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Kuleshov on Film: Writings by Lev Kuleshov
... Also, the manner in which a scene in a film is edited can lead to an emotional response from the audience (Cook, 2004). In editing, one image is replaced instantaneously on the screen by another image, and those two images in succession may trigger emotional responses from the audience that might not be elicited from either image alone (Kuleshov, 1974). Dick (2005) points out that one shot in a film can acquire meaning from a second shot when the two shots are linked together in instantaneous succession with one another. ...
... is seen as having potential impact upon the spectator's psychological interpretation of a character (Giannetti, 2011). Giannetti posits that onscreen movement in an upward direction can make a character seem stronger or more dominant, while downward movement of a character can be construed by the audience as a character being weaker or subservient. Kuleshov (1974) goes even further in his assessment of the impact of vertical movement, suggesting that quicker vertical movement in the upward direction can be interpreted by the audience as a character having strength, while slower upward movement toward the top of the frame can signify that a character is weaker. Similarly, Kuleshov points out that ...
... Giannetti (2011) argues that the spectator will perceive a character's movement towards the lens as he or she being aggressive, or in the case of a movie villain moving closer to the camera, he or she might be seen as " hostile or threatening " by the viewer. Thus, according to film theorists, scholars and creators, character movement within the frame along two of the axes of screen movement, as described by Kuleshov (1974), can impact the spectator psychologically. ...
... Desde esta perspectiva el montaje asume en el análisis propuesto una doble misión. Por una parte, su capacidad productiva, fruto del encuentro de las imágenes y sonidos empleados, permite hacer llegar al espectador, de forma precisa, ideas y reflexiones intelectuales en torno a la historia desplegada (Levaco 1974;Eisenstein, 1959;Mitry, 1986). Por otra, el montaje es responsable del relato que diseña en la mente del espectador una historia, regulando su atención y facilitando su identificación con los personajes que la habitan (Burch, 1981;Bordwell, Staiger y Thompson, 1997). ...
... Para reforzar esta idea del Dutch mesiánico que se hace esperar, Fargo sitúa después del prólogo una barroca secuencia de montaje apelando a la productividad semántica del montaje derivada del efecto Kuleshov y la atracción eisensteniana 4 . El choque de imágenes resultante, embutido en corti-4 Lev Kuleshov demostró que el montaje precisa del psiquismo del espectador a la hora de fijar el significado surgido del encuentro entre dos imágenes mediante diferentes experimentos (Levaco, 1974). El más conocido, bautizado con el nombre del autorexperimento Kuleshov o efecto Kuleshov-demostró que la asociación de dos imágenes en la pantalla determina, en la conciencia del espectador que las percibe "una idea, una emoción, un sentimiento, ajenos a cada una de ellas" (Mitry, 1986, 422). ...
... It makes sense that snap judgments, so to speak, are cued by images within a particular narrative structure that the viewer has previously stored and formed reactive responses to deal with that narrative. Precursors to cognitive film theorists suggested that a succession of images (also known as "montage") would activate particular viewer heuristics (Kuleshov, 1975). Consider the picture to the right (Figure 1). ...
... In this experiment, the exact same picture of an expressionless actor is juxtaposed with different images frame by frame (in sequence). Audiences perceived the actor was expressing hunger in the first frame, sadness in the second, and lust in the third (Kuleshov, 1975). This oft-repeated experiment, one of the most popular in cognitive film theory, provided convincing evidence for the activation of heuristics within the cinematic context. ...
... It has been applied widely in the analysis of film and video media, underlining the importance of communication through modes such as editing, narrative structure, visual composition (mise en scène), etc. The groundwork for the semiotic analysis in film theory was set by Eisenstein [18], Kuleshov [23] and later by Metz [28]. The Kuleshov experiment [19] indicated the importance and effectiveness of film editing by showing that juxtaposing two unrelated images could convey a separate meaning. ...
... It has been applied widely in the analysis of film and video media, underlining the importance of communication through modes such as editing, narrative structure, visual composition (mise en scène), etc. The groundwork for the semiotic analysis in film theory was set by Eisenstein [18], Kuleshov [23] and later by Metz [28] . The Kuleshov ex- periment [19] indicated the importance and effectiveness of film editing by showing that juxtaposing two unrelated images could convey a separate meaning. ...
This paper surveys the approaches to video representation, focusing on semantic analysis for content-based indexing and retrieval. A problem of adaptive representation of digital multimedia is critically assessed and some novel ideas are presented. Furthermore, the concept of video multimodality is reevaluated and redefined in order to introduce modalities such as editing technique or affect to the audience
... The effect that different conclusions are drawn about the well-being of the pigs based on either the straw or the slatted floor setting, despite non-changing facial expression, is similarly known from filmmakers' editing techniques. Different contexts (such as neutral versus emo- tional contextual movies) can alter the perception of facial expressions and mental states of the shown actors, a fact which is known as the Kuleshov effect ( [46]; see also [47]). Mobbs et al. [47] were able to show through an experiment that identical facial expressions are perceived differently when paired with either neutral or emotional contextual movies. ...
