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I wonder if doing a score to a short footage will violates a copyright. Anyone has an experience about this? Next year I must have some kind of portfolio to show. And I think I'm gonna rely so much to cut scenes. Or otherwise if I can find some public domains that I can use also for practicing. But how many of them could be out there and in many genres that I need to cover.

The answer is It depends. You are asking about a sync license. That you don't know this indicates that there is a lot you don't know about the music business.

Internet forums are horrible places to obtain correct answers to questions such as yours. Although there are a number of us with well-meaning good advice, without precise knowledge of your circumstances, it could easily be wrong because we don't know enough about you.

I can tell you that music and sound recordings published in the US before January 1, 1923 are in the Public Domain. This will not change until 1/1/2019 when the date moves to Jan 1, 1924. I hope that helps.

I strongly recommend these two books. Both are also available in Kindle editions so you can read it on your iPad (or other device). They will arm you with a good, basic knowledge of the music industry. Think of these as investments in your career. The total cost is about the same as fees for one Adult Ed class around where I live.

All You Need to Know About the Music Business: Eighth Edition Hardcover by Donald S. Passman
http://www.amazon.com/Need-Know-About-M ... 1451682468

Music Money and Success 7th Edition: The Insider's Guide to Making Money in the Music Business Paperback
by Jeffrey Brabec (Author) , Todd Brabec (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Money-Succe ... 0825673690

You will save a lot of money when you need an entertainment attorney by knowing a) when you need one and b) what questions to ask. People spend a lot having lawyers educating them on basics covered in these two books.

If it's just for your reel, as a work sample, I wouldn't worry about licensing.

Agreed.

I don't disagree.

The naivete of the question raised a serious red flag, IMO.

Actually a green flag.

Thanks, everyone.

I think I'm gonna use vimeo for my samples instead of youtube as the later tend to close down any uploaded 2-3 minutes insignificant snippet of known movies even for a beginner who's starting to get an opportunity by using an orchestral mock up.

Fact is, it would be pretty odd for a big film studio to care much about you scoring a segment for an exercise. Legally you can't but in the real world it's not a big deal. Just don't try to sell the video.

I'll add to this the Internet Archives is a depository of free license films, although mostly black and white, it's what I plan to use to learn the details of doing score work.

https://archive.org/index.php

Same thing applies though, don't try to sell it, most of this is simply out of license, not free to use to make a profit.