Freesound Forums
Can I use freesound in my movie?
Started February 4th, 2006 · 43 replies · Latest reply by acclivity 17 years, 9 months ago
Well i'm currently making a small movie production. It's never going to be a blockbuster, but I think the easiest way to approach this - every sample i've taken from this site, i've asked the owner how they'd like to be acredited for their work, and if they have any specific use-limitations on their work (for example they might not want it linked to a religious project).
Technically, as long as I credit people - their personal opinions on the subject are not legally binding, and I could then use that sound in my project if it were religious.
However, I value the community's input and work and think it's nice to ask these things.
No matter how much you remix someone's work - it will always have originally been their work, so I think it's probably safe just to ask them first.
Again, this is just how I do things. I'm sure other people don't, but these sound effects really can make a production - so it seems fair to credit where appropriate.
I did some bird flaps for an animated short using a large down comforter blanket, sounded great. If you ahve one I highly reccomend doing it as live foley with the blanket. I no longer have the recordings on my drive. Good luck
NCRIII
This is my first time here. What a great concept. I really like the co-op aspect of what happens here and I can easily see how valuable and unique the recordings are here. Unfortunately, I would he very reluctant to use the sound effects from this site in a film because of the legal restrictions that are imposed. As a professional sound editor working on large-scale feature films, it's just not worth putting production nor myself at risk in this way. Giving credit to every recordist of every sound is just not common practice unfortunately. It's not feasible to do it this way. Professional editors and sound designers use commmercial libraries and sites like Sound Dogs because by purchasing the license to use recordings from these sources there are very few restrictions and very limited liability. Of couse, in my experience the best sounds are ones recorded custom for each show because many commercial libraries are "generic" and over-used. This site interests me because it seems like a great resource for hard-to-find, esoteric, and "non-generic" recordings. I'm really sorry I can't use any of it. Maybe when I make my own film. :wink:
starcrash13
This is my first time here. What a great concept. I really like the co-op aspect of what happens here and I can easily see how valuable and unique the recordings are here. Unfortunately, I would he very reluctant to use the sound effects from this site in a film because of the legal restrictions that are imposed. As a professional sound editor working on large-scale feature films, it's just not worth putting production nor myself at risk in this way. Giving credit to every recordist of every sound is just not common practice unfortunately. It's not feasible to do it this way. Professional editors and sound designers use commmercial libraries and sites like Sound Dogs because by purchasing the license to use recordings from these sources there are very few restrictions and very limited liability. Of couse, in my experience the best sounds are ones recorded custom for each show because many commercial libraries are "generic" and over-used. This site interests me because it seems like a great resource for hard-to-find, esoteric, and "non-generic" recordings. I'm really sorry I can't use any of it. Maybe when I make my own film. :wink:
*sigh* I hear this soooooo much lately and it's a completely fallacious argument: it's very easy to put something like:
"This Movie contains samples from the Freesound project <insert logo here>. Special thanks to ABC and XYZ for the many samples supplied, for the full list of users and samples used in this feature see: http://www.somesite.com/fulllist.html"
in the credits of the movie.
- bram
As I understand it, there are actually a huge amount of regulations that have to do with crediting in films. I heard a story of a director who left the director's guild because they wouldn't allow him to do a film without opening credits. Also, I heard of a case where the pioneering electronic musicians who worked on The Day The Earth Stood Still were uncredited because they weren't members of the musician's guild at the time.
These cases might not hold true in our situation and time, but it can still be tricky business.
I think with the sampling license though, the author should be able to specify a method of crediting that doesn't involve being placed on the credits roll of the film.
I personally am not a huge user of Freesound. I do no uploading and little downloading. but if I uploaded a generic sound, a gun shot, a door creaking etc. I wouldn't care if it was used somewhere. I probably wouldn't know it was mine anyway.
When you talk about music, that is creative sound peices, I think you should give credit. A slamming door isn't original, and isn't that special. A guy doing a one minute guitar solo of his own design, thats different.
hmm...
tell that to dobroide and acclivity and richard humphries and all the proffesional sound recorders out here: a sound is like a little gem to them. a diamond in the rough.
perhaps a door-slam isn't that unique. but when it's a special creaking 200 year old door, recorded in high detail, it becomes worth more than "just" a door slam.
- bram
When you talk about music, that is creative sound peices, I think you should give credit. A slamming door isn't original, and isn't that special. A guy doing a one minute guitar solo of his own design, thats different.
Hmm... that neatly neglects the efforts people go through to make a beautiful sample. Mind you, that is not easy. And as for the one-minute guitarsolo... I don't consider a one minute solo or even ten minutes of hi-speed shredding as particular original. It's just stringing a limited range of notes together...
Just to show that it is rather subjective to decide what is 'original' and what not.