Pictures of farm animals and their husbandry systems are frequently presented in the media and are mostly connected to discussions surrounding farm animal welfare. How such pictures are perceived by the broader public is not fully understood thus far. It is presumable that the animals' expressions and body languages as well as their depicted environment or husbandry systems affect public perception. Therefore, the aim of this study is to test how the evaluation of a picture showing a farmed pig is influenced by portrayed attributes, as well as participants' perceptions of pigs' abilities in general, and if connection to agriculture has an influence. In an online survey, 1,019 German residents were shown four modified pictures of a pig in a pen. The pictures varied with regards to facial expression and body language of the pig ('happy' versus 'unhappy' pig) and the barn setting (straw versus slatted floor pen). Respondents were asked to evaluate both the pen and the welfare of the pig. Two Linear Mixed Models were calculated to analyze effects on pig and pen evaluation. For the pictures, the pen had the largest influence on both pig and pen evaluation, followed by the pig's appearance and participants' beliefs in pigs' mental and emotional abilities, as well as their connection to agriculture. The welfare of both the 'happy' and the 'unhappy' pig was assessed to be higher in the straw setting compared to the slatted floor setting in our study, and even the 'unhappy pig' on straw was perceived more positively than the 'happy pig' on slatted floor. The straw pen was evaluated as being better than the slatted floor pen on the pictures we presented but the pens also differed in level of dirt on the walls (more dirt in the slatted floor pen), which might have influenced the results. Nevertheless, the results suggest that enduring aspects of pictures such as the husbandry system influence perceptions more than a momentary body expression of the pig, at least in the settings tested herein. © 2019 Busch et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
... During the last few decades, shot lengths have got shorter, going from about 10 s in the 1930s and 1940s to below 4 s after 2000(Cutting et al., 2011a. Cuts are, by far, the most common transition between shots ( Cutting et al., 2011a,b;Cutting, 2016), and the order and the way that shots are joined by cuts affects the meaning of the story (Eisenstein, 1949;Kuleshov, 1974;Carroll and Bever, 1976). Event segmentation of narrative cinema has been proposed to be an important component in the perception process, as it plays a critical role in the proper understanding of the story ( Zacks et al., 2007Zacks et al., , 2010. ...
Audiovisual cuts involve spatial, temporal, and action narrative leaps. They can even change the meaning of the narrative through film editing. Many cuts are not consciously perceived, others are, just as we perceive or not the changes in real events. In this paper, we analyze the effects of cuts and different editing styles on 36 subjects, using electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques and the projection of stimuli with different audiovisual style of edition but the same narrative. Eyeblinks, event-related potentials (ERPs), EEG spectral power and disturbances, and the functional and effective connectivity before and after the cuts were analyzed. Cuts decreased blink frequency in the first second following them. Cuts also caused an increase of the alpha rhythm, with a cortical evolution from visual toward rostral areas. There were marked differences between a video-clip editing style, with greater activities evoked in visual areas, and the classic continuous style of editing, which presented greater activities in the frontal zones. This was reflected by differences in the theta rhythm between 200 and 400 ms, in visual and frontal zones, and can be connected to the different demands that each style of edition makes on working memory and conscious processing after cutting. Also, at the time of cuts, the causality between visual, somatosensory, and frontal networks is altered in any editing style. Our findings suggest that cuts affect media perception and chaotic and fast audiovisuals increase attentional scope but decrease conscious processing.
... In this broad sense, context has been shown to affect emotional content processing in various ways. For example, the so called 'Kuleshov Effect' -a commonly used method in movies -shows a differential emotion attribution of identical faces, when these faces are either shown in an emotionally salient or in a neutral context (Kuleshov, 1974). In an adaptation of the 'Kuleshov ...
Language is a unique and core human ability. Language is abstract and arbitrary and yet it enables us to communicate with each other. Language allows communication and communication is inherently social. Communicating with and about others is of highest interest for humans, as humans are social beings. This is why receiving human feedback is often extremely emotional. Although we have an extensive knowledge about the neuronal bases of emotional language processing, there are only a few studies yet conducted to investigate socio-communicative influences on language processing.
In my dissertation I examine the influence of a social communicative partner on emotional language processing. Three studies systematically manipulated the expertise and identity of putative interaction partners. These interaction partners gave feedback on positive, negative and neutral adjectives while a high-density Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Actually, in all conditions random feedback was presented, thus a differential processing could only be attributed to sender characteristics. By means of event-related potentials (ERPs), the influence of sender characteristics, emotional content and their interaction was observed. In studies I and II - as a proof of principle - a 'human sender' was compared to a random computer (unequal expertise, unequal humanness). In this study, both feedback anticipation (study I) as well as feedback presentation was investigated (study II). In study III the 'human sender' was compared to a socially intelligent computer (similar expertise, unequal humanness). Eventually, in a fourth study a 'human expert' was compared to a 'layperson' and a random computer sender (unequal expertise, but the 'expert' and 'layperson' were both 'humans').
During anticipation of 'human' feedback, an extremely early enhanced general processing was found. On later stages a more intense processing of emotional adjectives was found in the 'human sender' condition. In general, effects during feedback presentation were substantially larger than during feedback anticipation. Here, large effects were found on early and late ERP components, for both human-generated and emotional feedback. Further, emotional feedback given by a 'human' was additionally amplified. Eventually, in study IV 'expert-feedback' was processed most intensely, followed by 'layperson-feedback' and finally 'computer-feedback'. Localization methods found enhanced sensory processing for 'human-generated' and emotional feedback. Studies III and IV showed additionally increased activations in somatosensory and frontal effects for 'human senders'.
