ASK & DISCUSS INDEX

13 years, 2 months ago - Richard Elson

Try this site:
http://www.videoblocks.com/
You can get a free trial for a week, download 20 clips a day during that week. I did it and got loads, depending on what you're after you'll hopefully find something in there. Otherwise have to pay (sites like istock, BBC motion gallery and Getty)

13 years, 2 months ago - richard dunkley

Free library video is probably the biggest enemy of filmakers that exists, its like cancer. Royalty free photography almost totally destroyed the stills business and put 75% of photographers out of work, free video will do the same to film-makers. Supply it to your client and they will expect more and more freebies. Don't use it. No further comment

13 years, 2 months ago - Vasco de Sousa

I'd steer away from free trials, because they are hard to cancel and aren't really free. Read the contract, and you'll see they are generally scams.

Most of the free sites (and even paid stock footage sites) are so limited that it's hard to recommend them. For instance, if you're making a documentary about ducks, what use is it to have a free shot of the first men on the moon?

As time is money, I find that it's often cheaper to shoot it yourself than to sift through all the free garbage online. However, even if I use free video, I charge for the time it takes to find it, recode it, resize, fix, download, etc.

To answer your question, however, here are a few videos to which I think the copyright has expired:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Ed%20Wood%22

(beware, however, Hitchcock was on that site too, until the copyright owners asked it to be taken down. It's best to double check the copyright with a third party before using.)

13 years, 1 month ago - Chris Mitchell

Thanks for all the comments. The best site I have found is videohive.net. None of it is free and if you use the video for non commercial or educational purposes it has very good prices!