Today, video-sharing site Movieclips.com is opening itself up to the world and also offering developers access to its API.

Back in December, we covered the launch of Movieclips.com — which is kind of like Hulu, but for movie clips. The site — which was originally only available in the U.S. and Canada — is unique in that it offers up thousands of searchable, embeddable, shareable legally licensed movie clips from Hollywood flicks — including films that are current in theaters — for free.

I got to talk to co-founders Zach James and Rich Raddon about the site, the new API and international availability.

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Watch Out World

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One of the best things about the Internet is that it can break down barriers like location. Unfortunately, when it comes to creative content like movies and TV shows, where you live often dictates what you can watch online. This can get downright ridiculous, especially when you consider how many films appear in theaters internationally — increasingly at the same time as they are released in the U.S.

Sites like SpeedCine are making it easier for international users to find movie options, but it’s still a very silly problem in the age of the Internet.

That’s why I was so impressed that Zach and Rich worked to launch Movieclips.com globally. The guys told me that it was actually feedback from the international community — movie lovers who couldn’t access the site — that pushed them to work out the deals so that no matter where you are, you can watch clips like this one:

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Movieclips.com API

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The other big announcement today is that developers can now apply to become an approved partner and gain access to the Movieclips API. This has some really exciting possibilities.

As it stands right now, the Movieclips team tags every single clip with tons of meta information — this includes stuff like the dialogue in the scene, the actors and actresses, the mood of the scene, the general theme, etc.

Developers can plug into this information so that they can serve not just clips from the database, but also pull up specific clips for a certain purpose. For instance, if you wanted to write an app that would generate a new clip based on certain holidays or based on a mood description, you could do it.

Likewise, imagine the kind of movie trivia games that could be aided by having access to a huge library of clips, as well as details like actor name, role, etc. I hope that some developers take advantage of this tool, because this could add some great context and functionality to movie apps.

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More to Come

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The Movieclips guys will be announcing more stuff at SXSWi, but in the meantime, check out the site if you haven’t already. More and more clips are being added every week, and Movieclips remains one of the best ways to legally share content online — regardless of where you live.

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Tags: hulu, movie clips, movieclips.com, Movies, video sharing

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