Hello,
I founded and hosted a video production class with about eight high school students for six months. Within this six months we did anything from music videos to short films. One of the final projects was developing a short five minute film where each student had a part to play in storytelling to on set roles.
Graduation is in a week and as part of graduation gifts Im handing each of them a thumdrive in which I hope to include all the edited footage from this short film for them to tinker with.
But one thing is I'm submitting this to traildance film festival in the student category.

Would I safely be able to give students this footage even if I rendered all to a lower res even 420 format, nothing to be actually usable with?

I don't understand the last line of your question, or your goal. (Or what it has to do with the film festival.) You want to make sure the footage is editable, or make sure it is not editable?

I want to give students some material for them to play around with that they had a hand in making, but then I dont want to release the footage "straight from the camera" making it easy for them to re-claim or say its their own work if it got into the wrong hands

They are kids.....the first place that footage is going is all over the internet!

Steve

I'm not sure if I don't like it that you don't want to release to them the footage they shot for their class project (that seems to have something to do with you winning an award with it), or whether I don't like it that you presume they will lie and cheat with it, but since you asked for opinions, I think you should release their footage to them unmodified if they ask for it.

I guess you run your program differently than college video production class? To me it would have been very weird, and probably pissed me off, if we hadn't been able to do whatever we wanted with the projects WE made in school. We wrote/shot/edited them, how were they NOT ours? If you run your program differently though, then that's a different story.

The thing is also, we shot on location where we had property release waivers, and used upcoming professional cast we were shooting just for the short film,. Not side projects that may come out besides the school.

Oh, you had property release waivers? Then you definitely should watermark the footage before you give it to them. Don't want *that* getting out there in public.

The thing is also, we shot on location where we had property release waivers, and used upcoming professional cast we were shooting just for the short film,. Not side projects that may come out besides the school.
Is the footage encumbered by licensing agreements with locations and pro (paid?) cast that actually limits distribution?

I have no idea what's in those agreements, if they exist, but this seems very unusual for a school production.

Regardless, (and I am not a lawyer and don't give legal advice, and you shouldn't trust the internet for your legal advice anyways), it is common in the industry for people to be able to use the projects they've worked on in their portfolios.

Anything further than that really depends on the language of any contracts.

If you are making agreements that restrict distribution, the time to think about your students' use is before the project...

It sounds like you're enthusiastic about this first run of your class - congratulations! It's no small thing to create a high school production class! Good luck on the next run.

Is the footage encumbered by licensing agreements with locations and pro (paid?) cast that actually limits distribution?

If you are making agreements that restrict distribution, the time to think about your students' use is before the project...

Pretty much this.

And you have to keep in mind any distribution limits that your planned festival entries could have as well.