Where did the horsefly shot from Spongebob's Wormy come from
Apr 7, 2024 0:28:28 GMT
GINTegg, angiefoodcake, and 1 more like this
Post by thekingofallfrogs on Apr 7, 2024 0:28:28 GMT
I don't think Spongebob needs an introduction here, let alone the infamous close up shot of a notch-horned cleg from the Season 2 episode "Wormy" but where exactly did this clip come from?
What we know about it is that it was distributed by Oxford Scientific Films under its Photolibrary Ptd label on Getty Images and was previously distributed by the now-defunct Energy Film Library, and that stock footage of it was used in a Bill Nye episode about insects alongside other stock footage of insects or other arthropods. But educational series, documentaries, or films tend to reuse stock images/footage so it didn't originate with Bill Nye. Oxford Scientific Films is notable for its nature documentaries made for the BBC, National Geographic, PBS, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet; with their most successful project being "Meerkat Manor".
I checked around the library and found stock footage of tiger beetles and other insects (mostly native to that have the same film quality. Some of these even have audio which have different British narrators (depending on the clip) and 80s/early 90s ambient music playing in the background. Of course Getty Images does not label the origin of the clips at hand, but if we know they came from nature documentaries, then what were they from? I think I found a potential lead because the label has put up two clips by accident which showcase title cards of some TV documentary which are both titled "Eating Habits" and "Defence and Camoflauge".
I also noticed how a clip of a mantis was used in one of those videos and how you can find a separate clip of the mantis in another video. Along with that the mantis clip, the horsefly close up and some other insect footage (including another shot of a monarch and postman butterfly that was also used in "Wormy") also come in different aspect ratios, 16:9 (the clean original footage) and 4:3 (what it was meant to look like on broadcast). Strangely some of these don't have cleaner versions and are only avaliable in lower-quality and more grainy 4:3 footage, meaning that these are probably.
Is this a lead to finding the nature documentary where the footage originated or does the footage from Wormy come from an unrelated documentary produced by the same studio? I found some footage of a tiger beetle on both the normal Oxford label and the Photolibrary label, where the former has narration and the latter does not.
I know that the filmography of Oxford Scientific Films is pretty big so it's probably hard to find which ones might contain the footage, let alone a physical or digital copy. But I'd like to know where the original clip can be definitively traced to.
My findings:
* www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/insects-feeding-edited-story-special-rates-apply-stock-video-footage/143497794 and www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/insect-defence-and-camouflage-edited-story-special-stock-video-footage/143497795 (the clips of stock footage containing the title cards)
* www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/preying-mantis-catching-housefly-stock-video-footage/83064507 (the mantis clip)
* www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/horsefly-head-showing-compound-eyes-stock-video-footage/142306342 (the 4:3 clip of the horsefly closeup)
* www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/monarch-butterfly-and-postman-butterfly-on-flower-stock-video-footage/83064499 (a 16:9 clip of some butterflies) and www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/milkweed-butterfly-and-heliconid-butterfly-feeding-stock-video-footage/142306126 (another shot from the same session that is only available in 4:3)
* www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/high-speed-green-tiger-beetle-in-flight-hovering-stock-video-footage/153472522 (a clip of tiger beetle with narration) and www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/high-speed-tiger-beetle-in-flight-silhouetted-then-stock-video-footage/142360170 (a clip without narration)