Mendocino California USA-1980: Sea Animal Swimming In The Ocean Waves

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

Year1980
Decade1980s
LocationMendocino, California, United States
Duration5s
Price$149 USD
Collection1980 Mendocino California

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use

$149 USD flat · royalty-free worldwide · 4K restored master (MP4)

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Stockfilm licenses the rights identified in the applicable agreement. Additional use-specific review may be required. See the Licensing Guide and Archive Integrity.

Sea Animal Swimming In The Ocean Waves — Clip Details

A vintage 8mm home movie clip from Mendocino, California, in 1980, capturing a sea animal swimming through turbulent ocean waves. The black-and-white footage shows churning water with white foam and sunlight glinting on the surface, with a dark, elongated shape—likely a seal or sea lion—moving through the surf. The grainy texture and film edges are characteristic of Super 8 home movie footage, offering authentic archival material for documentaries, historical content, or nostalgic projects.

Licensing & Technical Details

Original Format: 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie
Shot details: Black & white
Resolution: 4K restored master (MP4)
License: Direct license: commercial and editorial use
Delivery: Instant Digital Download
Duration: 5s
Price: $149 USD
Clip ID: 123109211

Rights & Clearance

$149 · Commercial Direct license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

No recognizable people, logos, or music are flagged. Lower-risk for commercial use, subject to your own review.

People visible: No
Logos / trademarks: No
Audible music: No

Flags come from automated catalog metadata, not a legal opinion. The source is an original 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie reel. For high-stakes commercial use, request a full rights review.

Source & Documentation

Source reel: Reel 1466 · Super 8 · 7″ reel
Original reel label: cajon vs arlington
Reel-level year note: 1980
Reel-level location note: el cajon, california
Date: 1980 Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Date evidence: Catalog estimate. A reel-level note shows the same year, but the clip-to-reel link is itself a catalog match, so this is not counted as independent confirmation.
Location: Mendocino, California, United States Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Location evidence: Catalog estimate. A reel-level location note is linked, but the clip-to-reel link is itself a catalog match, so this is not counted as independent confirmation.
Licensing route: Direct license available from Stockfilm

Confidence labels are defined on Archive Integrity. Fields without a recorded value are shown as not recorded rather than assumed.

View source reel context Open Clip Documentation Record Request source information

Topics & Keywords

Archive Intelligence

Archive brief fit: Useful for 1980s archival requests needing Northern California coastal wildlife, rough ocean surf, or a brief natural-history cutaway from home-movie footage.
Period detail: The frames show black-and-white 8mm surf footage with no visible clothing, vehicles, signage, or landmarks to date the scene beyond the supplied 1980 metadata.
Home-movie behavior: The clip carries an unstaged visitor or home-movie viewpoint, watching a dark sea animal surface and move through breaking water from a distance.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include churning ocean foam, dark rocks or kelp-like shapes, a dark elongated sea animal, glinting water, soft focus, and frame-edge bars.
Film character: The footage has a grainy 8mm texture, uneven exposure, soft detail, and contact-sheet framing that preserve the physical home-movie character.
Edit role: An editor could use it as a short wildlife insert, coastal transition, memory beat, or atmospheric cutaway between broader California shoreline scenes.
Historical context: The scene documents a brief coastal wildlife observation in turbulent surf, with no visible people, buildings, or social activity in the sampled frames.
Research note: No people, logos, or private property are visible, but species identification and any copyright or location-use questions should be reviewed separately.
Research search match: Researcher searches might include 1980 Mendocino ocean wildlife, 8mm California surf animal, vintage home movie sea lion or seal, and black-and-white coastal waves.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with adjacent shots from the same reel, then Mendocino or 1980 California coastal material, then broader ocean wildlife and surf cutaways.

Still Frames From This Clip

Black-and-white 8mm frame from Mendocino metadata showing rough ocean water with foam and dark shapes partly obscured by surf. — Churning surf fills the frame, with dark shapes visible beneath or among the foam.

Black-and-white 8mm coastal frame showing foamy surf and a dark sea-animal-like form near the upper waterline. — A dark form appears amid rough, foaming water near the top of the frame.

Black-and-white 8mm Mendocino coastal frame showing a dark elongated form moving through turbulent surf beside smaller dark patches. — A dark elongated form is visible low in the frame as waves churn around it.

Black-and-white 8mm frame from Mendocino metadata showing a dark elongated sea animal-like form surrounded by breaking surf. — The dark animal-like shape is most visible here, stretched across the foamy water.

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