing, is all designed to steamroll China's economy into the modern world. NHNZ now offers the first high definition footage from the Shanghai World Financial Center construction project. The building is an architectural marvel able to withstand typhoons, earthquakes and man-made disasters. Footage
is shot either from the ground or the 81st floor showing the latter stages of construction.
Construction of the Shanghai World Financial CenterThe stunning hi-def format conveys the magnitude of the project with non-stop activity 24 hours a day, a multitude of workers and multiple cons
Spot the Ghost 2008-03-31 22:03:00 Ghost
pipefish don't just imitate the form and colour of floating leaves - they mimic the dance of leaves stirred by gentle currents.They're so confident in their camouflage and choreography that they leave the original leaf behind, to dance their own way across the sea floor. They are found in warm tropical seas from Japan to South Africa. Ghost pipefishes resemble outstretched seahorses but have thin bodies and large fins. Female ghost pipefishes brood eggs in a pouch formed by the fusion of large pelvic fins. Pelvic fins which are absent in seahorses, and of course it is the male that broods the young.These still frame captures from NHNZ Images movie footage, don't really do justice to the floating, dancing, drifting nature of the sequence. Check out other fishy footage that is avai
Blue Sheep or Bharal 2008-03-31 22:02:00 In the Himalayan mountains predator and prey endure at the vertical limit of mammalian life on Earth. Here, only rock is in abundance. Every Himalayan life is precarious. Bharal (also known as Blue Sheep
) are at home on the shear cliffs where a predator in pursuit of prey risks plummeting to its own death Bharal are one of six different Himalayan species of mountain sheep and goat. They graze all over the mountains, but the key events in their lives happen in this vertical landscape. Bharal hooves are soft and rubbery for grip. Short legs reduce heat loss and lower the centre of gravity. To extract maximum oxygen from the thin air, Bharal blood is rich in red cells.Its gut generates heat as it digests. Hollow hair fibres retain that heat. The bharal's top coat is perfect camouflage. The ma
The Gobi Desert 2008-03-31 22:01:00 The sandy deserts of India are separated from the parched interior by the mighty Himalayas. In their rainshadow lie the deserts and dry grasslands of China and Mongolia. The stony Gobi Desert
is further from the sea than any place on earth. Fierce summers are followed by bitter winters. Gobi means "stony". Strong winds have stripped the soil, leaving only stones, polished to a shine by the fierce heat. Dust storms are frequent occurences and can sometimes be seen from space. The storms that we have on film are, of course nowhere near as big!NHNZ Images material from the Gobi Desert, originates from Mongolia and the northern extension of the Taklamakan desert, which lies in western China. The Gobi desert mammals we have in the stockshot library include goitered gazelle, mongolian gazell
Egg Stealer 2008-03-31 22:00:00 For six hundred years thick jungle hid the wonders of the great city of Polonnaruwa, in Sri Lanka. Today, the ruins are historical and religious treasures, and a sanctuary for hundreds of macaques, whose ancestors probably lived here when the city was young. They are a common sight and have a nickname of temple monkey. This is a toque macaque which belongs to one of many troops that live in the sanctuary.It's the females who know their home range intimately, who lead the group to feeding areas, under the watchful eyes of the males. The macaques can eat only a few kinds of leaves, but almost anything else! What they can't eat now, they store in large cheek pouches.It's vital for toques to raise many young - large troops can forage confidently, defend their food supplies, and more easily b Read more:Stealer
Przewalski's Truly Wild Horse 2008-03-31 21:59:00 A long winter is ending on the steppe grasslands of Mongolia. This is home to a wild animal the Mongolians know as takhi - the spirits. Westerners call them Przewalski's horses. They're the only true wild horses in the world. Other so-called wild horses are domesticated horses which have reverted to a feral existence.Takhi are distinguished by short upright manes and stripes on the backs of their legs. This still frame is from extensive film footage held at NHNZ Images.They're closely related to the ancestors of domestic horses, but takhi have never been tamed.Life seems idyllic, but it hasn't always been easy. In 1968, Przewalski's horses were driven to extinction in the wild. Since the early 1990's animals bred in zoos have been released in areas such as here, in Hustain Nuruu National Read more:Horse
Woody Woodpecker 2008-03-31 21:58:00 Like all woodpeckers the great spotted woodpecker has two toes pointing forward and two toes pointing backwards, which enable them to hop easily up and down tree trunks looking for insects just under the bark. This still from an NHNZ Images film was shot in Japan but could just as easily have been shot anywhere through northern Asia and Europe, as great spotted woodpeckers are widely distributed.Their characteristic drumming noise can be heard from a great distance. It is caused by repeated strong taps of the beak on branch or tree trunk, and is made by either male or female birds. It is both a method of locating insect prey within the tree, and as a territorial marker for other great spotted woodpeckers in the neighbourhood.As to the cartoon character, Wikipedia has the following to s Read more:Woody
, Woodpecker
There's Snow Monkeys, Like Snow Monkeys 2008-03-30 20:34:00 Both the lives of these Japanese macaques, or snow monkeys, and the forests that are their home, are ruled by the timing and the changing of the seasons of the temperate world. Macaques are perhaps the most adaptable of all monkeys. They colonized many parts of Asia from the tropics to the temperate forests adapting and changing as they went, they first arrived in Japan perhaps half a million years ago. Japanese macaques live in troops and move within a defined territory. Japanese macaques are different from other macaques. They're less inclined to squabble than their cousins who live in tropical forests.These northern macaques no longer have any natural predators, their biggest threat is winter itself. But the freezing winter temperatures are a hardship their thick fur and larger bo Read more:Monkeys
Popsicle, Sapsicle 2008-03-30 20:11:00 In a northern Japanese forest in early spring as the days begin to lengthen some trees begin to pump sap. But the air temperature is still many degrees below freezing, cold enough for icicles to form.Where maple branches have broken in a storm, icicles of sweet sap take shape; creating a tempting delicacy for small birds. As these still frames from an NHNZ Images film show a long tailed tit hovering under the sapsicle.Each icicle may last only a few days.The rising temperatures mean that even as a Japanese white eye licks at it, the frozen delicacy is already melting. The white eye has a curious piece of philatelic history associated with it. The Japanese white eye, Zosterops japonica, featured on a definitive stamp. The very closely related New Zealand silvereye Zosterops lateralis late Read more:Popsicle
Cool Liquid Lava 2008-03-30 20:09:00 An oceanic island is conceived deep in the ocean abyss. Lava spews from within the earth, solidifying, building a mountain under the sea. Across the immense basin of the Pacific, submarine mountains rise from the ocean floor. Moulded in dense black basalt oozing from fractures in the oceanic crust of the planet. Their hidden majesty dwarfs that of many of the greatest volcanoes on land.Only when such a seamount aspires to break the surface does the elemental clash of fire, water and wind begin. The tumult that may bring forth an oceanic island. There are perhaps as many mounts below the sea as the thousands that have won this battle to stand above the waves, but the attack of the sea is relentless. An embryo island may vanish in days or may establish well enough to survive a few thou Read more:Liquid
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