The Creative Commons, a licensing system which complements copyright and allows for creators to permit others to use their work in a way they see appropriate without having to go through tons of paperwork, has had a profound affect on the way people now share and collaborate with each other online. In particular, video footage and music is now readily available for use on your own films as long as you accredit the author in most cases.
An example of one way in which these licenses have been used is that of the Elephants Dream. Using open source software, allowed these producers to make a film which they couldn’t have done without such a license unless they had lots of funding. Elephants Dream (which on the Inter Movie Data Base a user has commented it is a “failure”) is pioneering and the first of it’s kind.
I have since used these ideas myself to make a film which I will discuss I a later blog. My greatest issue while film making is that I am not fluent with producing music and nor do I know anyone that is. As a result I have in the past struggled to come up with scores of music to accompany my films. But with the knowledge of the creative commons and many people producing free to use music I shall now be incorporating this into whatever productions I make.
