Posted in: Movies | Tagged: film, getty, matrix, stock footage, superman returns, Warner Bros

Clips From Superman, Matrix And Countless Other Warner Bros. Movies Going Cheap

Published Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:41:19 -0500

Last updated Mon, 12 Aug 2013 06:41:27 -0500

Ben Mortimer writes for Bleeding Cool.

If you've ever wanted to use footage from Superman Returns, Watchmen or The Matrix for your own nefarious purposes, it would seem that you finally have the chance as Warner Bros. have made a hell of a lot of it available as stock footage via Getty.

Earlier this month, Twitter user @somebadideas posted this Tweet:

Matrix stock footage discovered in this music video then traced to Getty Images https://t.co/qLTrlUFVSQ via @keithscho

— Aaron Stewart-Ahn (@somebadideas) July 23, 2013

Which eventually led to a Twitter conversation and from there, to a page on Getty's website.

Where the story becomes really interesting is that, although the below shot is clearly from The Matrix Reloaded, there was nothing on the page that showed it being as such. Nor did it turn up in a search for the word "Matrix".

Which begged the question 'how much more identifiable stuff was on there?'

The clip was filed under the Warner Bros. Entertainment collection, so that seemed like a reasonable place to start looking. After trawling through 533 pages of clips, I've turned up footage from the following films:

The Goonies
Curly Sue
Lethal Weapon 3
Black Beauty
US Marshalls
Twister
Outbreak
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
Dukes of Hazzard
Superman Returns
Watchmen

As well as a clip from a film where James Stewart dresses up as a Klansman, which is probably FBI Story.

And that's just the stuff that I'm certain of. I'm sure other people will be able to spot even more movies in there.

There is a wrinkle to all of this, which is that the footage is available for 'editorial use', and footage that features people, or property may require additional permissions to use commercially. But some of it, apparently, might not.

What's really astonishing is just how obvious some of these clips are. Take for instance this one, of the Kent family mailbox from Superman Returns.

Or a Hazzard County sheriff's car from Dukes of Hazzard.

It's hard to work out what possible use those might have outside of their original context.

Other clips feature shots or sets so iconic that they're instantly recognisable like the SWAT raid on Roarschach's apartment in Watchmen.

Which was slightly reframed in the film.

Or the baby in the pod from The Matrix.

It's also striking just how many clips are available from some of these films, with about three pages of clips each from Watchmen, The Matrix Reloaded and Twister. And there's so much footage from the Matrix that you could almost recut your own version of the film. They even made available a shot of a model helicopter hitting a building.

And the plate shot it combines with.

We contacted Warner Bros about this, and as it turns out, this was entirely intentional. We were told by a spokesperson that, "since 2007, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Getty have a long-standing agreement, offering people a convenient way to access and license stock footage and stills from many of the Studio's award-winning movies and television programs."

They were also at pains to point out "there are clear usage parameters that Getty customers must adhere to when licensing such materials."

Here's a full gallery of the samples we spotted.