Royalty free videos?

Well, there are site allowing to load the files. But the main question is if the owners of such videos allow you to use and change the files for free. I have never heard of such services.

sunandsurf said:

hi. just wondering if anyone knows of a good site where short video clips are available for free download?

i'm thinking of stuff that lasts maybe 10 seconds and would be used as a background for text. the background video is just to fill the space and to create a mood.

if you know of such sites, please post them here; i'd love to check them out for a new project on the horizon.

thanks!

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I believe all the NASA footage is free to use as it's a publicly funded body.

First, a friend of mine got some pretty usable video from this youtube channel. It's all CC-Attribute, so you can use it in whatever way if you give credit or link to the channel.

Also it might be interesting for you that you can search for videos that have a Creative Commons license in different search engines:

1. The Creative Commons search engine (mainly for youtube).

2. In Google Advanced Search, you can (at the very bottom) restrict the search to a certain license model.

3. Archive has a pretty big collection of royalty free material. Although the quality is variable...

Hope that helps.

Keep in mind that royalty free is not the same as free to use. Royalty free just means you pay once as opposing to having to pay royalties (i.e. a cut of whatever you make going to copyright owner).


Lethal

sunandsurf said:

good point. now i'm wondering if i'll go in another direction.

Click to expand...

While it is correct that "royalty free" doesn't mean you don't have to pay for it, "Creative Commons License" (CC) does mean exactly this. So maybe your question is not perfectly formulated, but what you are looking for exists. There are many different CC license models. Some allow you to reuse the clip exactly as is if you give credit. Others allow you to use and manipulate it however you wish and give credit as long as you don't sell it for money. Some even allow you to do anything you want. But they are all free of charge. Ever.

All videos on youtube with a CC license (which are most of the links I posted) will have a CC-BY license. This means: You can use, remix and share them and even make money off them if you only give credit to the original. So you'll be fine using any of these.

Creative Commons is a really great invention that allows content creator to let people use their stuff without running into legal trouble (since it has a good internationally valid license). And on their site (with the link I posted), you can even search for projects that registered there.

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Also, this channel seems pretty great of you're looking for moving light artificial background stuff. All CC-BY and all usable without any fees:
http://www.youtube.com/user/MovingBacksProducts

If you go into iMovie and FCP-X they have background video material.