Cinemetrics, a Digital Laboratory for Film Studies.

FAIN: HD-51106-10

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637-5418)
Yuri Tsivian (Project Director: March 2010 to August 2013)

An online collection of tools that would allow film researchers to collect, store, and process scholarly data about film editing.

This proposal requests an NEH Level II Start-Up grant support for the innovation of Cinemetrics (http://www.cinemetrics.lv/index.php), an open-access, interactive website designed to supplement the traditional toolkit of film studies with a number of digital tools that enable researchers to collect, store, and process scholarly data about film editing. Any student of film interested in the way films are edited can use Cinemetrics tools to time a movie, submit the obtained time data, calculate and visualize data statistics, and comment on or make use of the data generated and collected by others. As it stands, Cinemetrics offers its users a client tool to measure a film, a database to store the measurements, graphs that help users to visualize the statistics, and a lab space that can be used to compare films. The NEH grant will enable the project team to innovate, augment, and enhance these tools. This will put Cinemetrics at the forefront of humanities cyberinfrastructure.

Media Coverage

Cinemetrics: Measuring Movies (Picturing the Picture) (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Michael Baxter
Publication: Significance
Date: 10/24/2012
Abstract: In “Picturing the pictures”, Mike Baxter discusses his new discovery, cinemetrics, the statistical analysis of cinematic data. Inspired by Cinemtrics, Mike applied the statistical analysis of film style to some of his favourite movies.
URL: http://www.statisticsviews.com/details/feature/2729531/New-issue-of-Significance-Magazine.html

Genotype of a Film [Genotip filma] (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Vasilii Koretskii
Publication: Colta.ru
Date: 8/2/2012
Abstract: Interpreting Cinemetrics results and perspectives
URL: www.colta.ru/docs/3399

Dancing with Films (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Lydialyle Gibson
Publication: The University of Chicago Magazine
Date: 1/15/2012
Abstract: Popular rendering of Cinemetrics concept and methods
URL: http://mag.uchicago.edu/arts-humanities/dancing-films

Measure for Measure (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Jesse P. Finnegan
Publication: Filmcomment
Date: 7/1/2012
Abstract: Account of the work Cinemetrics does in film history
URL: http://www.filmcomment.com/article/site-specifics-cinemetrics.lv

CineMetrics (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Evan Davis
Publication: The Slant Magazine
Date: 7/2/2010
Abstract: Rendering Cinemetrics
URL: http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/07/its-alive-the-top-film-criticism-sites-an-annotated-blog-roll-part-one/

It's all in the timing: U. of C. hosts a conference on Cinemetrics this Saturday (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Ben Sachs
Publication: Chicago Reader
Date: 2/26/2014
Abstract: Announcing the forthcoming conference on Cinemetrics
URL: http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/02/26/its-all-in-the-timing-u-of-c-hosts-a-conference-on-cinemetrics-this-saturday

The Gender Gap in Screen Time: Applying cinemetrics to this year’s Oscar contenders (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Kevin B. Lee
Publication: The New York Times
Date: 3/2/2014
Abstract: History of Cinemetrics and its practical applications
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/movies/awardsseason/cinemetrics-extracts-statistical-data-from-movies.html

Review of A Numerate Film History? Cinemetrics Looks at Griffith, Sennett, and Chaplin (1909–17) (Review)
Author(s): Zdenko Mandušic
Publication: The Moving Image Vol 14 Number 2
Date: 9/19/2014
Abstract: Encounters between century-old films and today’s computational statistics challenge received understandings of film history, how films are analyzed, and the history of film studies. Tools of the digital age, such as the measurement software Cinemetrics, make it easy to count and measure the length of shots, calculate average shot length (ASL), and catalog the cinematographic qualities of shots. More than just a tool for local, one-time usage, Cinemetrics is an online collaborative project that allows scholars to collect, share, and compare statistical data on films. The value of and reservations about the application of such data in the study of moving images were the focus of the one-day conference “A Numerate Film History?” at the University of Chicago, March 1, 2014.
URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/the_moving_image/v014/14.2.mandu-ic.html

