Finding free videos to download
Finding and Using Public Domain Videos
Whether you call them movies, videos or film, the concept is all the
same and the profit potential is very real. The public domain is home to
countless films from a large range of genres and
producers, some are classics and some are dogs. As an entrepreneur working with public domain material it is
your job to decide which are the best for the purposes of making a
profit.
Just because a movie or video clip is a classic or popular does not necessarily make
it good business. As you become a little more comfortable and
knowledgeable in this type of work, you will find that the money is in
how you use and market each work, not in its popularity.
As you dig through the resources I will be providing you with below,
consider that there are many other places not covered and left for you
to explore. You'll need to know the names of the films first. Think back
to your childhood, what was your favorite movie, which one most
influenced you? Ask your family and friends for old titles they liked.
Where to find some of these great public domain films
Let's face the facts here, just as with all of the other public domain
materials, you are going to have to do some work to find the truly great
ones, or the ones that will be of the most value to your projects. If
this process were really easy everyone would do it, and the competition
would be so great that you wouldn't make any money. So the fact that
some of this may be a little harder is actually a benefit because it
weeds out those that are less interested in creating a real business and
only looking to make a quick buck, which rarely happens by the way.
Aside from looking into the resources that I have given you below, you
may also consider hitting the search engines as an alternative for
finding even more resources. As I have said many times throughout this
ebook, make sure you wrap your search terms in quotation marks. This
tells the search engines to only show you results that contain those
exact keywords, and really helps to narrow your results and remove some
of the garbage search engines tend to collect.
You may also check out classic film collectors sites and the like, write
down some of the older titles and then perform searches to verify if
those particular works are in the public domain. If they are
congratulations, you have just stumbled on to a potential gold mine,
because you already know that there are collectors and a fan base for
anything you may create or of course recreate.
1. Public Domain Torrents has built a great portal of some of the classic
movies to be found within the public domain. One of the neatest and most
unique things they have done with their site, is to reformat old films
to be compatible with popular new devices such as the Apple iPod and
Sony PSP. This is a perfect example of blending a classic piece with
brand new technology, I love it and you should really keep this in mind
when thinking of ways to profit with your public domain material.
2.
OpenFlix is an online directory of public domain movies. You can browse
through the movies by genre which includes Westerns, Horror,
Independent, Comedy, Action and more. Each film has some great
information like year created, who starred in it and such. They do not
allow you to download videos for free, but you can take the titles and
then search the web, for free downloads or more information.
3.
Wikipedia has some great resources for public domain movie hunters. Not
only can you find some great information about the public domain, you
can also browse public domain films by the year they were created.
4.
The Public Domain Movie Database is another great place that is host to
tons of public domain films. You can browse the database by genre, and
again there are no movies to download but simply use this as a tool for
finding out what is in the public domain.
5.
Emol.org has a very nice database of public domain movies that you are
permitted to watch and download. They have digitally recreated some of
these films for your viewing enjoyment. All of the movies are
categorized by genre and include extra information about the history and
cast of the film.
6.
Desert Island Films has put together a very nice directory of not only
public domain films, but television shows as well. As if this wasn't
enough, they also have a printable list with hundreds of popular public
domain titles you can print and use as a reference sheet.
7.
Public Domain Flicks has a lot of great public domain films available
for download in their directory. You can browse by newest additions or
browse through all of the titles in alphabetical order.
8.
Reel Media International is one of the largest distributors of public
domain films in the world. Keep in mind that they do not sell to the
public, but you can view their inventory. You should also take note that
this is a very real business idea someone has put together for using
public domain material, imagine the potential.
9. You can write down movie titles you have found during your research and
then search for them on Google Video. I have found a lot of old public
domain movies on the popular video search engine.
10.
Internet Archive has over 30,000, yes thousand, public domain and open
source films covering virtually every topic imaginable. This is a great
place to do some research and really get a better understanding of what
the public domain offers.
11.
Archive Classic Movies offers free downloads on an assortment of classic
public domain films.
How to make money with public domain films
Public domain films are truly one of the easiest types of materials to
make money with. This is mainly due to the fact that there are just so
many classic movie buffs around the world. They have extensive groups of
collectors and admirers, there are even conventions held throughout the
year to honor these old films. All of this attention will allow you to
have a ready made customer base if you create a great product or really
capture an amazing idea.
1.
Simply converting a classic film to a digital version and burning it to
a cd may be enough to make the sales you want. Think about the public
domain film distributor that I have listed in the resources, this is how
they have built their business. By remaking these movies and burning
them to dvd or cd people are now able to watch and enjoy these as they
once did. You can market these new digital versions virtually anywhere
online or off, and find a good market.
2.
Take the movie covers from popular horror flicks or any other genre film
and blow them up into movie posters, for collectors. This is a unique
way to capitalize on the popularity of a film and really make something
the fans would otherwise not be able to obtain. The costs involved in
this process would not be very high, you could bring the photo to a
print shop and have them run hundreds of copies for little money.
3.
Create a web site directory of public domain films just as the others
have done in the resource list. You can charge per download, just offer
information about the movies and sell advertising or even just give
everything away for free, and make advertising money on the side. By
allowing others to upload their favorite public domain movies, you will
also cut out some of the work for yourself.
4.
Turn these classic old films into plays and dinner shows. If you are
already in this business it would not be very difficult at all to write
up a screen play and re-in act it. Its unfortunate that here in the
United States you don't find nearly as many dinner theater
establishments as you use to. You can even create the screen plays and
just sell them to others through eBay or your own web site.
5.
Use the films for clipping sound bytes and audio clips to use in other
projects. You can even clip enough of them to build your own sound
effects database and allow others to download them for use in their
multimedia projects.
6.
Burn entire sets of classic cartoons like Bugs Bunny on to one disk for
parents of small children. If you haven't noticed, the cartoons these
days are not what they used to be, so many parents may truly appreciate
this work. You can then market them from your own web site or on eBay
for a large profit.
7.
Put together an ebook as a collectors guide for vintage or classic
movies. You can list popular titles and then provide resources for where
they can purchase them, including your own web site if you have taken
the time to convert any of these to digital format. You are taking their
money twice by doing this.
Some examples of films that can be found within the public domain
There are many wonderful classic films, cartoons and even television
shows to be found within the public domain. The list below is just to
give you an idea of what types of work you can expect to find through
your own research. Also while looking at these titles below, think back
to how popular all of these were and still are, this may help you
understand the true earning potential.
1.
Who doesn't the classic tales of Betty Boop that now reside in the
public domain.
2.
How could you ever forget about Tarzan.
3.
Crime didn't stand a chance when Dick Tracy was watching over things and
now you can put him to work for you.
4.
Even from within the public domain you can rest assure that Charlie
Chaplin is still up to the same old antics.
5.
Growing up I was a huge fan of Flash Gordon and he is now in the public
domain.
6.
Spinach may not help you strengthen your business, but it sure did give
Popeye a boost.
7.
Sherlock Holmes is still solving crimes in the public domain.
8.
Do you remember Abott and Costello's version of Jack and the Beanstalk.
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