By Taylor Hefka, Senior Historian
You know the old saying: a picture is worth a thousand words. So, let’s do the math. An average feature film or documentary is about 24 frames per second. For a 90-minute movie, that’s about 129,600,000 words. An average page has about 500 words…convert that to pages…that is about 259,200 pages. Yet somehow the average script is only about 90 to 120 pages. Whoever said the book was better than the movie should be grateful that the book wasn’t 259,200 pages long.
Is an image really worth a thousand words? What is an image truly worth? As asset acquisition and archival production experts, we know the price and the process: licensing with stock companies like Getty, Alamy—the usual suspects—or other sources, tracking and planning in meticulous spreadsheets, the conversations with customer service representatives or archivists about a selected image or video. In those cases, the value is defined by the licensor according to the use case on some sort of pre-determined metrics.
But what is the visual asset, and its acquisition, actually worth?
Framing It Up
What is the value of a thousand words? What is more important: the words or the impact of those words? That is the point of the clichéd phrase. An image can capture a thousand things with a single moment frozen in time.
We live in a world where you need to make an impact quickly and grab (and keep!) the audience’s attention—but how? Balance. Balance between high impact and low impact images. The images that offer atmosphere create a narrative bridge between impactful ones. By having a variety of images, the audience will maintain interest because everything is not all one note.
Balance. Balance between high impact and low impact images. The images that offer atmosphere create a narrative bridge between impactful ones. By having a variety of images, the audience will maintain interest because everything is not all one note.
To continue with metaphors, not everything is Shakespeare (or the modern Shakespeare, Aaron Sorkin). Not every second, not every line, not every image holds the same weight or value. They vary. Do you remember every line of Romeo and Juliet? Or are you able to ramble off the highlights, like: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Do you remember every line of dialogue in the court room leading up to, “You can’t handle the truth!” in A Few Good Men (1992)? I doubt it. It’s the crescendo that leads us there and makes the moment. It’s the tension—the buildup.
Jack Nicholson in the crescendo scene of A Few Good Men (1992)
It’s rhetoric. It’s strategy. It’s a way to frame up the moment. Not every word needs to make the impact, and neither does every image. Not every image is created equally. It’s about finding the balance and variety.
Not every word needs to make the impact, and neither does every image. Not every image is created equally. It’s about finding the balance and variety.
Balance in the Budget
Striking this emotional balance can help balance the budget. Not every image needs to be the crème de la crème, which can provide content creators with a few inexpensive, yet impactful options. Balancing rhetorical strategies can help make the intended statement.
So, how do you strike an emotional chord when the topic or event may be overdone? Every few years, there are waves of documentaries and topics that explore the same event, theme, or individual. Some are released to coincide with a particular anniversary of an event. For example, there are hundreds of documentaries about Princess Diana’s life and death, most of which are released around the anniversary of her fateful Paris car crash in the summer of 1997. Each one uses similar images. Some are so similar it might even become mundane. The familiar images are bridges for the text, the dialogue, the action on the screen. So much has been written, spoken, and documented about her life that even season six of The Crown (2016-2023) seemed “overdone” to many. However, millions of viewers still gobble it up. Content must strike the balance between mundane and extraordinary. Even some documentaries, like the most recent The Princess (2022), used solely archival footage that was marketed as “unearthed” and “unseen” to forge a new perspective on her life.
Taken during a State Dinner in the Reagan White House in 1985, this photograph of Princess Diana and John Travolta is widely used. As a public domain image, it can make the rounds during periods of commemoration for the late royal.
To the non-archival producer, you may see the same image of an event or person a thousand times and not know why. Most of the time it’s because it’s in the public domain or it’s a cheaper asset from a specific photographer or videographer. It’s an inexpensive option for the documentary, but it might cheapen the impact of the image, the film, the message. In other contexts, these may be the only known or available images that exist.
We get it. Filmmakers, museum curators, or even textbook writers may not have financial support from major corporations or venture capitalists. Even PBS states in front of every show: “This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you!” The five-year-old watching Arthur (1996–2022) on Saturday morning is not contributing much to make the epic shows like Downton Abbey (2010–2015) or anything produced by Ken Burns. Burns and other filmmakers are looking to make an impact but on a smaller budget, which could lead to financial success if it hits the right emotional chord.
HAI as Archival Producers
How do you cut through the mundane, the waves of the “same,” to make the impact, but on a budget? You mine for the gems and uncover a different side of the story.
That’s where we come in. HAI has a team of experienced researchers and storytellers that can work with you to tell your story. No, we do not have exclusive access to repositories or have a database of thousands of images in our files like Getty. We are the ones who know how to navigate all the ins and outs of an image repository or archive to find that moment you want. Since we are the ones doing the digging, we can potentially find inexpensive options that might just happen to be hidden from the increasingly digital world we inhabit. We are the ones that can find your diamond in the rough—the perfect image.
We are the ones that can find your diamond in the rough—the perfect image.
The thing that will make the moment in the film—Humphrey Bogart’s “Here’s looking at you, kid,” or Renee Zellweger’s “You had me at ‘hello.’”
Once we find the image, we then negotiate with the necessary people to, as Marlon Brando said in The Godfather (1972): “[We’re] gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” so it’s ready for you and your story.
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Do you ever wonder what it’s like to be an HAI Historian? In another one of her blogs, Taylor explains what life is like (and what it’s NOT like) in her world.