I am an independent (think low budget!) filmmaker approaching the
practice from a painting and visual arts background, thus my work
often is very collage oriented and requires lotas of found imagery and
increasingly video.  Copyright issues avoid use of imagery found
online and for video the quality is low so it wouldn't be very useful
anyway.  The commercial sources of stock footage and imagery are
wonderful but extremely expensive.  As I need large quantities of
'found' material often for my work and would like to gather it on the
internet, I am wondering what resources or libraries or sources there
are online where I can have access to stock material for ideally free
or cheap (ie. $1-10 rather than hundreds on say getty).  My work spans
all subject matter and I am interested in any type of content ranging
from animated graphs and charts, to still photos of people, to footage
of ice flows - material shot in 1900 or shot in 2004, anything.  I can
work with most file formats that you can save (ie. quicktime, avi,
mpeg, not realplayer) and ideally am looking for sources that provide
high enough resolution to work with for standard definition broadcast
- so 320x240 would be about the lowest video size and stills that are
lower than around 500 pixels wide or high are not much use to me.  Any
links to such resources or information on how to get access to them
would be most appreciated.  thank you for your help.

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 20 Feb 2005 14:18 PST

Hello Ilo!

Please take a look at the following resources.

Movie Archive

This collection is free and open for everyone to use.

Our goal in digitizing these movies and putting them online is to
provide easy access to a rich and fascinating core collection of
archival films.
http://www.archive.org/movies/movies.php


PAN AMERICAN VIDEO provides stock footage at competitive rates. 

"PAN AMERICAN VIDEO has zillions of public domain stock footage clips
pulled from our vast library of broadcast quality masters. Our
archives are chocked full of vintage feature films, TV shows,
cartoons, documentaries, movie trailers and other stuff that act as
sources for your clips."
http://www.panamvideo.com/stockfootage.html

Do these resources meet your needs?

Thanks,
Bobbie7

---

Clarification of Question by ilo-ga on 20 Feb 2005 14:56 PST

thanks bobbie7!

especially for your speedy replay, wow.

the first one, archive.org, seems great.  though I am a little
confused whether I can use anything on there or only from certain
sections?  It seems very very useful though so thanks for that one.

The second Pan American Video is good too, though I had heard of them
before and that fact that you have to go back and forth through the
mail, not see online previews, etc. is less useful for me.  Often I
need the convenience and speed of online archives.

If you have any other references to sites where I can actually browse
online, see previews, and download from the site that would be great.

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 20 Feb 2005 15:08 PST

Heloo again Ilo,

I`m delighted that you are pleased with my findings.

Here are a few more resourcea.

Please let me know if this information and the previous resources
suffice as an answer to your question.

Thanks again,
Bobbie7


The photo archive at Gimp-Savvy.com has more than 27,000 free photos
and images, consisting of over 2.5 Gbytes of data.
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

The images and photos found in this archive come from three main
sources: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

FWS: Wildlife, Animals, Plants, Environments 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/UFWS/page1.html

NASA JSC: Earth from Space, Space Shuttle, Planets...
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NASA/page1.html

NASA AILS: ...Moons, Historical NASA Photos, etc. 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/AILS/page1.html

NOAA-1: Oceans, Animals, Underwater Life, Weather 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NOAA/page1.html

NOAA-2: More of the same from the NOAA 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NOAB/page1.html

NOAA-3: ---and even more. 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NOAC/page1.html


Another resource:
http://www.pdimages.com/web6.htm

Here is some more information from a previous question I answered.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=382532

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 20 Feb 2005 15:13 PST

Another good resource:

Public Domain Films and Royalty Free Stock Footage

Buyout Footage is a full service stock footage house featuring the
very best in contemporary royalty free stock footage, full-length
public domain films and archive film stock footage. Our stock video
footage is easy to preview and purchase directly from our web site.

http://www.buyoutfootage.com/

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 20 Feb 2005 15:57 PST

Festival Films :

Video Masters -- Largest public domain collection in the world. Best
quality from 1" Masters.

Stock Footage -- Public domain footage for Business Meetings, TV ads,
and documentaries at competitive prices.

http://www.fesfilms.com/

I look forward to your comments.