Overall, these experiments showed that not only emotional content but particularly also communicative context influences language processing. We automatically seem to take context factors into account when processing language. Here, 'expertise' results in an enhanced processing aldready on early and highly automatic stages, while supposed humanness seems to be of highest relevance: 'Human-generated' feedback led to enhanced processing in sensory, but also somatosensory and frontal areas. This shows that in human interactions language is amplified processed, which is especially true for emotional language. This dissertation shows for the first time that in realistic communicative settings (emotional) language processing is altered. Here, it seems that first sender information is processed, while emotional content affects later processing stages. The use of state of the art source localization methods enabled to get next to the extremely high temporal resolution (when something happens), a good and reliable spatial resolution (where something happens) of the cortical generator structures of the ERP effects.
... However, exceptions are noteworthy. Several studies have used true experimental methods to test the so‐called Kuleshov Effect, whereby the juxtaposition of two or more edited shots creates a new and particular meaning for the spectator, eliciting emotional responses that might not be elicited from any single image alone (Kuleshov, 1974). The findings of these studies have been decided mixed (Joly & Nicolas, 1986; Neuendorf et al., 2012; Prince & Hensley, 1992). ...
... However, if these body parts could not be discriminated as different characters (hand of ambiguous referential entity, eyes of ambiguous referential entity), they may involve N-Conjunction to construct a single entity. Similar inference was reported by Kuleshov's (1974) "experiments" with film editing where he showed shots of different women's body parts, and people interpreted them as belonging to the same woman (whether these sequences used N-Conjunction or just general partconstructing-whole inference is unknown). If the sequence later disambiguates that these body parts actually come from different entities, we would expect some form of reanalysis in processing the altered mental model. ...
While simple visual narratives may depict characters engaged in events across sequential images, additional complexity appears when modulating the framing of that information within an image or film shot. For example, when two images each show a character at the same narrative state, a viewer infers that they belong to a broader spatial environment. This paper argues that these framings involve a type of ‘‘conjunction,’’ whereby a constituent conjoins images sharing a common narrative role in a sequence. Situated within the parallel architecture of Visual Narrative Grammar, which posits a division between narrative structure and semantics, this narrative conjunction schema interfaces with semantics in a variety of ways. Conjunction can thus map to the inference of a spatial environment or an individual character, the repetition or parts of actions, or disparate elements of semantic associative networks. Altogether, this approach provides a theoretical architecture that allows for numerous levels of abstraction and complexity across several phenomena in visual narratives.
... Because inferences allow a reader to make sense of unexpressed material, they contribute towards building a " situation model " of the discourse in memory (van Dijk & Kintsch, 1983). This emphasis on inference generation has also been a hallmark of film theory (Bordwell & Thompson, 1997; Eisenstein, 1942; Kuleshov, 1974), and studies of film comprehension support that viewers are consciously able to identify changes in time, characters, and spatial locations (Magliano, Miller, & Zwaan, 2001; Magliano & Zacks, 2011; Zacks, Speer, & Reynolds, 2009). Theories of visual narrative comprehension have also emphasized inference (Bordwell, 1985, 2007; Branigan, 1992; Chatman, 1978; Eisenstein, 1942; Magliano, Dijkstra, & Zwaan, 1996; McCloud, 1993; Saraceni, 2001; Yus, 2008), especially the bridging inferences where readers " fill in " the information left unstated between " panels " —the encapsulated image units of a static visual narrative sequence. ...
Studies of discourse have long placed focus on the inference generated by information that is not overtly expressed, and theories of visual narrative comprehension similarly focused on the inference generated between juxtaposed panels. Within the visual language of comics, star-shaped " flashes " commonly signify impacts, but can be enlarged to the size of a whole panel that can omit all other representational information. These " action star " panels depict a narrative culmination (a " Peak "), but have content which readers must infer, thereby posing a challenge to theories of inference generation in visual narratives that focus only on the semantic changes between juxtaposed images. This paper shows that action stars demand more inference than depicted events, and that they are more coherent in narrative sequences than scrambled sequences (Experiment 1). In addition, action stars play a felicitous narrative role in the sequence (Experiment 2). Together, these results suggest that visual narratives use conventionalized depictions that demand the generation of inferences while retaining narrative coherence of a visual sequence.
... 4 The question of how film stimulates these kinds of perceptive and cognitive processes has shaped a century of film theory and production beginning with works by luminaries such as Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein, Lev Kuleshov, Hugo Musterberg and Rudolf Arnheim (see e.g. Arnheim 1954; Eisenstein 1975 Eisenstein , 1977 Kuleshov 1974; Münsterberg 2002; Vertov 1984). Eisenstein, in particular, demonstrated the capacity of film to build meaning through contrasting forms and visual qualities, both in framing and in montage. ...
This paper reflects upon theoretical, practical and ethical issues facing the production of interactive documentary cinema projects that are based on in-depth, disciplinary, intellectual and/or artistic research questions, such of those concerning anthropological observation and visual
studies. The paper considers ways in which perceptions of how documentary images function in digital environments impact documentary practice and production. The interdisciplinary paper draws upon writings in poetry, philosophy, visual studies, cinema studies and art with special attention
given to the writings of Dai Vaughn, Nelson Goodman, Charles Bernstein, John Berger, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Michael Renov, as well as to cinematic and digital works by Sharon Daniels, the Labyrinth Project, Jean Rouch, Samuel Bollendorf and Abel Segretin, among others.
