This post was updated 8 January, 2017
Videos for film scoring projects
Film scoring is an exciting way to explore composing, arranging, recording and editing music or sound effects with your students and there are a variety of software programs suitable for the job. GarageBand, Mixcraft, Sibelius and Finale all allow you to import video and synchronise sound to visuals.
Before you get started with film scoring however, you’ll need some resources. In this post, we’ll explore some if the film footage (video) that is available for free.
First, a word on copyright
When you’re looking for film clips to use in the classroom, it’s a good idea to seek public domain material or material that has been designated a Creative Commons license. If you’re not yet familiar with Creative Commons, it’s an organisation that encourages sharing and collaboration of creative work. Creative Commons (CC), whose byline is “Share, Remix, Reuse – Legally” provides free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix or use their work commercially (or any combination thereof).
By using material with a CC license, you’re able to do much more with end-product of your students’ work – such as uploading their film scoring projects online in order to share them with parents, other students and the wider community. Conversely, using copyrighted material means that you can only use it within the four walls of your classroom.
For more information about Creative Commons, visit their website.
Finding videos for film scoring
So, where are the best places to download suitable videos? Over the last few months, I’ve been gathering links to some of the most useful sites. Here are some of my favourites:
1. The Moving Image Archive
This is the moving images section of www.archive.org: a site with thousands of copyright-free films. Within this site there are “collections” of videos. Check out the following:
- Prelinger Archives (please note that not all films in this collection are appropriate for students – it is best used as a teacher resource only)
- Film Chest Vintage Cartoons
- Vintage Cartoons
- There are also a number of NASA videos. Try NASA Space Liftoff
2. The Open Video Project
The Open Video Project site has an excellent search engine: you can narrow your search to films of a specific duration (less than one minute or 1-2 minutes). You can also search for silent films which are very useful for film scoring projects.
3. Open Source Videos
Big Buck Bunny and The Elephant’s Dream are both open source code movies. All music and video files from these movies are available for others to download, remix or re-score.
4. The Whitehouse website
The Obama administration kindly assigned a Creative Commons license to all material on the Whitehouse website, which means that you’re free to download pictures, video and text and use it for your own purposes as long as you attribute the source of the material.
5. Brick Films
Brick films are stop-motion animation films using Lego blocks and Lego characters. There’s a strong brick film community and some great examples can be seen in this round-up of the Top 10 Lego Movie Tributes on Youtube.
There’s quite a large collection of Creative Commons Licensed brick films on the archive.org website and music teacher Sarah Johnston has shortlisted her favourites for use by students in GarageBand film scoring projects in this list.
One last piece of advice!
Well two things actually:
- It’s best to download any potential videos, ahead of time, on your own. Not all of the material on these websites is suitable for students
- Allow yourself a decent amount of time to look for suitable clips. It can be a big time-suck!
17 Comments
Your site was extremely interesting, especially since I was searching for thoughts on this subject last Thursday.
[…] Projects Posted on February 7th, 2011 in Creative Commons, Film scoring, Free, Music Tech Tips. In a previous post I listed some useful places to find film footage for film scoring and video editing projects. This […]
I’m a composer new to the scoring scene. That being said, this site was extremely helpful in finding film I can use to assemble my demo reel.
Thanks!
Thanks Tyler – glad you found it useful!
This is all great, but how do you actually take the music of out the already mixed film and leave the actor’s voices and sound-effects in. It makes it hard scoring anything, if there is no dialogue to float on the score. Then it merely is a movie silent picture with your music. I’m having a hard time finding a method to do this.
Hi Ben,
There is no good way to do that. One option is to have the students re-create the dialogue and sound effects themselves (that’s a great project just on its own!). Other than that, you can choose a film where there is no dialogue in the first place, or choose something that has dialogue but no existing music soundtrack.
Since I wrote this blog post, I’ve been suggesting the Wallace and Gromit videos on this page. The BBC made them available for a film scoring competition that they ran a few years ago. They were awesome enough to provide exactly what you’re after – the scene with dialogue, but with the music removed so that students can composer their own. Hopefully you find them helpful.
Yes you can do that by using a few comments in unit as following:
-x, –extract-audio: Convert video files to audio-only files(requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
–audio-format FORMAT: Specify audio format: “best”, “aac”, “vorbis”, “mp3”, “m4a”, “opus”, or “wav”; “best” by default
–audio-quality QUALITY:Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
–recode-video FORMAT: Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
Dear Katie, I am looking for a composer to score “The Story of Icilla, an iceberg who didn’t want to leave her glacier”. I have photographed extensively in the Arctic and have shot clay animations that I am in the process of compositing into the Arctic footage. This work is largely self-funded, but will be part of an art exhibition in NYC opening in Jan 18. I remember hearing of a site where budding film score composers will work for free or reduced rate. Any contacts would be much appreciated. Thank you for the service that you provide!
Cheer, Itty
http://www.ittyneuhaus.com
Hello Itty – sorry but I don’t know of a site like that. You might like to try contacting some of the tertiary institutions in your area that offer film making courses and degrees. There might be a student who is wanting to gain some experience in that area. Good luck with the project!
Hello Itty, I know it’s after 2 and a half years but did you get someone to score this project of yours?
I’m not sure if you’d be still interested but I’m looking for something like this, i.e. an art project that I could try and do background score on, solely on a feedback basis no cost involved.
Let me know if this is still relevant.
-Jitin
Can I use these films as video for music MP3s with a view to getting a music video onto the ABC’s Rage program ?
Yes I would assume so – as long as you’re double-checking they are not restricted in any way. If they are public domain, then it’s no problem. Creative Commons licences vary so you need to check those ones.
Thanks, great resources for video, I’ve been scoring to some of these. It’s hard to find a great dramatic scene without existing music to add new score to but if you get creative you can surely find some interesting things to add music to. A lot of these old videos have a really cool vibe and some are just really amusing, adding contemporary music can give a quirky artistic interpretation.
Agree totally!
Note, music in a public domain film is not in public domain most likely!
Hello Katie,
Your post is awesome for creating videos for scoring projects. Here are some most useful sites to find videos for film scoring. https://www.topstik.com/buy-tiktok-video-views
[…] a previous post I listed some useful places to find film footage for film scoring and video editing projects. This […]