![Lucy desi 1957](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Lucy_desi_1957.JPG)
A film still (sometimes called a publicity still or a production still) is a
photograph
A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
, taken on or off the set of a
movie
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
or
television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...
during
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
. These photographs are also taken in formal studio settings and venues of opportunity such as film stars' homes, film debut events, and commercial settings. The photos were taken by
studio photographers for
promotional purposes. Such stills consisted of posed portraits, used for public display or free fan handouts, which are sometimes autographed. They can also consist of posed or candid images taken on the set during production, and may include stars, crew members or directors at work.
The main purpose of such publicity stills is to help studios advertise and promote their new films and stars. Studios therefore send those photos along with
press kit
A press kit, often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials that provide information about a person, company, organization or cause and which is distributed to members of the media for pr ...
s and free passes to as many movie-related publications as possible so as to gain free publicity. Such photos were then used by newspapers and magazines, for example, to write stories about the stars or the films themselves. Hence, the studio gains free publicity for its films, while the publication gains free stories for its readers.
Types
Shots can be taken as part of the filming or separately posed. During the course of filming, the still photographer takes shots of on-stage scenes. These photographs are called production stills. Another type of still generated during filming is the off-stage shot. The photographer takes these while actors are between takes, still in costume. Separately posed stills include a wide variety of shots. Many of these have self-explanatory designations: seasonal gag shots, leg art, fashion stills, commercial tie-ups, poster art, clinch shots (special posing for print advertising) candids (done normally with one source lighting—think snapshot) and in-costume studies (most economically done off-stage in a sound stage corner or more formally in a studio setting). By far the most popular of these many kinds of film stills are those portraying glamour, menace or gag interpretations.
Other separately posed images include “set” stills, make-up stills and wardrobe stills. These stills are used for matching from scene to scene, or for recreating a scene later for a re-take. All details of the set, the costume and the cast make-up have to be exact, and these stills serve as a useful resource to get that accomplished. Background “plates” or “stereos” (not a reference to
stereoscopic
Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the depth perception, illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stere ...
3D, but to large-format
stereopticon
A stereopticon is a slide projector or relatively powerful "magic lantern", which has two lenses, usually one above the other, and has mainly been used to project photographic images. These devices date back to the mid 19th century, and were a popu ...
2D slide projection), another type of still, enable the studio to create location scenes without leaving the premises, thus reducing the ultimate cost of production.
Still photographers
![Cary Grant Myrna Loy Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Cary_Grant_Myrna_Loy_Mr_Blandings_Builds_His_Dream_House_1948.JPG)
Movie still photography is considered a separate branch of movie making, that of marketing: "a
still photographer
A unit still photographer, or simply a still photographer, is a person who creates film stills, still photographic images specifically intended for use in the marketing and publicity of feature films in the motion picture industry and network te ...
usually works on set but is not directly involved in the making of a film. His role is to publicize, through his pictures, film and actors on magazines, newspapers and other media."
Film producer and cinematographer Brian Dzyak explains that the group of people who work on a film are referred to as the "company" or "unit." Among the professionals who are assigned to the unit, one is a "unit still photographer," whose job is to take still photos that the studios will later use for marketing. They may take photos during rehearsals or while standing next to the cameraman during filming of
take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.
Film
In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...
s. For glamour publicity stills, given out to the public and press to promote a particular star, "special shoots" are made in separate studios, containing controlled lighting, backgrounds, clothing and furnishings.
Although the still photographer shares a number of skills and functions with the cinematographer, their work is essentially very different. The cinematographer is concerned with filming short scenes that will later be edited into an entire movie. The still photographer is primarily concerned with capturing dramatic photos that will draw attention when used on posters, DVD covers, and advertising. Studios would therefore assign a still photographer to a production, and in some cases as many as five still photographers worked on the same film.
Some stars, including
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...
