There's a somewhat new trend in website design these days, and that's to use full-screen background videos. Whether you need a simple splash screen or you're looking for some moving images for a parallax effect, you'll end up discovering that it's not an easy task to find the right video ... with the right licensing terms and for the right price. HD videos can be pretty pricey, but if you know where to look and what you're looking for, a whole new world of possibilities will pop up.


Below are four sites that offer free of cost, free of restriction videos that you can download and use however you want. There aren't any size or use rules. There aren't any stipulations about how you can change them, who you can give your files to or what kind of projects are allowed. They're truly free.

Note: Be sure to check the individual license on a video before you use it in a project. Each artist can select his or her own requirements, so, for example, an attribution might be needed. And if a video was released under a Creative Commons license, double check that it's one that follows the open source rules and guidelines.

Flickr

Just like our list of the best places for "free" photos, this one is going to start off with Flickr, too. You might not realize that Flickr even has videos on it, but if you open up the Advanced Search screen, you'll find some key filters that you can very easily take advantage of.

So, to find those Creative Commons-licensed videos, go to the Advanced Search page, select "Only Videos" under the "Search by media type" heading and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and check off "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content." Keep in mind that if you want to use the video in a commercial project or modify it at all, you can also select check boxes for those, too.

After you have those settings in place, be sure that you typed in your keywords up at the top of the screen and press the "Search" button. If you don't have the above link handy, you can also get to the Advanced Search page by clicking on the magnifying glass in the search bar and then clicking on the "Advanced Search" link.

Pond5

Next up is a site called Pond5, which lists audio, image and video files for purchase or download, and luckily, one of the filters you can turn on is to show only Public Domain results. This gives you a simple way to quickly narrow down your results.

Most of the videos included under the "Public Domain" heading are old-school, but if that's what you're looking for, you just found yourself a treasure-trove. To get to them, go to the Footage page and click on the "Public Domain Only" link in the left-hand column. Once that's checked, you're good to go!

Videvo

Videvo is a free stock footage and motion graphic resource, but just because it doesn't cost anything doesn't mean that it's open source. Unlike the other sites on our list, Videvo, as far as I can tell, makes you work a little harder to find out about licensing terms -- there aren't any filters you can use to narrow down your search results. It's too bad that the license selected by the artist isn't more visible.

With that said, though, there are some nice videos on the site, and since there are just two licenses for artists to choose from when they upload a file, it's not too hard to see where things stand for each entry. Open up whatever video you're interested in using and scroll down until you see the "License" heading (it's right under the "Tags" box). If it says "Videvo Standard License," its use is restricted ... but if it says "Creative Commons 3.0," the only restriction is that you have to credit the original creator.

Vimeo

And, last up, is another big name in video -- Vimeo. You might not realize that you can search for restriction-free videos on this site, but I'm sure that you've poked around and viewed some of its films. They seem to be everywhere these days!

If you're just looking for a Creative Commons license, it's pretty simple to do -- run your search just as you normally would and, once the results pop up, click on the "Advance Filters" header at the top of the right-hand column. At the bottom of the box that appears, you'll see a dropdown under the "License" heading. If you're looking only for Public Domain videos, though, be sure to check out the Public Domain Channel or just search for your keyword + Public Domain (for example, "dog public domain"). Everything you see in those results should be free of use restrictions.