Can't Find Your Footage? Airchecks and Footage Pulls Explained

You know the scene happened. You watched it air, maybe once, from a hotel room or a friend's couch. Now the show has left every streaming platform, the clip is nowhere, and your demo reel has a hole in it. If you can't find your footage, you're not out of options. This guide explains what an aircheck and a footage pull actually are, why your scene is almost certainly still out there, and the exact details you need to start a search.

Key takeaways

• Your footage is almost never truly gone. Streamers rotate their catalogs, but copies live on in broadcast archives and industry databases.
• An aircheck is the clip itself: a clean HD capture of your on screen appearance from the actual broadcast or stream.
• A footage pull is the process of retrieving it. Casting directors, agents, and editors use both terms.
• To start a search you need five details: project, network, air date, episode, and your role. Partial info is fine.
• The standard you should expect: per scene pricing, stated up front, with no charge if the footage can't be found.

Why your footage seems to vanish

Short answer: streaming catalogs rotate. When a show's license expires, the platform drops it, often with no warning. Your episode may also be buried under ten seasons, locked to a country you're not in, or the show may never have made it to streaming at all.

None of that means the footage is gone. It means the easy way to find it just closed.

The names for what you're after

In the industry, the clip of your on screen appearance has two names. An aircheck is the clip itself, the clean HD capture of your scene from the actual broadcast or stream. A footage pull is the process of retrieving it. Both mean the same thing for you: a clip of your own work that casting expects to see on your reel.

If these terms are new to you, our guide to what scene retrieval is covers the basics.

The good news: it's rarely actually gone

Here's the part most actors don't know. Footage that has left every streaming platform is still usually retrievable. Broadcasts leave copies in archives, industry databases keep records of airings, and syndicated reruns run in places you wouldn't think to check.

This is why retrieval services exist. The job is to follow the trail the platforms leave behind, and that trail is almost never cold. If your scene aired, it was captured, and captured footage can be found.

What you need to start a search

The search starts with five details. Don't panic if you only have some of them. A retrieval team works from partial info and fills in the gaps.

• Project name (film, show, or commercial)
• Network or streaming platform it aired on
• Original air date, or season and episode
• Your role or character name
• Any scene context you remember (a location, a co star, a line)

Half remembered details are enough to start. A good service tells you up front whether the footage is findable, and it doesn't charge you if it isn't.

What it should cost

Scene retrieval should be priced per scene and stated up front, not quoted only after you hand over your details. The honest standard: you pay per scene, and you pay nothing if the footage can't be retrieved. If a service wants payment before it confirms anything, walk away.

For the full walkthrough of how retrieval works, start with our guide to getting your scene from a streaming platform.

Your footage isn't gone

It's just behind a door you haven't opened yet. Airchecks exist for nearly every aired scene, and finding yours is a research job, not a miracle.

If you'd rather hand the hunt to someone who does it daily: tell us the project, network, air date, and your role, and we'll track down your scene, trim it in HD, and deliver it ready for Actors Access, IMDb, and social, with no charge if we can't retrieve it. Request a scene