Archives for Education

This material is licensed for creative reuse by emerging filmmakers on course-related projects in schools, further and higher education institutions and training schemes in the UK and Ireland. It is licensed free of charge until 2030 on a non-commercial basis.

Extracts of up to two minutes from each film may be used in student productions.

Before accessing the films, you need to agree to the following terms of use:

• Only use extracts of up to two minutes’ duration per source in your film.

• Don’t use the Archive Material in a way that is derogatory to any private persons appearing or depicted in the film (for example, in home movie footage).

• Appropriately acknowledge the archival sources in your film, using the suggested credit listed on the Make Film History platform and website.

• Don’t copy, distribute, sell, loan, hire or use the Archive Material for any commercial purposes, or otherwise transfer the material to any third party at any time.

• Don’t upload or otherwise make available the Archive Material on the world wide web (including social media).

• While the participating archives allow screenings at non-profit film festivals and one-off public events, please seek permission from the relevant archive before screening the film commercially in any way.

1. Students can access our online platform once a staff member has registered their Institution. To do this, staff create a Tutor account using an academic email address, register the Institution when prompted, and accepted the license agreements on its behalf. New Institutional accounts are manually verified, so there may be a short wait for access. You can check if your Institution has already signed up here.

2. Once the Institution is registered on the platform, staff and students can create Tutor and Student accounts using an academic email address, accept the terms of use and gain access. Tutor accounts have enhanced access and are manually verified. Students are sent a link to verify their email address.

3. All users can browse and watch the films on the platform. Tutors have unlimited download access. Students can download up to ten films per academic year - an allowance which resets at the start of each year.

4. Students browse and watch films on the platform and download films they would like to creatively reuse in their work. Files are generally under 1Gb in size and encoded as MP4 files at 2-3 Mbit/s.

5. Students may then film creative responses to the archive film(s) they are working with and edit clips from the archive films into their productions. Please remember to include the suggested credit line for each archive film in your end credits.

   Please email s.osullivan@kingston.ac.uk with any further queries.

No. Under the terms of the license, this archive material is licensed solely for use on your course and screening at film festivals.

The contributing archives have provided access to material from their collections to be used non-commercially and in personal course-related educational projects. They have no specific objections to students submitting films at one-off, public events such as screenings or film festivals which operate on a non-profit basis. This may include events with an academic or non-commercial purpose which charge a modest entry fee to recover costs but not generate profit. It does not include festivals or events with a commercial purpose.

Examples of non-profit film festivals run by charities include the BFI London Film Festival, Encounters Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Foyle Film Festival, Leeds Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.

The films should not be uploaded online for any reason without permission. A short online screening of one week or less may be exceptionally allowed for film festivals which are ticketed and meet the not-for-profit criteria above.

Please remember you are responsible for seeking clearance for any other contributor rights or copyright within the clips. If in doubt about any of this, please email s.osullivan@kingston.ac.uk and we would be happy to assess on a case by case basis.

The websites below provide archive media that is either copyright-free (in the public domain) or can be used under a free Creative Commons license.

Wikimedia Commons

Mixkit

Scotland on Screen

Moving Image Education

The British Council Film Collection

Britain from Above

East Anglian Film Archive Mash-Up Filmmaking Competition

Wellcome Library Moving Image and Sound Collection

Bragg Film Archive

Paris Museums Collection

The Internet Archive

The Prelinger Archives

The US National Archives YouTube channel

Library of Congress - National Screening Room

National Film Preservation Foundation

South Side Home Movie Project

NASA Image and Video Library 

Hubble Space Telescope

The Public Domain Review

10 Downing Street YouTube channel

UK Parliament YouTube channel

The White House YouTube channel

Macaulay Wildlife Media Library

Learning on Screen have an excellent guide to copyright on their website and run courses on creative reuse and copyright: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/copyright-guidance/

We also recommend the Copyright User website and the Code of Best Practices on Creative Reuse for Documentary Filmmakers.

The BBC have made 33,000 sound effects available for download for "personal, educational, or research purposes" at http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/

You can also find royalty-free music and sound effects at YouTube Audio Library and music at Moby Gratis, Ben SoundandFree to Use Sounds

Yes! We plan to expand the range of films offered through the scheme and welcome your suggestions. We would also love to hear from national and regional archives who would like to contribute films from their collections. Please contact s.osullivan@kingston.ac.uk with your queries and suggestions.