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The Footage.net Research Dashboard:
Your Home Base for Research and Collaboration
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“The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.”
– Clifford Stoll, Newsweek, 1995
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Three decades on from the introduction of the internet, there can be no denying that Clifford Stoll got it wrong. The internet has changed our lives profoundly. It has changed how we work, how we connect, how we learn… and it’s done it all quicker than any of us could have expected in 1995, when astronomer, educator, and author Clifford Stoll wrote his infamous article “Why the Web Won’t Be Nirvana” for Newsweek in early 1995.
The truth is, in 2025, most of us haven’t picked up a paper copy of The New York Times, YouTube and other streaming platforms have become critical tools for learning both in and out of the classroom, and every critical function of government now relies heavily on network and internet tools. But that’s not all that’s changed. Look around, and it’s hard to ignore just how much our lives and the internet have woven together, and in few places has the change come more dramatically than in research and archival access.
There was a time not long ago when looking into an archive was a tactile and physical experience. A trip to a library, or a repository a necessary step in the research and documentary process. Today, thanks in no small part to discovery platforms like Footage.net and the hard work of the wonderful and varied archives it accesses, it has never been easier to find, source, and utilize the amazing well of archival material available to us all.
Footage.net is a lot of things to a lot of people. Our Zap Email requests have become a critical tool for researchers, journalists, and documentarians across the United States and around the world. Our aggregated search features make finding the best and most germane pieces of footage easier than it has ever been, and have connected archives with the right customers in a way never before possible.
Now, it’s easier than ever to harness that capability through the Footage.net Research Dashboard. Accessible via a dedicated menu bar button from nearly any page of Footage.net, via the primary site menu, or by URL at Footage.net/dashboard, the Research Dashboard is built to be your home base through the entire research and licensing process.
There are endless ways to harness the power of your Research Dashboard. Explore your recently viewed clips to find that one piece of footage you saw once and now can’t get out of your head, or look back on your Zap Requests going back as far as 2020 to rediscover that wonderful archive that made a project come together. And if you’ve moved to a new job, or a new project? Don’t lose years of work done through Footage.net — go into the Account tab in your Research Dashboard to update your email and contact info, and keep your account with you, instead of abandoning it to a long-forgotten or abandoned email account.
And keep your research and projects organized through Saved Clips, an immensely powerful tool that lets you organize clips and materials from across archives into folders for specific projects, clients, or any other way you’d like. Then, share clips and folders with collaborators and partners using the Send Saved Clips button, which generates an easy-to-share URL that can be added to project management software like Monday or Jira, or shared directly. And when you’re ready, use Send Clip Requests directly from your Saved Clips to generate custom inquiries for your entire project in just two clicks, connecting you directly with archives around the world — saving you valuable time and energy.
The introduction of the internet has been unrivaled in its impact, but it has also created a daunting reality we must now face together. Having access to tools that help you parse the overwhelming world we now find ourselves in, and tools like the Footage.net Research Dashboard are here to make navigating that world a little bit easier.
| | Mary Egan to Step Down as FOCAL’s Director of Operations | | After 9 years at the helm, Mary Egan is stepping down as FOCAL International’s Director of Operations, effective December 2025. | | Since 2017, Mary’s commitment and dedication have helped FOCAL go from strength to strength. Her outreach and recruitment acumen have seen global membership expand and flourish. Mary’s organisation of workshops, meetings, events and parties, including the prestigious annual FOCAL International Awards, has continued to raise our profile, champion our cause and spotlight our presence in the archive industry. FOCAL is very sad to see her go and sends heartfelt thanks for all her hard work. We wish Mary all the best for the future. | | FOCAL will shortly be inviting applications for a new Director of Operations, commencing December 2025. Full job description can be found linked below. For initial enquiries, please contact executive@focalint.org | | Digitising Unseen Reuters News Content from Bureaux Around the World | | Reuters Screenocean are working on a large scale digisation project uncovering a wide range of new and unseen footage from Reuters news bureaux around the world. From iconic historical moments to striking aerial shots and vivid crowd scenes spanning decades. Some of our highlights include: | |
- Visnews camera operators in action in the Gulf
- Princess Diana in Bosnia
- Serb forces enter Srebrenica
- Madrid’s running of the bulls and matadors
| | Our weekly newsletter delivers the top handpicked highlights of the week, showcasing our latest digitised content for you to browse and license. | |
Punk Turns 50
Celebrating Half a Century of Rebellion
| | Fifty years ago, punk rock exploded onto the music scene in New York and London. Offering a counterpoint to the highly produced music of the 1970s, bands like The Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash played fast, loud, and simple songs that spoke to youth who felt left out by society. They proved you didn't need fancy equipment or years of training to make music that mattered. | | Robin Graubard captured New York's punk scene at its most iconic. Her 1976 NYU film school project, shot in color at Max's Kansas City, preserves rare early performances by The Ramones and Talking Heads, along with interviews with Tommy Ramone and the club's booking agent, Peter Crowley. She continued documenting the movement into the early 1980s at CBGB, the Bowery club that became the epicenter of American punk. Here’s a selection from her footage. | | The Slits Viv Albertine and Ari Up perform at Foxes Greyhound, England,1977. Photo by Greg Smith | | Greg Smith arrived in London in 1977 and became an accidental eyewitness to the explosive punk rock movement. Camera in hand, he