Stock footage can be used to integrate news footage or notable figures into a film. For instance, the
Academy Award-winning film
Forrest Gump used stock footage extensively, modified with
computer-generated imagery to portray the lead character meeting such historic figures such as
John F. Kennedy,
Richard Nixon, and
John Lennon. News programs use film footage from their libraries when more recent images are not available. Such usage is often labeled on-screen with an indication that the footage being shown is file footage. Television and movies series also often recycle footage taken from previous installments. For instance, the
Star Trek franchise kept a large collection of starships, planets, backgrounds, and explosions, which would appear on a regular basis throughout Star Trek's five series and ten films, being used with minimal alteration. That kept production costs down as models, mattes, and explosions were expensive to create. The advances in computer graphics in the late 1990s and early 2000s helped to significantly reduce the cost of Star Trek's production and allowed for a much wider variety of shots than previous model and painting-based visuals. Other films that re-used film footage from previous productions include
Transformers: Dark of the Moon,
Blade Runner,
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones,
Hitman,
Jaws: The Revenge,
Halloween II,
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 & 2 and ''
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure''. Some series, particularly those made for children, such as
Teletubbies, reuse footage that is shown in many episodes. Meant for a young audience, the approach increases viewers' familiarity between shows. This introduces problems such as the requirement to, for example, wear the same clothing and inconsistency can sometimes become a problem. When cleverly filmed it is possible to avoid many of these problems. Many broadcast shows use stock-footage clips as
establishing shots of a particular city, which imply that the show is shot
on location when in fact, it may be shot in a backlot studio. One or two establishing shots of an exotic location such as the
Great Wall of China,
Easter Island, or
French Polynesia will save production companies the major costs of transporting crew and equipment to those actual locations. Stock footage is often used in commercials when there is not enough money or time for production. More often than not these commercials are political or issue-oriented in nature. Sometimes it can be used to
composite moving images that create the illusion of having on-camera performers appear to be on location. The term
B-roll may refer to stock footage or newly shot scenes. Stock footage that appears on television screens or monitors shown in movies or television shows is referred to as "playback". In
Power Rangers or
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which was written by and starring
Will Ferrell as a
San Diego news anchor, the studio purchased archival 1970s clips from San Diego stock footage firm New & Unique Videos. The playback footage of a hurricane featured in Disney's
Smart House came from the vaults of the same San Diego firm. Stock footage also appears many a time in animated series which is mostly a transition to live-action stock footage. One of the most common uses of stock footage is in documentaries. Use of stock footage allows the filmmaker to tell the story of historical events such as
World War II Why We Fight series, to document modern
underwater archaeology activities, or to supplement content in
natural history documentaries. Budgets may not be sufficient to keep a production crew on site for long-term projects, and stock footage allows the producer to pick the moments in time that are most important to the story or to give context to historical events. Several films that would otherwise be completely lost have
surviving footage due to the film being used as a stock footage. For example,
The Cat Creeps has some scenes preserved in the movie
Boo, and scenes from
Queen of the Night Clubs are preserved as stock footage in
Winner Take All. If not for its use as stock footage, these films would be lost entirely. Stock footage is also used in live reality TV shows such as ''
I'm a Celebrity''. In the early 2020s, stock footage of
studio audience applause and reactions was used in television shows in place of a live studio audience due to the then-current
COVID-19 pandemic. ==Corporate usage==