Went to a great informal workshop by Elisabeth Haviland James and John Biewen at the Southern Documentary Fund the other day.
They shared this article as a quick guide for finding and using archival footage. Here are the top three tidbits I took away from their talk:
1) Hire a professional archive researcher (if you can afford one).
They have relationships with the archives.
They know which archives have what type of material.
They can find the material you're looking for (and more) much faster than you can. Time is money.
They often get lower licensing rates than you would.
If you only need a small amount of footage (one scene, for instance), or if you can't afford to hire an archivist for the whole project, sometimes you can pay for a short consultation (two hours or so). Come with exactly what you're looking for and ask, "Where do I find this, this, and this..."
2) University libraries are underused sources for archival footage. A few that are particularly good sources: UCLA, Vanderbilt, Duke, UNC, University of South Carolina.
3) Be organized, be thorough, and be ahead of your deadlines.