became a fixture at legendary underground venues like the 100 Club and The Marquee, capturing the raw energy and anti-establishment defiance of bands including Adam and the Ants, The Slits, Generation X, and Crass. His photographs appeared in Sounds and New Musical Express before being stored away for four decades. Here is a selection of Greg Smith’s photographs. | | The History of Rock and Roll Interview Archives features firsthand accounts from punk icons including John Lydon, Exene Cervenka, and Malcolm McLaren, alongside other musicians and industry insiders who reflect on the movement's impact and groundbreaking cultural explosion. See the interviews. | | A crowd of people outside CBGB in Manhattan in the early 1980's. Photo by Robin Graubard | These collections, amongst other GIW holdings, offer rare glimpses into punk's most vital era—from intimate club performances to candid interviews with the movement's key figures. Global ImageWorks is proud to preserve and share these essential documents of a cultural revolution that changed music forever. Contact us to learn more about both our offline and online punk material. Explore the Collections. | | StormStock’s Climate Change Footage Available on Premium Formats up to 16K | As climate change continues to impact people around the world, it becomes increasingly important to educate those who don’t yet understand the magnitude of the event. “A lot of people have asked me if climate change is real,” said StormStock founder Martin Lisius. “And the answer is, yes, it is real. Climatology is a slow science, meaning it takes years of data to identify significant trends. It is not quick to understand like meteorology, where trends can be identified in hours, and sometimes in just minutes. Thankfully, we now have enough information to verify that it is real.” | The greatest impact of climate change is the modification of what was “normal” in a certain region. Some locations across the world will see hotter or colder, wetter or drier climates that people there are not accustomed to. “That impacts infrastructure and everyday life,” Lisius said. | | To help tell the story, Lisius and his team have shot and archived various weather events, including hurricanes, floods, drought, thunderstorms, and blizzards on premium video formats from 4K up to 16K. The 16K video production method was developed in-house “from scratch” in order to create a format that was completely immersive and down-scalable for any application. | | Historic Films Makes Available Long Lost Television and Documentary Footage | Soap Factory was a groundbreaking late 1970s dance/disco program filmed live at an East Coast disco that was once an actual soap factory. Its slick production presented major recording stars of the day, and unlike other pre-recorded 1970s disco TV programs, Soap Factory presented energetic, in-the-moment Live performances. It is truly an important document of the era's music, fashion, and dancing. Historic Films has located 75 episodes, acquired from the original production company, DMB Productions. Performers include: Chaka Khan, Sugar Hill Gang, Blondie, Van McCoy, Sister Sledge, Vicki Sue Robinson, Kool & The Gang, Norma Jean, Candi Staton, Gloria Gaynor, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Ritchie Family, Grace Jones, and many more. | | Varda Bar-Kar’s Anna Nicole Smith Archive | | In 1993, a proposed documentary entitled “The Last Bombshell,” following the controversial celebrity Anna Nicole Smith, was in production. With the full cooperation of Smith and her closest friends, many hours of intimate and behind-the-scenes footage were shot. Though the film was never completed, the one-of-a-kind footage stands as the most revealing and intimate document in existence of the actress and the world she inhabited. This rare footage is now available for licensing exclusively through Historic Films. | | Bridgeman Images Partners with Leeds Animation Workshop | | Bridgeman Images is pleased to announce a new partnership with Leeds Animation Workshop, a UK-based independent, not-for-profit collective that has been producing animated films for over four decades. | | Founded in 1978 by a group of women in Leeds, the Workshop is known for its distinctive hand-drawn animation and its focus on social issues including gender equality, racism, mental health, environmental awareness, familial dynamics, workers’ rights and more. Its films are used widely by educators, community organizations, museums and other cultural institutions. | | The Leeds Animation Workshop archive represents an important part of feminist and community filmmaking history, offering a unique record of social change from the late 1970s to today. Bridgeman Images will make a curated selection, featuring a mix of both their earliest and most recent films, available for licensing, covering important social, political and culture topics with unique style and heart. | This partnership adds a new dimension to the Bridgeman collections and expands the definition of art representation within its footage offering, recognizing vintage animation as both an artistic and cultural document of our times. | | |
Claus von Bülow: The Scandal That
Shook High Society
| | Claus von Bülow, a Danish-born socialite, became the center of one of the most sensational legal dramas of the 1980s when he was accused of attempting to murder his wife, Martha “Sunny” von Bülow. On December 22, 1980, family members found Martha unconscious in the bathroom of the family's Newport, Rhode Island home. | Claus was convicted in 1982 of injecting her with insulin. His conviction was overturned in 1985 after a high-profile appeal led by attorney Alan Dershowitz, and he was acquitted at a second trial that same year. The case made von Bülow a household name, raising questions about wealth, privilege, and justice. He lived quietly in London after the trial, while Sunny remained in a coma until her death in 2008. | Click here to explore CNN’s archival footage of the Claus von Bülow case, or visit cnnnewsource.com/digital-collection/ to request coverage from one of our experienced licensing specialists | |
About Us
Footage.net is an online footage search and discovery platform dedicated to connecting footage customers with the world's leading providers of archival, news, and stock footage. Launched in 1996, Footage.net allows users to explore footage collections from existing footage companies through our unified search platform, and connects customers and footage providers directly through our Zap Request service, making footage research fast, effective, and productive.
We strive to make the world’s best stock, news, and archival footage searchable from a single site and give footage users the tools they need to discover and license the best footage in the world.
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