... Instead, juxtaposing shots turned out to be a powerful storytelling tool, allowing filmmakers to create meaning, reshape time, focus attention, and enhance the narrative impact of films. In the 1910s and 1920s, Lev Kuleshov famously demonstrated the power of editing to create meaning when he exposed audiences to three short filmed sequences (Kuleshov 1974). Each contained an identical shot of a then-famous Russian actor staring impassively into the camera. ...
Designing a film requires the filmmaker to make choices about shot length and arrangement. Novice filmmakers sometimes feel that the basic means
of juxtaposing shots, the editorial cut, may create jarring shifts in context for viewers. But this isn’t the case; properly deployed cuts are virtually invisible to viewers. Cuts also allow for crucial control of pacing and narrative intensity, and are a principal tool in helping accomplish one of a filmmaker’s central goals and that is to manage viewer’s attention. The counter-intuitive perceptual phenomena of saccadic suppression may explain why cinematic cuts seem natural to us.
... Moreover, situational information appears to be crucial into judging which emotions are portrayed in a scene, whether a frowning face indicates anger or surprise, torment or meditation (Kuleshov in Levaco, 1974;Frijda, 1986, p. 24;Konijn, 2000, p. 96) or what are the FC's goals (Morrow, Greenspan, & Bower, 1987;Suh & Trabasso, 1993). Thus, observer estimations concerning (dis)similarities with the FC are controlled by the situation in which the comparison takes place. ...
Fictional characters (FCs) and mediated persons in literature, theater, film, art, TV, and digital media fulfill basic psychological functions, although the processes involved remain unspecified. Departing from identification and empathy hypotheses, a new context-sensitive model draws upon similarity studies, empirical aesthetics, persuasion, emotion, and social psychology. The Perceiving and Experiencing Fictional Characters model (PEFiC-model) has three phases. During encoding, observers judge FCs in terms of ethics (good-bad), aesthetics (beautiful-ugly), and epistemics (realistic-unrealistic). Comparison entails appraisals of personal relevance as well as valence towards and (dis)similarity between the dramatis personae and the self. In the response phase, appreciation of FCs is a trade-off between the parallel, unipolar processes of involvement and distance. Intricate involvement-distance conflicts occur when subjective norms disagree with ingroup norms. Furthermore, features participate in multiple (fuzzy) sets (e.g., partly good and partly bad). PEFiC can handle complex responses towards representations of (non-existent) others, such as attractive dissimilarity, the beauty in ugliness, the appeal of negative experiences, and fascination for evil, as well as mixed emotions, ambivalence, and neutral end-states that actually conceal emotional confusion.
... This process of interpretation varies from individual to individual. Moreover, we saw, through the work of Eisenstein [23], Kuleshov [32] and Gregory [25], that visual signification, though based on common human knowledge and thematic structures, provides its own temporal-spatial realities based on patterns of juxtaposition which are interwoven in the narrative structure. For the representation and use of visual media in dynamic digital environments this means that, due to the triple articulation of visual material, we have to represent both its denotative and connotative aspects. ...
In this article we claim that the linguistic-centred view within hypermedia systems needs refinement through a semiotic-based approach before real interoperation between media can be achieved. We discuss the problems of visual signification for images and video in dynamic systems, in which users can access visual material in a non-linear fashion. We describe how semiotics can help overcome such problems, by allowing descriptions of the material on both denotative and connotative levels. Finally we propose an architecture for a dynamic semiotic-aware hypermedia system.
... In the literature, several studies analyzed the practice of audiovisual remix from different points of view: sociological, philosophical, analytical, and technological (e.g.,789101112). In the following, we present approaches related to the technological aspect, that is, proposals designed to facilitate the making of remixed videos. ...
The process of producing new creative videos by editing, combining, and organizing pre-existing material (e.g., video shots) is a popular phenomenon in the current web
scenario. Known as remix or video remix, the produced video may have new and different meanings with respect to the source material. Unfortunately, when managing audiovisual objects, the technological aspect can be a burden for many creative users. Motivated by the large success of the gaming market, we propose a novel game and an architecture to make the remix process a pleasant and stimulating gaming experience. MovieRemix allows people to act like a movie director, but instead of dealing with cast and cameras, the player has to create a remixed video starting from a given screenplay and from video shots retrieved from the provided catalog. MovieRemix is not a simple video editing tool nor is a simple game: it is a challenging environment that stimulates creativity. To temp to play the game, players can access different levels of screenplay (original, outline, derived) and can also challenge other players. Computational and storage issues are kept at the server side, whereas the client device just needs to have the capability of playing streaming videos.
... Filmmakers are familiar with such effects as a result of early " experiments " by the Soviet film director, Lev Kuleshov. He took a shot of an actor, Ivan Mozhukhin, with a neutral facial expression and placed it after various pictorial scenes: " I alternated the same shot of Mozhukhin with various other shots (a plate of soup, a girl, a child's coffin), and these shots acquired a different meaning " (Levaco, 1974, p. 200). Psychological studies of the " Kuleshov effect " have confirmed this emotional context effect (Mobbs et al., 2006; Wallbott, 1988). ...
