Guides: Documentary Video Production: Finding Audio/Video/Images

Finding Resources

There are many places to find audio, video, and images online that are in the public domain, royalty-free, or Creative Commons-licensed. Always try these options first before using copyrighted material (even under Fair Use circumstances).

Video

Coverr
European Film Gateway
Historical documents preserved in European film archives and cinémathèques: photos, posters, programs, periodicals, censorship documents, rare feature and documentary films, newsreels and other materials.
Internet Moving Image Archive
Large online archive of ephemeral films, documentaries, educational films, industrial films, home movies, news reels, advertisements and more. Also includes the Prelinger Archives.
Library of Congress, Digital Collections
Films of early 20-century life, including films of New York City, the San Francisco Fire, and President McKinley's inauguration and funeral. Background notes to the films are included.
Open Culture
Free feature films, organized by genre
Open Video Project
Contains documentary, educational, ephemeral, historical and other types of video.
Pexels
Includes free stock photography, much of which is licensed under a CC0 License -- free to use for any purpose without attribution.
Pixabay Video
Prelinger Archives
An online archive of "ephemeral" films: advertising, educational, industrial, amateur, and home movies.
Video Footage 4 Free YouTube Channel
Videvo

Audio

Audio Library Youtube Channel
ccMixter
Creative Commons licensed music, audio, and video.
Free Music Archive
Resource for free music and royalty free music.
Freesound
Creative Commons' licensed sounds effects, ambient sounds, and soundscapes.
Greatest Speeches of the 20th Century
From the moon landing to the Watergate tapes.
Internet Archive: Audio
Contains recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users.
Jamendo Music
A platform to legally share music for free from any creator under Creative Commons licenses.
Jazz On Line
Collection of jazz music.
Library of Congress: Audio Recordings
Librivox
Free public domain audio books
Miller Center
Speeches by American Presidents.
Music for Creators YouTube Channel
Musopen
Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early 20th century works.
Open Culture
Opsound
Opsound offers free audio files, uploaded by their community of artists.
Public Domain Music
Any song or musical work published in 1922 or earlier is in the public domain in the USA.
Sound Bible
Free Sound clips, sound bytes, and sound effects.
Wikimedia: Sound
Free media repository of sounds.
PixaBay Audio
Over 40,000+ free music tracks shared by our talented community. Good sorting options to help you find the right audio to fit your project

Images

Image Websites

CCSearch
Flickr
Many Flickr users have licensed their images under various Creative Commons licenses. Just make sure you check the license when you download the image and attribute appropriately.
Getty Images
Open content images from the Getty Museum available for download.
New York Public Library: Public Domain Collections
More than 180,000 items free to share and use.
Google Image Search
Smithsonian Open Access
Portal for discovering open access images from the Smithsonian. Download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images.
Wikimedia Commons
A collection of millions of freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.

Stock Images and Free Photos

Burst
Free stock photos for websites and commercial use.
Free Images
Find and download free stock photos - all free for personal and commercial use
Morguefile
Pexels
Includes free stock photography, much of which is licensed under a CC0 License -- free to use for any purpose without attribution.
StockSnap
Hundreds of high resolution images added weekly. Free from copyright restrictions.
Unsplash
Includes lots of free to use stock images. Includes both rights-free and rights-restricted images.