Cinemetrics quantifies creativity in film (Review)
Author(s): Susie Allan
Publication: The University of Chicago News
Date: 5/27/2015
Abstract: History and present-day activities on Cinemetrics
URL: http://www.uchicago.edu/features/cinemetrics_quantifies_creativity_in_film/

Associated Products

Talking to Miriam: Soviet Americanitis and the Vernacular Modernism Thesis (Article)
Title: Talking to Miriam: Soviet Americanitis and the Vernacular Modernism Thesis
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: On quantitative approaches to editing as a fact of film history. The history of editing as sketched in this essay elaborates on the Vernacular Modernism theory proposed by Miriam Hansen in 1999. Montage theory began as a theory of practice. First reflections on film editing emerged as a set of recommendations for beginners on the pages of screenwriting manuals which mushroomed in the United States in the early 1910. What makes your screenplay screen-specific? Facial close-up that compensate for absent spoken lines; instant cuts instead of intermissions; short shots rather than lengthy scenes. Taking stock of physical, optical and temporal limitations imposed by the medium of film on actors, playwrights and directors lead to a system of continuity rules, the staple of classical Hollywood style of film narration. As an avant-garde concept, montage was part of the European film culture of the 1920s. Specifically, Soviet montage theory emerged in an attempt to adjust narrative continuity rules from the 1910s to discontinuous and extra-narrative experiments in filmmaking promoted by avant-garde directors. An heir to the continuity system, Soviet montage revised and re-theorized its Hollywood heritage. Contrast rather than continuity, cuts sooner than shots, form instead of function – such, among others, were parameters of style emphasized by Soviet montage theorists throughout the twenties.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://ngc.dukejournals.org/content/41/2_122/47.abstract
Primary URL Description: New German Critique 122, Vol. 41, No 2, Summer 2014
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: New German Critique
Publisher: Duke University

Montage Theory I (Hollywood Continuity) (Book Section)
Title: Montage Theory I (Hollywood Continuity)
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Editor: Edward Branigan, Warren Buckland
Abstract: History of editing through the eyes of cinemetrics. Montage theory began as a theory of practice. First reflections on film editing emerged as a set of recommendations for beginners on the pages of screenwriting manuals which mushroomed in the United States in the early 1910. What makes your screenplay screen-specific? Facial close-up that compensate for absent spoken lines; instant cuts instead of bulky theatrical transitions; short shots rather than lengthy scenes. Taking stock of physical, optical and temporal limitations imposed by the medium of film on actors, playwrights and directors lead to a system of continuity rules, the staple of classical Hollywood style of film narration.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: https://books.google.com/books?id=VeVJAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR1&lpg=PR1&dq=The+Routledge+Encyclopedia+of+Film+Theory&source=bl&ots=5AwonCGD5W&sig=IivobXr_y7gvRX5wrhwcg1aaTvc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uU8xVaeEBYqQsQT1wICQAw&ved=0CEMQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=The%20Routledge%20Encyclop
Primary URL Description: Google books
Publisher: Routledge
Book Title: The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory
ISBN: 1138849154

“Montage Theory II (Soviet Avant-Garde)” (Book Section)
Title: “Montage Theory II (Soviet Avant-Garde)”
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Editor: Edward Branigan, Warren Buckland
Abstract: As an avant-garde concept, montage was part of the European film culture of the 1920s. Specifically, Soviet montage theory emerged in an attempt to adjust narrative continuity rules from the 1910s (see Montage Theory I) to discontinuous and extra-narrative experiments in filmmaking promoted by avant-garde and peri-avant-garde directors like Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov, Sergei Eisenstein and Vsevolod Pudovkin. An heir to the continuity system, Soviet montage revised and re-theorized its Hollywood heritage. Contrast rather than continuity, cuts sooner than shots, form instead of function – such, among others, were parameters of style emphasized by Soviet montage theorists throughout the twenties.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Routledge_Encyclopedia_of_Film_Theor.html?id=n5C2ngEACAAJ
Primary URL Description: Google books
Book Title: The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory
ISBN: 1138849154