The visual illusion Terror Subterra, by Roger Shepard (1990), depicts a seemingly large creature chasing another in a tunnel, yet both creatures are physically identical. In addition to this visual illusion, the two creatures also appear to exhibit different emotions, as the background creature (the pursuer) appears angry whereas the foreground creature (the pursued) appears fearful. We explored this context effect by first establishing the magnitude of the emotional bias effect. We then modified the original drawing in various ways, such as equating for perceived size, removing one creature from the scene, and removing the pictorial context altogether. Findings suggest that the emotional bias is due to the pictorial setting and to the perceived social-emotional relationship between the two creatures. These results highlight the importance of both perceptual and social-emotional influences in driving affective attributions.
... Video syntax is highly determinative of the semantics, as discussed in the Kuleshov Effect (Levaco, 1974). The Kuleshov Effect is named after Lev Kuleshov, a Soviet cinematographer whose work at the beginning of the century deeply influenced the Soviet montage school and all later Soviet cinemas. ...
This thesis presents a novel video database system, called tv-DbMS, which caters for complex and long videos, such as documentaries and educational videos. As compared to relatively structured format videos like news or commercial advertisements, this database system has the capacity to work with long and relatively unstructured videos, by using the thematic indexing model.
Thematic indexing is a novel way to track a story in a video. A video contains many themes, which are implicitly related to each other. In order to resolve queries about particular scenes in a video, the scenes are stored hierarchically, which provides “is-a” or “have-part” relations between them.
In tv-DbMS video metadata is stored in a database. This metadata is used for indexing and querying the video. In this model, metadata contains information about segments (combinations of frames) and scenes (collections of segments that represent the same content). The metadata is organized in such a way that it can be used to navigate a theme (concept or idea). Annotations describing scenes are linked in a hierarchical manner to create a story line in the video, and thematic indexing is used to develop a video catalogue. Thematic indexing support the processing of complex queries in a video database and tracking story lines. Integrating open hypermedia capabilities, providing facilities for navigation, further enhances the tv-DbMS model.
The model has been tested on documentaries made for television by the Earl Mountbatten of Burma. The results show that a user can easily query for natural scenes or events. The model is also tested on an educational video namely the inaugural lecture of Prof. W. Hall. The results show how queries on abstract topics discussed in the lecture, can be handled by using thematic indexing.
The database system has been designed to ensure MPEG-7, and RDF compatibility. The metadata and other information are kept in such a format that it could be easily converted as captions to Audio Video Objects (AVOs).
... It has been applied widely in the analysis of film and video media, underlining the importance of communication through modes such as editing, narrative structure, visual composition (mise en scène), etc. The groundwork for the semiotic analysis in film theory was set by Eisenstein [20], Kuleshov [29] and later by Metz [34]. The Kuleshov experiment [23] indicated the importance and effectiveness of film editing by showing that juxtaposing two unrelated images could convey a separate meaning. ...
This paper gives an overview of approaches to video representation targeting semantic analysis for content-based indexing and retrieval. It highlights the major achievements of the existing methodologies and sheds new light to the challenges that are still unsolved. The problem of adaptive representation of digital multimedia is critically assessed and some novel ideas are presented. In addition, the concept of video multimodality is reevaluated and redefined in order to introduce the modalities like editing technique. An extensive literature survey on the topics involved is given.
This article explores a filmmaking practice at the borders of fiction and non-fiction; a practice that goes by different names, including cinema of in-between-ness. It looks closely at the filmmaking practice of Thai filmmaker Uruphong Raksasad and the second film in his Rice Trilogy, Agrarian Utopia (Sawan Baan Na, 2009). This film challenges categorisation as observational documentary, ethnographic film or fictional narrative. The article demonstrates that Raksasad's practice is linked to the earlier practices of Dziga Vertov and Jean Rouch. In their films, Vertov and Rouch demonstrate a commitment to the real as the fount of cinema, to the detailed observation and careful recording of life that passes before the camera. But they also insist on treating the real with cinematic inventiveness and experimentation. The article discusses Vertov, Rouch and Raksasad's attitudes to in-betweeness and how it impacts their practice.
Elements of on-screen motion in film hold specific meanings and contexts depending on their usage in the moving image. The common wisdom that left-to-right is primary, preferred, and evaluated as more positive has not been directly tested with spectator responses. This study focuses on how film spectators interpret lateral motion, comparing left-to-right and right-to-left. A posttest only experimental design utilized footage from a short film as the stimulus. Participants completed a questionnaire after watching the sequence, answering items concerning affective and perceptual evaluations of the sequence. ANOVAs showed a significant difference between the experimental groups on the Positive Affect spectator evaluation scale and the Activity scale, such that right-to-left motion was perceived more negatively and as less active. There were no differences in the Uniqueness scale. Additionally, the study found no support for potential moderating impacts of religion or psychometric characteristics, indicating robustness of the main findings.
