Wanting to find that exact clip from Jaws for your Facebook page? What about that perfect moment from Mamma Mia? Well, they’ll both soon be not only available, but increasingly easy to find; Universal has become the first major movie studio to license parts of its library to AnyClip, a company that specializes in digitalizing films and making every moment searchable.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the deal will allow AnyClip not only to cut up a large number of Universal movies into shorter clips that will then be meta-tagged and made searchable, although searches will not be exact; searching for “ET Phone Home” will not only bring up clips from ET, but also a scene from Curious George that includes a phone but no mention of the famous phrase. “The technology is still developing,” according to AnyClip CEO Oren Nauman, adding “A machine can tell you it’s a car, but not a Mustang.” Or, in fact, whether it’s an alien or a monkey.
Universal’s Sam Nouri says that this multiyear deal is all about introducing the movies to a new audience:
Part of the value I see in AnyClip is this deep meta-tagging of the film. We’ve not had a viewpoint into the films like this before… It’s less of a curator experience and more about letting users have the power to find their favorite moments from their favorite movies. That’s breaking new ground.
The agreement will allow AnyClip to sign up distribution partners like IMDB.com, Fandango and Hulu for the clips (which will also be available to be embedded on blogs, Facebook pages and the like), with each clip to be accompanied by links to online sources to buy the entire movie.
AnyClip is reportedly already in negotiations with other studios for a similar service.
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