, chose which photographer they wanted, in her case, Robert Coburn. Other notable still photographers were
George Hurrell
George Edward Hurrell (June 1, 1904 – May 17, 1992) was a photographer who contributed to the image of glamour (presentation), glamour presented by Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life
Born in the Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Walnut ...
and
Clarence Bull, known for being
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
's chosen photographer.
[Pepper, Terence, and Kobal, John. ''The Man Who Shot Garbo'', Simon and Schuster (1989)] Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
recalls her feelings when he also photographed her:
Purposes
![A pile of photos on the blanket](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/A_pile_of_photos_on_the_blanket.jpg)
The major and minor film studios have always used still photos of stars, typically in a posed portrait, to send to the media to create "a buzz" for both their stars and any new films they were appearing in. Studios "sent out tens of thousands of scene stills and portraits to newspapers, magazines, and fans each year. Such photographs were rarely marked with the photographer's name or with a credit line."
[''Hollywood glamour, 1924-1956'', Elvehjem Museum of Art, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison (1987)]
Accordingly, the studio publicity departments used the stills "to sell a product," namely, a "particular film or an individual actor or actress." The distinction is relevant: "While the scene stills and on-the-set candid shots would be used to sell the movie, the portraits could be used to introduce a would-be star to an international audience. . . . The portrait photographer's function was to create and sell the image created by a publicity department around the life and look of a real person." The photos portrayed a star "without a role to hide behind. . .
nd the photographerhad to recognize the image which would serve as the essence of a lengthy publicity campaign, capturing it in a fraction of a second." The glamour close-up would become "Hollywood's principal contribution to still portraiture."
[
Beyond basic publicity purposes, film stills were given to the actors themselves to send, signed or unsigned, to their fans and fan clubs. At various special events, stars might bring along a stack of these studio photos to sign in the presence of admirers, much like book signings by authors today.
In addition, directors and casting directors involved with placing appropriate actors in the film roles still rely on film stills to help them recall the detailed looks of actors. This is similar to the way magazine or TV advertisers rely on stills taken of professional models. Typically, a film still included a separate profile sheet describing the physical details of the actor along with a brief bio. The directors would then collect their best choices and schedule interviews and auditions.
]
Artistic significance
Maxine Ducey, film archive director, has summarized the significance and contributions of the early film stills to the film industry:
Copyright
United States
Public domain
As explained by film production manager Eve Light Honthaner, prior to 1989 publicity photos taken to promote a film actor or other celebrity were not usually copyrighted, and were intended to remain free for publications to use wherever possible:
Honathaner distinguishes "Publicity Photos (star headshots)" from "Production Stills (photos taken on the set of the film or TV show during the shooting)", noting that production stills "must be cleared with the studio".[ Creative Clearance offers the same text as Honathaner, but adds that newer publicity stills may contain a copyright.
In 2007, media lawyer Nancy Wolff, wrote with respect to the "photo archive of entertainment industry publicity pictures, historic still images widely distributed by the studios to advertise and promote their then new releases":
]It has been assumed that these images are most likely in the public domain or owned by studios that freely distributed the images without any expectation of compensation. Archives will lend these images for a fee to publishers and producers of documentaries for 'editorial' uses, in keeping with the original intent to publicize the movie or promote the actor. Seeing these images in print years later, some photographers, or their heirs, attempt to assert rights that most believed to be extinguished or abandoned.
As a result, she indicates:
There is a vast body of photographs, including but not limited to publicity stills, that have no notice as to who may have created them.... Without knowing where the photos came from, or what long lost parent may appear and claim the 'orphaned work,' licensing the work becomes risky business. For publishers, museums, and other archives that are risk-averse, this leads to a large body of works that will never be published.
Film historian Gerald Mast
Gerald Mast (May 13, 1940 – September 1, 1988) was an author, film historian, and member of the University of Chicago faculty. He was a contributor to the modern discipline of film studies and film history.