This article investigates Walter Benjamin’s influential generalization that the effects of cinema are akin to the hyper-stimulating experience of modernity. More specifically, I focus on his oft-cited 1935/36 claim that all editing elicits shock-like disruption. First, I propose a more detailed articulation of the experience of modernity understood as hyper-stimulation and call for distinguishing between at least two of its subsets: the experience of speed and dynamism, on the one hand, and the experience of shock/disruption, on the other. Then I turn to classical film theory of the late 1920s to demonstrate the existence of contemporary views on editing alternative to Benjamin’s. For instance, whereas classical Soviet and Weimar theorists relate the experience of speed and dynamism to both Soviet and classical Hollywood style editing, they reserve the experience of shock/disruption for Soviet montage. In order to resolve the conceptual disagreement between these theorists, on the one hand, and Benjamin, on the other, I turn to late 1920s Weimar film criticism. I demonstrate that, contrary to Benjamin’s generalizations about the disruptive and shock-like nature of all editing, and in line with other theorists’ accounts, different editing practices were regularly distinguished by comparison to at least two distinct hyper-stimulation subsets: speed and dynamism, and shock-like disruption. In other words, contemporaries regularly distinguished between Soviet montage and classical Hollywood editing patterns on the basis of experiential effects alone. On the basis of contemporary reviews of city symphonies, I conclude with a proposal for distinguishing a third subset – confusion.
This chapter discusses the Russian blockbuster cinema to a specific historical moment. In Russia the blockbuster era begins around the turn of the millennium - the very late 1990s - and is spurred into existence as a reaction to the overwhelming presence of Hollywood blockbuster movies that entered the Russian market. Although the film's narratives and styles couldn't be more different, Balabanov also got domestic audiences to cheer on displays of Russian superiority. The Russian production company composed of Renat Davlet'iarov, Aleksandr Kotelevskii, and Ermek Amanshaev goes by the name Real Dakota. Hollywood films may continue to do well at the Russian box office, but a homegrown form of the blokbaster has successfully married Hollywood-like effects, stories, star-driven movies, marketing campaigns, commercial tie-ins, and technologies to “Russian” themes. Russian consumers may love American things, but they have also demonstrated their love for Russian blockbusters.
The rock concert film comprises a set of popular films relegated to the margins of academic study.1 Occasionally, film scholars will pay attention to certain canonical films,2 but most are simply ignored—dismissed as socially insignificant and aesthetically uninteresting. This conference,3 however, provides evidence of increasing scholarly work being done on this genre, of rigorous attempts to treat the films as more than promotional material designed to entice and entertain consumers.
The research in this doctoral thesis focuses on the mediation of place, memory and identity in experimental western documentary films and contains film theory and film practice components. It is comprised of the production of two experimental documentary films ─ Not Reconciled (41 minutes) (2009) and The Border Crossing (47 minutes) (2011) ─ and a 50,000 word written exegesis that analyses those films and films made by others. The key analytic approaches I deploy are located within the framework of film studies, trauma and memory studies and theories of space, landscape and spectatorship.
My aim is to advance a critical understanding of the opportunities and limitations in the cinematic strategies that are available to experimental documentary filmmakers in the mediation of place and memory, including trauma and autobiography. The goal of the experimental film is to offer alternative and different ways of thinking to mainstream films about methods deployed in the mediation of the historical event. The notion of experimental begins and ends with uncertainty rather than verisimilitude. Experimental documentary film aims to open the window of uncertainty a little wider to offer an expanded discussion of the subject of the exploration. My thesis contextualises my discussion of experimental documentary filmmaking by outlining the history and development of independent filmmaking in Britain, with a specific focus on my own development as an independent experimental filmmaker.
I argue that where subjects live and where their identities are formed, are central to memory and experience. Place may be represented in experimental documentary films, therefore, not as an adjunct to space or as a support to subjectivities but as a character that is foregrounded and interacts with memory and subjects. Subjectivities, including autobiography through the filmmaker’s voice as subject and
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filmmaker, are central in my cinematic mediation of memory and traumatic experiences and I devote specific focus to spectatorial engagement with films. I argue that there are difficulties in the mediation of traumatic experiences and that therefore strategies of evocation are needed. I argue that there are similar difficulties in relying on classical linear narrative in articulating memory and narratives of association may be more effective. Finally, I argue in this thesis that an experimental documentary film may deploy disparate filmic strategies such as realism, metaphor, allegory and fiction, yet still remain identifiably a documentary film.
People who study visual communication commonly assume that the ability to recognize the content of still or moving images requires prior familiarity with a set of representational conventions. This article argues against this notion. Drawing on recent theoretical developments regarding visual cognition, the article contends that an image's lack of fidelity to visual reality need not impede interpretation by an inexperienced viewer, so long as the image is able to satisfy certain minimal informational requirements of, real-world vision. An outline of these requirements serves as the basis for a set of predictions about inexperienced viewers’ability to make sense of a variety of representational conventions, and these predictions are checked against available empirical evidence. Since there is in fact considerable research with a bearing on the issues examined here, the article's aim is to provide a theoretical synthesis and explanation of the findings of this research.
In this chapter we investigate the underlying structural requirements for media-aware knowledge spaces. We discuss the merging of media generation and annotation to facilitate the use of media-based information for diverse purposes. We pay in particular attention to the description of various tools in a distributed digital production environment supporting the distinct phases of media production. We then outline the accessibility of annotated media material for the purpose of discourse in encyclopaedic spaces. The examples throughout this chapter are taken from two domains: media production with an emphasis on news and film production, and encyclopaedic spaces as provided by domains such as theory, history, and anthropology of film. Over the last 15 years the underlying idea of ‘semantic and semiotic productivity’, either in a manual, semi-automatic, or automatic way, has inspired a great deal of research in computer environments that seek to interpret, manipulate or generate visual media [Bloch 1986, Parkes 1989
Following the paradigms of the video summarisation for production professionals, this work brings an efficient unsupervised method for ranked visual summarisation of large-scale video repositories. Following the pre-processing stage of frame clustering and key-frame extraction, a novel graph based analysis ranks the key-frames based on their saliency in the final video summary. In order to evaluate the ranking process, a comic-like layout of key-frames has been applied. The experimental results show good subjective summarisation of the analysed content, while maintaining notion of the temporal structure and knowledge discovery.
