Slice it and dice it! Paramount to sell movie clips online
Do you have a presentation that is just okay, but would be ten times more memorable with a killer movie clip added to it? Taking from the words of the illustrious Godfather, Paramount Digital Entertainment is going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. In a recent announcement by the studio, Paramount has laid out plans to begin selling clips from its expansive movie library online.
In order to turn older movies into new sources of revenue, Paramount has partnered with technology firm Digitalsmiths to develop an online movie clip site from the studio’s library. The initial launch of the site, www.ParamountClips.com, will be available for commercial use only (agencies, businesses, broadcasts, etc.) and will include 80 films that can be searched by actor, location, film genre, or line of dialogue. Once a film is selected, registered users can slice it to create their own customized clip. Rather than having to purchase rights to the entire film, users will only pay for their clip and pricing will vary based on the selected film. Plans are also in the works to make the site available for consumer use down the road.
The movie clip concept is similar to the way in which the music industry began selling pieces of songs for use as ring tones. While a variety of popular clips from films like Forrest Gump and the Godfather currently appear on sites like YouTube, Paramount’s customized approach to movie clips will no doubt gain interest and excitement within the industry. After all, why link to a sub-par clip on YouTube when you can purchase a high quality, customized clip from the source for a reasonable price?
From a business and marketing perspective it is nice to see that the film industry is embracing emerging media beyond simply offering their full-length films for purchase in digital format. As the inclusion of video content becomes more popular among businesses and consumers alike I’m willing to bet that the other Hollywood studios will follow in Paramount’s footsteps and make their content available as well. As has been seen in the print industry, failure to adapt to change and find new ways of doing business in a digital world could spell the end of what was once a viable business. Digital media is here to stay and hopefully the film industry will do a better job of getting ahead of it and embracing it than the print industry did.
