How to find free stock footage to reuse in your videos

Trying to find high-quality stock footage that you can freely reuse in your video projects can be difficult. Here are some resources that we've found that you can use to find stock video.  In addition to this list, don't miss our broader guide, How To Find Free Music, Images, And Video You Can Use Or Remix In Your Own Creative Works.

Also, if you have questions about whether or not you can reuse a particular piece of content, you can reach out to us to request legal services through our contact form.

1. The Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/movies

The Internet Archive host 100s of public domain and out-of-copyright films and clips for you to search, download and use.




2. US National Archives: http://video.google.com/videoadvancedsearch

You can use Google Video search to find works made by the Federal government which are almost all public domain and freely reusable. Use this search to find clips from NASA including lots of old newsreel footage.

3. VJVault.com: http://www.vjvault.com

VJ clip libraries are great places to find very short, often impressionistic, clips to use.

4. Blip.tv: http://spinxpress.com/getmedia

Blip.tv is a video sharing site which allows creative commons video to be shared. SpinXPress offers a search interface making it easier to find video content from blip.tv.

5. Flickr.com Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/?

In the advanced search options you can find creative commons videos and photos. Videos are in flash format, so you’ll need a tool like TubeTV (mac) or AnyVideoConverter (PC) to download them.

6. FreeHD group on Vimeo:  http://vimeo.com/groups/freehd
 


7. ClipCanvas: http://www.clipcanvas.com/free-footage
 
8. Xstockvideo: http://xstockvideo.com/
 
Offers video (except HD version) for free
 
9. Videvo: www.videvo.net

 

Find additional articles by