One of the more challenging aspects of the StudentCam competition can be finding clips of C-SPAN video programming that best complement your documentary’s theme. You should NOT be paying to download C-SPAN footage for use in your documentary. If you need help finding video related to your topic, please email us at: educate@c-span.org.

While you are not required to use a specific duration of C-SPAN video, one of the criteria your video will be judged on is the relevance of the C-SPAN clips that you select for use in your documentary. We highly recommend that you consider using several short video clips from C-SPAN programs throughout your documentary in order to show background, context and/or varying viewpoints related to your chosen issue. We also suggest that any individual C-SPAN clip used should not run longer than 10-15 seconds at a time. Review some of the past winning videos to see how other students have used C-SPAN video clips to support and enhance their documentaries. 

In the section below you’ll see a list of topics with ready made clips of C-SPAN programming that are available for you to stream and download for free through Dropbox file hosting. Click on a topic and search the page by keywords to find related video clip options. Watch the video clip and if you like what you see, click “File” then “Download” to save an MP4 video to your computer or device that you can then trim and use in your documentary.

You may use any video clips that include C-SPAN graphics, including any of C-SPAN’s branded properties, like the Washington Journal, Ceasefire, BookTV, and American History TV.

Again, if you are having difficult finding C-SPAN clips related to your topic and you need help, simply email us at: educate@c-span.org.