I recently watched a fantasy movie which gave me some ideas for magic items that I'd like to try. Had I never seen this movie, I would have never thought to try these things. In other words, my character would have never thought of them without seeing the movie. However, who is to say that my character didn't see the same movie? He's in a world where the technology exists to watch movies. I guess would it be morally right to try these ideas I got from a movie as my character?
Actually, the referee gets to say whether your character saw the same movie or not.
Does it matter? Yes and no.
It does not matter because if you are in a situation in which whatever this thing is that you want to try is appropriate, you can certainly at that moment say that you've got an idea, and use the idea from the movie to address it. You don't have to say where you got your ideas. I certainly would not say that your character will never think of any solution to a problem that you saw in a movie he never saw.
It does matter because if you are doing something you saw in a movie, something which your character saw in that movie, then you have the example of the character in the movie--a 1@1 example, because it is fictional, but an example nonetheless, and worth 11 points toward your success. If you saw it but your character never did, he can't take the example because he doesn't have it.
I think that's about as fair as I can manage. Make sense?
--M. J. Young