Movieclips Nets $7M in Funding, Hooks Up With YouTube

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Massive film clip library Movieclips wants to be the premiere provider of official and trusted film clip content on YouTube, and the site got a big boost in funding today to achieve that end.

Over the past few years, Movieclips has been working to compile an extensive database of film clips. Their slick interface allows you to search for film clips in an intuitive and vastly comprehensive way- a “deep set of metadata” by actor, director, prop, setting, ad infinitum, on a scale of 1,000 points. And anyone who has turned to YouTube to settle a bet only to find a recreation of a scene from a college drama class or featuring Lego men can identify with the need for a more vetted and trustworthy pool of film clips on YouTube.

Movieclips co-founder Zach James commented on clip quality and piracy prevention inherent in the YouTube deal:

“First and foremost, this helps studios eliminate piracy because these are licesened clips… And it helps users too. Instead of searching for your favorite scene from Scarface and finding a scene done by kindergartners, you’ll get to watch the actual movie clip.”

James also said he was “pumped” about the $7 million round of funding from MK Capital, the first and largest funder of Machinima- YouTube’s most viewed content provider. MK Capital partner Mark Terbeek told MarketWatch that the firm believes Movieclips is “extremely promising” in the space, and partner Yair Landau said the company had “tremendous potential.”

In a press release, YouTube’s product marketing manager for music, movies, and TV Camille Hearst spoke about the need for more organized, searchable film content within the network and said Movieclips will bring that in the partnership:

“There’s a sea of content that can add to a YouTube user’s movie experience thanks to Movieclips.com. We’re excited to be working with Movieclips.com to provide users with exactly what they’re looking for when they want to get more into movies on YouTube.”

Below, a clip offering more information on the Movie Genome project:

[RWW, VB, MarketWatch]