Stock footage
From Transformers Wiki
Stock footage refers to a sequence in film or television that can be frequently re-used, occasionally in multiple different productions. It is commonly used in animation to save the time and expense of having to re-draw sequences that are more or less assured to take place in every single episode.
In Japan, these sequences are referred to as Bank system (バンクシステム Banku Sisutemu).
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Japanese series
In the context of Transformers, it applies to most of the Japanese-made anime series: The Headmasters, Super-God Masterforce, Victory, Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, 2001 Robots in Disguise, and the Unicron Trilogy shows. These series would showcase the same clips of characters transforming, combining, or deploying unique weapons. These sequences often transport the characters to a setting different from the actual events of that part of the episode, as the background fades away and is replaced by streaking speedlines and flashes of color. However the same stock footage can still be used with different backgrounds. Armada contains numerous examples of this, such as Burning Megatron's stock footage appearing atop a mountain originally, having a blue streaking flashy background in the Japanese intro, and later still a Galvatron colored version with a different bluish-streaking flashy background. Story elements also sometimes end up integrated into a given sequence during one of its appearances.
Stock footage sequences typically have more detail, higher frame rates, and more stylised poses than the standard storytelling animation surrounding them. This is the method in which Japanese marketing has decided a toy's gimmicks are best highlighted in these advertoons.
Munetaka Abe animated most stock sequences for Beast Wars II after joining production half-way through its run; he would later animate the sequences for Beast Wars Neo, Robots in Disguise, and Armada. He would also animate the hand-drawn combinations of Superion, Constructicon, and Bruticus Maximus in the Energon episode "Distribution", though these would only be used once.
The English dub for Galaxy Force (AKA Cybertron) often poked fun at the practice, having characters narrate their filler stock footage in ways that implied boredom or curiosity ("Why do we always go this way?"), or simply filled excessively-long sequences with snappy patter among the characters involved. Of course, Cybertron was particularly egregious in its dependence on using stock footage to fill time like the visual equivalent of styrofoam peanuts.
Abe would return to create stock footage sequences for the Japanese release of Animated. Health-and-warning cards placed before episodes would be accompanied by new, anime-influenced transformations of various different characters. Not unlike the footage used in its American counterpart noted below, some of these sequences would only be used once.
American series
This practice is different from the stock animations used in the original Generation 1 cartoon and the CGI-animated Beast Wars show. The original cartoon used pre-canned transformations employed over different backgrounds depending on the situation, without any cutscenes. Not surprisingly, the most notable of these is a transformation sequence for Optimus Prime which was used in both directions (truck to robot, and robot to truck); however, others can be found, primarily throughout season 1, due to the smaller cast.
Beast Wars often used "standard" sets of model movements for the characters' transformations from beast to robot mode to save the animators time. However, these animations were not stock footage; each sequence had to be rendered out normally as any other each time they occurred, using different camera angles with the characters in the same scenery as they were before and after they transformed.
In the Animated cartoon, most characters do have stock footage versions of their transformation sequences, but their usage has been the exception rather than the rule. For instance, the series' opening credits shows a great deal of stock footage that has rarely, or never, appeared in the actual cartoon. In this context, "Human Error, Part I" stands out for its egregious use of stock footage to pad the episode out—including full stock footage transformations for the hallucinatory Starscream and Megatron, as well as retooled versions of previous sequences which were used to depict the Autobots reverting from their human avatars to their robot forms—yeah, that's right, for an event that only happens once.
A recurring stock footage sequence is frequently used in the Rescue Bots cartoon. It consists of all of the main cast going from robot to vehicle mode with a colored anime action line streak background. A second recurring stock footage sequence depicts each of the Rescue Bots leaving the firehouse, each time in the same order. This sequence can vary depending on circumstances, such as time of day or if one of the Bots is already at the location. Additionally, most of the individual Rescue Bot transformations—with the exception of those that occur in-motion, such as Chase's backflip from "Under Pressure" and the titles—use stock sequences within the scene, and even intermixed with other characters and other stock transformations.
The 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon occasionally uses stock footage of the main Autobots transforming, usually for dramatic effect. What shows up in most episodes, however, is a brief clip in which Fixit accesses the Alchemor's prisoner manifest, accompanied by a brief sequence of random Decepticon silhouettes before settling on the Decepticon in question.
The Cyberverse cartoon gives each of the main characters an occasional stock transformation sequence accompanied by anime speed lines, not dissimilar to those of its predecessors.
Notes
- The first use of out-of-universe transformation stock footage in Transformers was in the Headmasters episode "Daniel Faces His Biggest Crisis Ever!!", with Apeface and Snapdragons' introductory transformation sequences; depicting them transforming in a blackened abyss. Some would possibly argue that "Head On!! Fortress Maximus" was the first use of this, during Fortress Maximus's first transformation, but Battleship Maximus was shown entering Earth's upper atmosphere prior to transforming, so the starry space backdrop is still set in-universe.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Bank system (バンクシステム Banku Sisutemu), Bank (バンク Banku)
External links
- Stock footage on Wikipedia
