Frequently Asked Questions

Obtaining a digital broadcast quality master of a historical film is a lengthy process which takes up to a month once the film has been identified. There is also no guarantee of the quality or condition of the film you will be given access to. Access Footage offers you an instant master once purchased for a similar price to the cost of scanning yourself. The screeners available on our website are created straight from our masters so you know exactly what your master will look like.

Yes, the purchasing company can reuse the footage as many times as they like within their productions.

The movie files you purchase are scanned from the original archival film element at the resolution stated on the film product page. We don’t upconvert any of our scans, they are all scanned at the resolution advertised.

HD films are available instantly on purchase via a download link.

Our 4K master files take up to 2 days to deliver to the customer as they are stored in a digital vault which takes time to restore. To satisfy urgent requests we make available a 2K ProRes 422 file instantly downloadable. All master downloads are available to download for a week from delivery.

You can right-click (or Ctrl-click on a Mac) on any video on the website and choose ‘Save Video As…’. In Safari the option is called ‘Download Video’.

Yes, we have a large collection of footage which is still making its way on to the website. Please email us if you have a film ID you are looking for or if you are looking for anything specific we can help with.

Our footage is sourced from public domain collections of the United States and we provide source information for every film in our catalogue. You can read our Public Domain Guide, which provides you with general information on ‘public domain’ and the collections we access for this website. Beyond this you should make your own assessment based on what guarantees are required for your broadcast needs.

Because order processing is carried out instantly we cannot offer refunds on purchases. Picture quality can be determined in advance by viewing the screener copy of the film.