Some valid points. Thanks guys. I will recommmend this website to independent filmmakers and other sound editors and designers. As for larger projects, unfortunately you guys are asking to reinvent the wheel which is fairly difficult in the film industry. Coming from a music background myself, I can see where a lot of you are coming from (the fact that you use the term "sample" makes me think that you are mostly coming from a musical standpoint; this term is almost never used in film/video). My point is that musicians often make their own standards and are known for improvisation whereas in film there are standard practices that are strongly adhered to and take years of experience to learn. This is actually a good thing because we are almost always working as a team and standard procedures save time and money.
Music "samples" which are often very recognizable, or worst-case are the entire hook of the song, are USUALLY a very different beast from sound effects used in film. A recorded sound effect (a "little gem" or otherwise) is usually a very tiny piece in a very massive puzzle. Ambient sounds are often played at around -20 dBFS to as low as -45 dBFS layered with 2, 3, 4, or more other "gems". Giving credit for each recording just won't usually fly. Crediting a "sample" in the liner notes of your music CD is something else entirely and there have been enough lawsuits that this is now standard practice.
In film, sounds that are specific and original for the film like dinosaurs, aliens, or nuclear submarines usally come from a sound designer who is a member of the union (I'm a member of IATSE local 16 for example). AFAIK, non-union crew are not legally allowed to work on union shows and should not be credited. Door slams, creaks, crickets and other more common sound effects can come from commercial or personal libraries, get recorded by recordists on the crew (or editors themselves these days), or sometimes come from the foley department as props recordings.
Don't get me wrong. High quality recordings of nature and other interesting sounds are often beautiful and amazing. This is why I am in this business because I love recorded sound. I have a huge amount of respect for hobbyist and pro recordists alike. Make CD's and sell them like many others do or share them on a site like this. Hopefully people's work will be discovered here which will lead to more work. The point of my first post was that the licensing scheme used on this site is very unique and limits use quite a bit. But, the sounds are free so what can I say.
Thanks a lot for that insight Pascal... !
It makes me think again that Freesound perhaps should switch to using 3 licenses (chosen by the user when adding his files):
1. attribution - non-commercial (attribute me and you can't use in commercial projects)
2. attribution - commercial (attribute me)
3. public doman (do whatever you like)
Do you think doing this would make it easier for people to use the sounds? I mean, I bet many people would want to switch to public domain...
Also, one important fact stays the same: although people here release their sounds under a specific license, they are always allowed to re-release their sound under another license. There have been many cases in freesound where an author/recordist at freesound was asked for different licensing, and was granted his request.
Another question: sometimes I think it would be nice to credit Freesound (although echnically Freesound isn't the author) of the sounds. Do you think this is feasable?
- bram
adding options is a nice thing and logical thing.
however with that said-should we really call it free sounds then? thats more a philsophical question but its one that will need to be addressed if you add options.
it would make it easier (in my view) and less confusion will occur for those downloading the many wonderful samples here.
in giving freesounds love in the credits-well that should be on every downloaders mind when releasing commercial work
is it that hard to say
big up's to freesound for providing such a great forum and big up's to so and so for providing the sample such and such.
pretty easy que no?
Bram
sometimes I think it would be nice to credit Freesound (although echnically Freesound isn't the author) of the sounds. Do you think this is feasable?- bram
I understand that detailed attribution lists are impractical in some contexts, but finding these sounds without the help of FS would had been hard/impossible. I for one don't have any need to see my nick fly in an absurdly long list of credits, but proper credit to FS is a must IMO. That was invariably my answer whenever somebody asked permission to make commercial use of a sample. My two cents.
cheers
That I think that would be a much more agreeable prospect...
to slip in a thanks to the feesound project and web address.
Perhaps a mention of the film name on here some where would also be appropriate...
Bram,
how about adding a 'collective attribution to FS allowed' radio button (yes/no ) at the sound description form?
Then maybe an entry at the left column with something like 'FS appears in..' might take the visitor to a list of movies/clips/podcasts/whatever crediting sounds collectively. That would be fair for those that produce commercial works (and maybe a stimulus for sound authors to consent to collective attribution)
cheers
Just wanted to officially eat my words and say congrats to Freesound and thanvannispen for their appearance in the credits of Children of Men! COM is a great sound design movie and I can't think of a better film for the debut of freesound into the majors. In the future we will all be sterile and using Freesound for our sound effects!
Yes! It seems like it is possible for large films to use samples under the Sampling+ License after all, at least on a small scale.
Hopefully the license change, along with an additional mechanism (pointing to an external attribution list as bram often mentions) or allowing group attribution through user consent (as dobroide suggested), the freesound library will be more useful to feature films.
Freesounders, note that if the sound had been licensed under CC-BY-NC, this wonderful occurence wouldn't have been possible. (Vote CC-BY!)