December 14, 2009, New York Times
By Brooke Barnes
Paramount Pictures, looking for new ways to turn its old movies into cash, especially as DVD sales continue to decline, is creating an online video clip service that will allow users to search hundreds of feature films on a frame-by-frame basis.
Feeling the need for speed, as Tom Cruise put it in Top Gun? Log on to ParamountClips.com, search for the exact video snippet you want and press the checkout button. Within minutes – with the price depending on the type of licensing use you have in mind – Paramount will electronically deliver the selection in the format and resolution desired. Most scenes are available in multiple languages.
The site, to be introduced on Tuesday, is powered by VideoSense, an automated indexing tool developed by the technology company Digitalsmiths. Using proprietary video interpretation systems, Digitalsmiths allows films to be quickly searched by specific actor, line of dialogue, location, genre or product, among other criteria.