http://www.reelsocialmedia.com/category/blog - Find 10 great sources for stock footage in this guide.

1. 10

2. How Creative Commons and Free Footage Works
Ever wanted that li.le something to add to your clip but just couldn’t find it? Worried about
copyrights?
Luckily, we have CreaAve Commons and people who like to share.
CreaAve Commons is a non‐profit organizaAon that works to bridge the content gap between
copyrighted and free material. They’re devoted to “
expanding the range of creaAve works available for others to build upon legally and to share.”
What that means is that there is content out there that other producers have created and
allowed you to use through a variety of CreaAve Commons licenses.
There are 6 main licenses:
* A.ribuAon (CC‐BY)
* A.ribuAon Share Alike (CC‐BY‐SA)
* A.ribuAon No DerivaAves (CC‐BY‐ND)
* A.ribuAon Non‐Commercial (CC‐BY‐NC)
* A.ribuAon Non‐Commercial Share Alike (CC‐BY‐NC‐SA)
* A.ribuAon Non‐Commercial No DerivaAves (CC‐BY‐NC‐ND)
If you’re going to use any content from another producer, please check with the terms of use
of the original creator of the content and make sure you follow their guidelines.
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3. 1) Archive.org
Archive.org has a vast, non‐profit video library of material. You can find anything from
animaAon to WWII propaganda films.
This is an archive.org search page pre‐configured to return only public domain media. The
booleans are already entered in the search field. Just add “AND search term” at the end of
the text in the search box. For example, if I am looking for shots of explosions that I can use
without restricAon, this is what would be in the search field aZer I added my term:
/metadata/licenseurl:h.p*publicdomain* AND explosion
2) Wikimedia.org
Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely‐
licensed educaAonal media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone. It’s not as
expansive as Archive.org, but you can certainly find content.
3) Detonation Films
If you’re looking for explosions, DetonaAon Films offer a ton of pyrotechnical footage for free
in standard definiAon (SD). Much of the footage is shot over black backgrounds and some
even comes pre‐keyed, making it relaAvely easy composite fun explosions into your other
footage.
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4. 4) Free Stock Footage
If your video is only going to be distributed on the web and you’re not pu^ng a high
premium on high resoluAon, this sight has tons of low‐rez stuff for free. (And you can always
upgrade for about $15 per clip.) h.p://www.freestockfootage.com/
5) Pond5
If you’re looking for stock with higher producAon value, Pond5 is the place to go. They’re one
of the cheapest places for high‐end stock and every week they give away a professionally
shot HD clip from their library for free. You may not have an immediate use for this week’s
clip, but if you get in the habit of downloading their freebie every week, you’ll build your HD
stock library and find a use for it later.
6) The Government
By law, all media made by the federal government is in the public domain. As you can
imagine with anything that involves the federal government and ge^ng something for free, it
is not always easy to find this kind of footage. SAll, if you know what you’re looking for and
willing to really dig, you can someAmes find some amazing stuff.
Take NASA for example:
h.p://video.google.com/nara.html
h.p://www.nasaimages.org/index.html
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5. 7) WBGH Lab
The WBGH Lab in Boston encourages video makers to submit and share footage in order to
create innovaAve new content. Most of the clips are shared and hosted by
The WGBH EducaAonal FoundaAon and are licensed and shared under a
CreaAve Commons A.ribuAon 3.0 United States License.
h.p://lab.wgbh.org/sandbox/
8 – 10) The Mashable List
And yes, Mashable has compiled an amazing list of free resources as well. We’ve pulled the
list below from them.
‐ Open Source Cinema: A community site for creaAng and remixing video online, users
upload footage under a CreaAve Commons A.ribuAon‐Noncommercial 3.0 License.
‐ Vimeo (): You can browse the videos tagged with CreaAve Commons or use a complex
search query to search for videos
tagged both “creaAvecommons” and the keyword you’re looking for.
‐ Flickr : You can use Flickr’s Advanced Search interface to look only within video content
that’s CreaAve Commons‐licensed.
Photo credit: acrib .
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6. About Reel Social Media
We are a full service video producAon company specializing in social video markeAng, video
seo, and online video distribuAon. We combine original content with social media to create a
rich brand presence that engages customers and increases interacAon. We provide:
Video Produc3on Digital video is no longer about thirty‐second commercials that interrupt
and annoy our lives. It’s about telling your story. It’s about telling your customers’ stories.
Video Distribu3on Just like a product roadmap, each online video campaign requires a
blueprint that will govern your messages across every channel. By leveraging blended search
with video, you can rank higher and faster than your compeAtors in Google search results.
Content Marke3ng And Strategy Stop. Before you pick up the video camera, let us help you
define a content strategy that governs how you create, opAmize, and promote your content
on the web. SEO is a powerful weapon. Don’t point it in the wrong direcAon.
Social Media Marke3ng Don’t know what your customers are saying about you? We’ll help
you listen to them so that you can create a campaign that engages them on their terms. AZer
assessing where you are and (more importantly) where you want to be with your customers,
we’ll define a strategy that fits your goals.
Contact us to build your brand with social video markeAng.
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