Motionbox provides a nice interface for creating clips of videos they host. Along with Hulu, Motionbox is among the first to introduce the idea of clipping portions of web video. However, Motionbox outshines Hulu in terms of usability. Clipping is a simple operation that mimics the video selection paradigm users have become comfortable with on video editing software. And unlike Hulu, Motionbox provides instant feedback about where the start and end markers lie, by moving the video playhead with the position of the markers as you adjust the clip size. The filmstrip and the click and drag behavior for arbitrary clip selection also give the user the feedback and control that they're probably expecting for this type of feature.

1. Video player with filmstrip of thumbnails shown below playhead.
2. Clicking "Select Clip" drops clip markers to the left and right of the playhead position and displays emailing/linking/preview options. Playhead snaps to whatever marker is in focus when adjusting clip length. User may also click and drag arbitrarily to select a clip area.
3. Clicking the "Link to Clip" button copies a link to the video with start and end markers as part of the query string.
4. The permalink for the shared link to the clip loads the full video, but only plays the clip segment selected in the prior steps.
Screencast / Video

Motionbox Clipping from jibbajabba on Vimeo.

http://askeric.motionbox.com/2008/01/episode_10_top_5_uploading_tip.html