Contribute to our library
Become a content partner
We’re partnering with filmmakers and production companies across the globe to grow our library, showcasing the wonder of our planet, the urgent challenges we face, and the solutions for recovery.
Over 80 contributors have signed up to donate footage to Open Planet for education and impact use. This includes individual cinematographers, production studios, media agencies and conservation organisations, as well as partnerships with major broadcasters such as the BBC, Netflix and National Geographic.
All usage is managed in line with our library terms. Contributors can nominate clips for commercial sales, managed direct by the Open Planet team. There is also an opportunity to be part of our growing collection on Getty.
Why open-source footage is so vital
In this critical decade for action, we need to supercharge storytelling on an unprecedented scale. But storytellers face significant challenges in creating compelling, visual content about the planetary crisis:
- Inspiring footage of the impacts and solutions simply doesn’t exist.
- The high-quality footage that does exist is often rights-restricted and expensive to use.
- It can be hard to determine what footage shows, its authenticity and scientific accuracy.
- Content is often in the wrong format for storytellers to easily and readily use and adapt.
Open Planet was created as a solution to these challenges.
Together with our network of content partners, we’re revolutionising storytelling about our changing planet, by democratising trusted, world-class footage.
How your footage makes an impact
This is a chance to help drive change and create a lasting legacy for your work.
By contributing to Open Planet, you’re not only joining a global community of impact-driven filmmakers helping to accurately document our changing planet — you’re empowering storytellers across the world to inspire change through their own stories.
To date, footage from our library has featured in wide-ranging impact content reaching communities and decision-makers around the world.
There are also opportunities for commissioned shoots and shoot-shares led by Open Planet and other contributors as part of wider impact collaborations and commercial projects.
Become a contributor
If you're documenting life on the frontlines of our changing world, we want to hear from you! Get in touch with our team to discuss how your footage can help move the world and inspire thousands more stories to be told.
Get in touch"Open Planet is creating a huge global impact, by encouraging and empowering storytellers world over."
— Kenneth Lawrence, Wildlife Filmmaker & Contributor to Open Planet
FAQs
Learn more about contributing content to Open Planet
To find out more about contributing to Open Planet, reach out to our team with some information about your footage collection, such as the types of topics/regions you have filmed and any rights associated with your footage. Our team will then review and respond to your request.
Please note, any contributions to the library must comply with our editorial guidelines in terms of technical specification, quality, resolution, format and legitimacy. We do not accept any AI-generated content.
Once you have been approved as a contributor, you’re ready to upload!
We will provide support and simple steps for how to upload your footage to the library, including guidance on file specifications and metadata. Our editorial team will then review your content to ensure it aligns with our editorial guidelines before publishing.
We’re working with a growing, global network of over 80 industry-leading filmmakers, broadcasters, producers and organisations to build the largest collection of free climate and nature footage in history. Together with new filming commissioned by Open Planet, we have already unlocked over 16,000 world-class clips for education and impact use.
As part of this, our production team at Open Planet Studios also donates footage captured for its own impact productions (past and present) – the latest being Ocean with David Attenborough. Find out more here.
Our library covers themes spanning the intersection of climate, nature and humanity – including the major issues and solutions. This includes world-class footage, data visualisations, and firsthand interviews with experts and community voices.
Through collaboration and partnership, we are working to grow the volume and diversity of our library to cover a broader range of themes and geographical locations.
Priority themes for growing the library include:
- Climate Impacts & Habitat Destruction – Deforestation, mangrove loss, oil spills, coastal erosion, fossil fuels, wildfires, flooding, storms and extreme weather, ocean plastic & pollution, battery and livestock farming.
- Wildlife & Biodiversity – Flora and fauna, wild habitats and ecosystems, algal blooms.
- Restoration & Recovery – Rewilding methods, habitat surveys, marine and land restoration (coral/seagrass), community action and activism, recovery after extreme weather events.
- Health & Wellbeing – People in nature, healthcare facilities, waste and pollution, smog, mosquitos, drinking water facilities.
- Greener Futures – Electric vehicles, eco-architecture, urban greening, pedestrianised streets, solar and wind infrastructure, recycling facilities.
Our library supports a global community of over 3,000 individual storytellers and organisations across 110+ countries worldwide.
This includes leaders in science and innovation presenting on the world’s most influential stages, to community groups and non-profits driving local change, to international NGOs campaigning on environmental issues, to filmmakers and broadcasters creating documentaries for impact, and educators inspiring the next generation of climate champions.
Visit our inspiration page to explore examples of how our library is being used.
All clips featured in our library can be freely used in educational content and for non-commercial impact purposes. This includes use across social/digital channels or at public/private events (by any organisation/individual) that are free to access, focused on making information about the planetary crisis available to others, and within the wider terms of usage.
Contributors to the library can also nominate footage for commercial licensing, managed directly by the Open Planet team on a request basis. There is also an opportunity to contribute to our growing collection on Getty.
If you would like to discuss licensing options, including rights management and exclusivity, please reach out to our team to discuss: enquiries@openplanet.org.
We recognise the importance of full credits for any footage kindly donated to our library. As such, we provide clear guidelines on crediting in our terms and conditions— provided upon download— and these are also regularly distributed direct to users of our library following downloads of content.
All users are instructed to credit both Open Planet and the associated production company or contributor, listed alongside each clip in the library.
Credits must feature within the final asset (such as an end card or on-screen credit) and/or in the supporting copy alongside the video (for example a social media caption or educational resources).
With the need for storytelling greater than ever, we believe the benefit of open-sourcing high-quality, trusted content far outweighs any risk of potential misuse.
All users who register and download content from our library must agree to strict terms and conditions. These state that content must be used within its intended context, for non-commercial use only, with the purpose of making information about the planetary crisis available to others.
We closely track and monitor all downloads of clips from our library, and follow up with users for further information. If users are found in breach of the usage terms, their license will be terminated and any content must be deleted, though we have not experienced such breaches to date.
All our contributors donate footage on a non-exclusive basis, and can nominate their footage for non-commercial (free) and/or commercial use, with any profits from sales shared between the contributor and Open Planet. We reinvest any profits back into our library, to help empower storytellers everywhere to create impactful content.
We have received a hugely positive response from filmmakers all over the world who are interested in supporting our mission and donating footage that would otherwise go unused. Together, we are extending the impact and legacy of that footage to power thousands of new stories globally.
We are extremely grateful for the generosity of our contributors and will always approach them first for any new shoots commissioned and paid for by Open Planet.
No, we do not allow AI platforms to access or use footage from our library.