---

Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 20 Feb 2005 15:59 PST

Absolutely Archives
Absolutely Archives deals in high quality, cost-effective images,
specializing in PUBLIC DOMAIN film and photos held by the U.S.
government.

Screeners are FREE 
http://absolutelyarchives.com/what_%20we_%20do.htm

---

Clarification of Question by ilo-ga on 20 Feb 2005 16:19 PST

It certainly does....   you are amazing.  thank to so much for your
help on this matter!!!!

Dear Ilo,

I?m glad that my findings are just right!


I am reposting all the resources below for your convenience.

Movie Archive

This collection is free and open for everyone to use.

Our goal in digitizing these movies and putting them online is to
provide easy access to a rich and fascinating core collection of
archival films.
http://www.archive.org/movies/movies.php


==============================================


PAN AMERICAN VIDEO provides stock footage at competitive rates. 

"PAN AMERICAN VIDEO has zillions of public domain stock footage clips
pulled from our vast library of broadcast quality masters. Our
archives are chocked full of vintage feature films, TV shows,
cartoons, documentaries, movie trailers and other stuff that act as
sources for your clips."
http://www.panamvideo.com/stockfootage.html


==============================================


The photo archive at Gimp-Savvy.com has more than 27,000 free photos
and images, consisting of over 2.5 Gbytes of data.
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

The images and photos found in this archive come from three main
sources: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

FWS: Wildlife, Animals, Plants, Environments 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/UFWS/page1.html

NASA JSC: Earth from Space, Space Shuttle, Planets...
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NASA/page1.html

NASA AILS: ...Moons, Historical NASA Photos, etc. 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/AILS/page1.html

NOAA-1: Oceans, Animals, Underwater Life, Weather 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NOAA/page1.html

NOAA-2: More of the same from the NOAA 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NOAB/page1.html

NOAA-3: ---and even more. 
http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NOAC/page1.html

==============================================


Another resource:
http://www.pdimages.com/web6.htm


==============================================


Here is some more information from a previous question I answered.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=382532


==============================================


Public Domain Films and Royalty Free Stock Footage

Buyout Footage is a full service stock footage house featuring the
very best in contemporary royalty free stock footage, full-length
public domain films and archive film stock footage. Our stock video
footage is easy to preview and purchase directly from our web site.

http://www.buyoutfootage.com/


==============================================


Festival Films:

Video Masters -- Largest public domain collection in the world. Best
quality from 1" Masters.

Stock Footage -- Public domain footage for Business Meetings, TV ads,
and documentaries at competitive prices.

http://www.fesfilms.com/


==============================================


Absolutely Archives

Absolutely Archives deals in high quality, cost-effective images,
specializing in PUBLIC DOMAIN film and photos held by the U.S.
government.

Screeners are FREE 
http://absolutelyarchives.com/what_%20we_%20do.htm


Best wishes,
Bobbie7

Videographers typically need some kind of motion backgrounds for title
shots, dvd menus, etc.  You might try:

http://digitaljuice.com

The name says it: http://www.freestockfootage.com

The low rez files really ARE free, with medium resolution (MPEG1)
clips at $9.50 and royalty free. The high resolution (full frame
Sorenson Quicktime) clips are $19.50 each.

You might also try Istockphoto.com. You can get high quality stock
photos, some flash animations, and various styles of art (from fine
art to computer generated vector images) for a great price. Currently,
prices are $1, $2, or $3 per image, depending on the size you require.

There are some limitations to how you can use the images. I'd check
the user agreement more closely, but it does mention general
acceptable use for video presentations, multimedia presentations, and
commercials. You can view the user's agreement at
http://www.istockphoto.com/license.php   There is an "ask us" link on
the right hand side if you need better clarification.

An example of an artist's portfolio at istock can be seen here:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&userID=326456

Or you can simply use the search tool located on each page to look for
images that fit your current needs. There are controls for the search
options on the lower left side of each page (it may be necessary to
scroll down a bit to see them). They allow you to sort your search by
photographer, size, rating, etc.; by orientation (horizontal,
vertical, square), and more. You can also adjust how many images per
page appear in your search results from here. I find it much easier to
view the maximum number of images per page.