In present-day technological developments of multimedia systems, the most challenging conundrum facing the signal processing community is how to facilitate effortless access to a rich profusion of of audio-visual data. In order to enable the intuitive access to large video archives, the areas of video summarisation and abstraction have become momentous. The main challenge of the systems for video summarisation and browsing is to achieve a good balance between removal of redundant sections of video and representative coverage of the video summary. The methods represented in this chapter make a shift towards more user-centred summarisation and browsing of large video collections by augmenting interaction rather than learning the way users create related semantics. A comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art methods in the area of video summarisation and browsing is presented, followed by a detailed analysis of a novel approach to temporal video representation.
In order to create an effortless and intuitive access to the overwhelming extent of visual information, we propose exploitation of universally familiar abstractions such as linking ranking with spatial linear ordering and presented size, projecting highly dimensional data onto the 2D/3D visualisation space as well as using narrative structure of sequential visual art. To achieve this goal, a set of sophisticated yet robust machine learning and knowledge discovery methods are employed. By combining efficient multimedia signal processing and the computational intelligence, coupled with the user-centric interface design, the presented visualisation systems augments the vast abstract space of visual similarity, thus enabling responsive environment for intuitive experience of large-scale video databases.
We borrow a psychological concept, "empathic resonance," and use the concept as a theory for understanding how audiences react to films or television shows. Specifically, we use empathic resonance to analyze twelve Meryl Streep films in which she was nominated for an Oscar. We explain how empathic resonance functions in Streep's films.
Participants viewed dynamic facial expressions that moved from a neutral expression to varying degrees of angry, happy, or sad or from these emotionally expressive faces to neutral.A contrast effect was observed for expressions that moved to a neutral state. That is, a neutral expression that began as angry was rated as having a mildly positive expression, whereas the same neutral expression was rated as negatively valenced when it began with a smile. In Experiment 2, static expressions presented sequentially elicited contrast effects, but they were weaker than those following dynamic expressions. Experiment 3 assessed a broad range of facial movements across varying degrees of angry and happy expressions. We observed momentum effects for movements that ended at mildly expressive points (25% and 50% expressive). For such movements, affect ratings were higher, as if the perceived expression moved beyond their endpoint. Experiment 4 assessed sad facial expressions and found both contrast and momentum effects for dynamic expressions to and from sad faces. These findings demonstrate new and potent contextual influences on dynamic facial expressions and highlight the importance of facial movements in social-emotional communication.
We present a platform for community-supported media annotation and remix, including a pilot deployment with a major film festival. The platform was well received by users as fun and easy to use. An analysis of the resulting data yielded insights into user behavior. Completed remixes exhibited a range of genres, with over a third showing thematic unity and a quarter showing some attempt at narrative. Remixes were often complex, using many short segments taken from various source media. Reuse of spoken and written language in source media, and the use of written language in user-defined title segments proved to be essential for most users. We describe how community remix statistics can be leveraged for media summarization, browsing, and editing support. Further, the platform as a whole provides a solid base for a range of ongoing research into community annotation and remix including analysis of remix syntax, identification of reusable segments, media and segment tagging, structured annotation of media, collaborative media production, and hybrid content-based and community-in-the-loop approaches to understanding media semantics.
In this chapter we investigate the underlying structural requirements for media-aware knowledge spaces. We discuss the merging
of media generation and annotation to facilitate the use of media-based information for diverse purposes. In particular, we
pay attention to the description of various tools in a distributed digital production environment supporting many distinct
phases of media production. We then outline the accessibility of annotated media material for the purpose of discourse in
encyclopaedic spaces. The examples throughout this chapter are taken from two domains: Media production with an emphasis on
news and film production, and encyclopaedic spaces as provided by domains such as theory, history, and anthropology of film.
KeywordsKnowledge exploration–semantic networks–adaptive discourse–media infrastructure–media production–media-aware knowledge spaces–encyclopaedic spaces–information space editing–dynamic presentation
This paper considers the automated generation of humorous video sequences from arbitrary video material. We present a simplified model of the editing process. We then outline our approach to narrativity and visual humour, discuss the problems of context and shot-order in video and consider influences on the editing process. We describe the role of themes and semantic fields in the generation of content oriented video scenes. We then present the architecture of AUTEUR, an experimental system that embodies mechanisms to interpret, manipulate and generate video. An example of a humorous video sequence generated by AUTEUR is described.
Specific domains in video data contain rich temporal structures that help in classification process. In this paper, we exploit the temporal structure to characterize video sequence data into different classes. We propose the following perceptual features: Time-to-Collision, shot length and transition, and temporal motion activity. Using these perceptual features, several video classes are characterized leading to formation of high-level sequence classification. Resulting high-level queries are more easily mapped onto the perceptual features enabling better accessibility of content-based retrieval systems. Temporal fusion of the perceptual features forms higher-level structures, which can be effectively tackled using the Dynamic Bayesian Networks. The Networks allow the power of statistical inference and learning to be combined with the temporal and contextual knowledge of the problem. The modeling and experimental results are presented for a number of key applications, like sequence identification, extracting highlights for sports, and parsing a news program.
