The Briefing Room

RICHMOND, VA — A brand new stock footage service, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, recently launched on-line to license new, royalty-free full-color historical recreation footage covering multiple periods. All of the footage available from the site is of brand new historical re-enactments, covering events from 1607 Jamestown to the Vietnam War, not the antique footage available from most stock footage suppliers.

“I realized that there was no other exclusive repository of newly-shot historical re-enactment footage available anywhere else for use in film, television and documentaries, and I knew there was a real need,” says footage owner and manager Kevin R. Hershberger. “In the past few years I have worked with producers for networks like Discovery, National Geographic and The History Channel to provide footage that I already owned and could license to help their projects. In the past year, I got more and more calls, and knew that producers of historical films and documentaries were looking for fresh new recreation footage, and that licensing footage from me was vastly less expensive and less time-consuming than shooting it themselves,” added Hershberger.

Director/Producer Kevin R. Hershberger has been making award-winning films since 1999 in the Richmond area. His company, LionHeart FilmWorks produces historical features and documentaries with most of the work being live-action recreations of historical events from three centuries of American history. With this work, Hershberger has amassed an inventory of nearly three-hundred hours of 35mm, High-Definition and 24p footage covering the American Revolution… The Civil War… the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln… World War One… World War Two… the Korean War and Vietnam War, as well as other periods of history — both military and civilian.

Hershberger has worked recently on projects for HBO, The History Channel and his own documentary DVD collection titled “The American Soldier Series.”

Again, none of the footage available for license via www.reenactmentstockfootage.com is “real,” often public domain footage of original historical events that is normally available from other stock imagery houses. Every second of the footage Hershberger manages through the site has been shot at large-scale re-enactments or staged as authentic, highly detailed recreations of historical events.

“I’ve built World War One trenches and shot them at night with smoke and explosions, and I’ve shot Civil War footage in the heat and humidity of summer at Gettysburg, as well as in the dead of snowy winter like at the Battle of Fredericksburg,” claims Hershberger. “The locations, props, wardrobe, weapons, effects and re-enactors are the best possible for each recreated period of history.” Historical integrity is an important hallmark for all of the footage available through www.reenactmentstockfootage.com.

Hershberger is also proud of the “you-are-there” quality of a majority of the footage, where the cameras have been imbedded in the combat action along with the re-enactors and effects.

Being a producer of historical film projects himself, Hershberger has also made it easy for clients to get the exact footage they want. “If you need clips recreating action, say, at The Alamo or Harriet Tubman for instance, and I don’t have that exact footage, then for the same cost of licensing those clips from me, I’ll stage and shoot the recreation myself, to order. It is a win-win for both parties. Therefore, my client gets the exact amount of footage and moments that they need for their show, without the huge expense of staging the shoot themselves,” added Hershberger. “I’ve already got the historical resources and team in place to shoot quickly, easily and authentically.”

A sample reel showcasing the variety of footage available through the site is accessible on the website home page, followed by photographs and a list of the variety of footage available, by historical period. If interested in licensing footage, it is easy to e-mail or call with what you are looking for, and Hershberger will compile a sample DVD screener of time-coded available footage for you to check out. Licensing terms and rates are straightforward, and Hershberger does all he can to accommodate clients’ production needs and schedules.

In 2008 Hershberger will produce nearly one-hundred new hours of High-Definition footage of large-scale Civil War and Revolutionary War combat scenes; as well as more 18^{th and 19th century civilian footage and brand new World War Two footage of German and American infantry and armor in action. He also plans to shoot more Napoleonic era, Roman and War of 1812 footage in the next year as interest in that period grows.Visit www.reenactmentstockfootage.com for more information on available footage and to check out the sample reel.}