Life and career
Mast was born in Los ...
explains how the new 1989 copyright revisions only protected publicity works that complied with all earlier requirements in addition to filing a copyright registration within 5 years of first publication:
According to the old copyright act, such production stills were not automatically copyrighted as part of the film and required separate copyrights as photographic stills. The new copyright act similarly excludes the production still from automatic copyright but gives the film's copyright owner a five-year period in which to copyright the stills. Most studios have never bothered to copyright these stills because they were happy to see them pass into the public domain, to be used by as many people in as many publications as possible."[Mast, Gerald. "Film Study and the Copyright Law", from ''Cinema Journal'', Winter 2007, pp. 120-127]
In the 2011 Eighth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts:
* Eastern District of Arkansas
* Western Distr ...
case '' Warner Bros. Entertainment v. X One X Productions'', the court recognized that a selection of publicity stills from two 1939 films were in the public domain because they had not been published with the required notice, or because their copyrights had not been renewed. Although Warner Bros. argued otherwise, the court found that these stills did not share the films' valid copyrights, and that the images' dissemination constituted general publication without notice. Other arguments related to derivative uses of the images were upheld, and an injunction against X One X was granted because certain "products combining extracts from the public domain materials in a new arrangement infringe the copyright in the corresponding film". The decision quoted from ''Nimmer on Copyright
''Nimmer on Copyright'' is a multi-volume legal treatise on United States copyright law that is widely cited in American courts, and has been influential for decades as the leading secondary source on American copyright law.
The work was originall ...
'', which explains that, while films were generally registered for copyright protection, "much less care was typically exercised during production and in the publicity office" with photographs taken of the actors on set being "sent off to newspapers before the film’s release, in order to generate a buzz about its opening."[Citing Nimmer, David. ]Nimmer on Copyright
''Nimmer on Copyright'' is a multi-volume legal treatise on United States copyright law that is widely cited in American courts, and has been influential for decades as the leading secondary source on American copyright law.
The work was originall ...
,§ 4.13 3]
Fair use
Kristin Thompson, reporting as the chair of an ad hoc committee on fair use organized by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies The Society for Cinema and Media Studies (formerly the Society for Cinema Studies) is an organization of professors and scholars. Its home office is at the University of Oklahoma, but it has members throughout the world.
SCMS holds an annual confer ...
, contends "that it is not necessary for authors to request permission to reproduce frame enlargements. . . ndsome trade presses that publish educational and scholarly film books also take the position that permission is not necessary for reproducing frame enlargements and publicity photographs."[Thompson, Kristin]
"Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Society For Cinema Studies, "Fair Usage Publication of Film Stills" "Society for Cinema and Media Studies", 1993 conference
Thompson also notes that even if such images are not already public domain, they could be considered "fair use" under provisions of US law:
In addition, Thompson refers to the argument that the burden of proof of copyright for such publicity images would fall on the studios producing them:
See also
* Movie stills photographer
A unit still photographer, or simply a still photographer, is a person who creates film stills, still photographic images specifically intended for use in the marketing and publicity of feature films in the motion picture industry and network tele ...
* Sound blimp
A sound blimp is a housing attached to a camera which reduces sounds, such as shutter click on SLR cameras, and motors on motion picture cameras. It is primarily used in film still photography, so as not to interfere with the shooting of princi ...
* Film frame
In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a frame is one of the many ''still images'' which compose the complete ''moving picture''. The term is derived from the historical development of film stock, in which the sequentia ...
* Still frame
In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a frame is one of the many '' still images'' which compose the complete '' moving picture''. The term is derived from the historical development of film stock, in which the sequenti ...
(film & video)
References
External links
Still Photographer Studio Contract
at The Ned Scott Archive
Ned Scott (April 16, 1907 – November 24, 1964) was an American photographer who worked in the Hollywood film industry as a still photographer from 1935–1948. As a member of the Camera Club of New York from 1930–34, he was heavily influe ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Film Still
Photography by genre
Still
A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been used ...
Still
A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been used ...
Still
A still is an apparatus used to distill liquid mixtures by heating to selectively boil and then cooling to condense the vapor. A still uses the same concepts as a basic distillation apparatus, but on a much larger scale. Stills have been used ...
Publicity