Abstract In this paper, we describe the development of a new and innovative tool of video mashup. This application is an easy to use tool of video editing integrated in a cross-media platform; it works taking the information from a repository of videos and puts into action a process of semi-automatic editing supporting users in the production of video mashup. Doing so it gives vent to their creative side without them being forced to learn how to use a complicated and unlikely new technology. The users will be further helped in building their own editing by the intelligent system working behind the tool: it combines semantic annotation (tags and comments by users), low level features (gradient of color, texture and movements) and high level features (general data distinguishing a movie: actors, director, year of production, etc.) to furnish a pre-elaborated editing users can modify in a very simple way.
This paper presents a system for compact and intuitive video summarisation aimed at both high-end professional production environments and small-screen portable devices. To represent large amounts of information in the form of a video key-frame summary, this paper studies the narrative grammar of comics, and using its universal and intuitive rules, lays out visual summaries in an efficient and user-centered way. In addition, the system exploits visual attention modelling and rapid serial visual presentation to generate highly compact summaries on mobile devices. A robust real-time algorithm for key-frame extraction is presented. The system ranks importance of key-frame sizes in the final layout by balancing the dominant visual representability and discovery of unanticipated content utilising a specific cost function and an unsupervised robust spectral clustering technique. A final layout is created using an optimisation algorithm based on dynamic programming. Algorithm efficiency and robustness are demonstrated by comparing the results with a manually labelled ground truth and with optimal panelling solutions.
Multimedia documents are different from text-based documents in the sense that they do not have a predefined dominant media type but are composed of multiple media items using different media types, such as, image, text, audio and video. The author of a multimedia document uses media items that are, either specifically created, or (re)used from existing resources, to represent the message she intends to convey. Furthermore, a multimedia document has, besides two spatial dimensions, a temporal dimension. Consequently, the author of a multimedia document should, in addition to the spatial layout, synchronize media items in a meaningful way.
Authoring multimedia documents is in multiple ways different from authoring a text-based electronic document. First, modern text processors allow an author to abstract from typesetting details, such as hyphenation, kerning and leading. The word processor automatically formats the text in such a way that it fits within the designated area, such as a page or screen. In contrast, the author of a multimedia document carefully designs a multimedia document so that it exactly fits the screen size the document is designed for. One presentation may have been created for a screen with a width of 1024 pixels and a height of 768 pixels. A second presentation, which conveys an identical message, but on a screen with a width of 640 pixels and a height of 800 pixels will typically require manual authoring.
Secondly, modern text processors often have the ability to include predefined styles (e.g.
corporate identity), which allows an author to abstract from the styling of the document. Consequently, an author does not require design expertise to ensure a consistently formatted and aesthetically pleasing document. In contrast, modern authoring tools for multimedia documents require an author to make both authoring and design decisions.
The reason that authoring and design are intertwined in the production of multimedia documents is that the spatial layout and temporal synchronization between media items is semantically significant. Unlike text, where a sentence or word may be split to continue on the next line or page, breaking the spatio-temporal relations between media items in a multimedia document typically alters the message conveyed by the document. When the presentation does not fit the screen, the author carefully redesigns the presentation in order to maintain these relationships.
Although a multimedia document can be adapted to a particular context, and multiple multimedia documents can be consistently styled, this typically requires significant human investment. The costs involved in authoring and designing multimedia documents are therefore relatively high compared to textual documents. As a result, the production of multimedia documents is only viable in specific cases, which is unfortunate because multimedia documents are typically effective to convey a particular message.
To address this discrepancy we derived requirements for an extended document engineering model. These include requirements derived from the traditional document engineering model. However, the traditional model assumes generally applicable overflow strategies, which is not the case for multimedia documents. Therefore, the formatting of multimedia documents may, in contrast to text-based documents, fail. An extended document engineering model should thus detect constraint violations and propose alternative formatting when necessary. We defined such a extended model, expressing explicit knowledge on the properties of the delivery context and form constructs that are relevant for detecting constraint violations. As a result, the knowledge requirements in an extended document engineering model are significantly larger compared to traditional document engineering. To reduce the associated costs, an extended document engineering model should support reuse and preserve existing knowledge where possible.
To evaluate the model, we have implemented a multimedia document engineering formatter using a Constraint Logic Programming approach. The formatter is embedded in a client-server framework so that is can be used in a web environment. Based on this framework we demonstrate in three distinctive use cases that the document engineering paradigm may be successfully applied to a number of multimedia documents that are representative for each use case. Successful in this context means that: firstly, a single set of style rules may be used to transform multiple structured documents. Secondly, the intended output is automatically adapted to the delivery context without changing the function that is conveyed.
Compared to the traditional model, our model extends the notions of function, form and style to meet the specific requirements of multimedia documents. We include an explicit and parametrized delivery context that represents the constraints of the environment the document is played in, and the specification of alternative style rules that are automatically invoked by the formatter if the resulting document form does not comply to the hard constraints imposed by the delivery context.
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