“What Is Montage? [Chto takoe montazh?]” (Blog Post)
Title: “What Is Montage? [Chto takoe montazh?]”
Author: Daria Khitrova
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: Accessible-language description of what Cinemetrics measures and why
Date: 8/2/2012
Primary URL: http://www.colta.ru/docs/4210
Primary URL Description: Colta.ru
Website: Colta.ru

On Cinemetrics, Video Essays, and Digital Scholarship (Blog Post)
Title: On Cinemetrics, Video Essays, and Digital Scholarship
Author: Daria Khitrova
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: On Digital Film Studies and Cinemetrics Methods and Results. Interview
Date: 12/1/2013
Primary URL: www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/Winter2013_Cinemetrics.html
Primary URL Description: Mediascape
Website: Mediascape

Cinemetrics (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Cinemetrics
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Author: Arno Bosse
Author: Keith Brisson
Abstract: Comparing film data across the Cinemetrics database
Date: 6/20/2011
Primary URL: http://dh2011.stanford.edu/?page_id=411
Primary URL Description: Conference website
Conference Name: Digital Humanities Conference at Stanford

“Cinemetrics Looks at Acting: Chaplin against Cutting” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Cinemetrics Looks at Acting: Chaplin against Cutting”
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: Quantitative analysis of Chaplin's evolution as film editor (1914-1916)
Date: 6/16/2012
Primary URL: http://scsmi-online.org/2012-conference-archive
Primary URL Description: SCSMI Website
Conference Name: 2012 Conference, Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (SCSMI)

Cinemetrics Looks at Acting: Cross-cutting and Cross-action (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Cinemetrics Looks at Acting: Cross-cutting and Cross-action
Author: Daria Khitrova
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: Chaplin's editing strategies, a cinemetrics analysis (a sequel talk to the one delivered at the SCSMI Conference in 2012
Date: 6/16/2013
Primary URL: http://gwk.udk-berlin.de/scsmi/programme_friday.html
Primary URL Description: Berlin Art Institute website
Conference Name: 2013 Conference, Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (SCSMI)

Soviet Americanitis and the Vernacular Modernism Thesis (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Soviet Americanitis and the Vernacular Modernism Thesis
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: A quantitative view on early Soviet film history
Date: 9/13/2012
Primary URL: http://heymancenter.org/events/cinema-and-legacies-of-critical-theory-an-international-conference-in-memor/
Primary URL Description: Columbia University website
Conference Name: Cinema and the Legacies of Critical Theory: an International Conference in Memory of Miriam Hansen

Amerikanizm v russkom avangardnom kino [Americanitis in Soviet Avant-Garde Film] (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Amerikanizm v russkom avangardnom kino [Americanitis in Soviet Avant-Garde Film]
Author: Daria Khitrova
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: Comparative analysis of shot lengths in early America and Soviet film
Date: 11/21/2012
Conference Name: „Before and After Avant-Garde“ Seminar at University of Helsinki

Cinemetrics and Formalists (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Cinemetrics and Formalists
Author: Daria Khitrova
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: Cinemetrics and the Russian Formalism tradition
Date: 9/12/2013
Primary URL: ru-formalism.rggu.ru/program_abstracts/3-art.pdf
Primary URL Description: Download program PDF
Conference Name: 100 years of Russian Formalism, RGGU, Moscow, Russia

What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: Comparative cutting rates
Date: 11/14/2013
Primary URL: http://mfs.uchicago.edu/?/archive/what-are-the-digital-humanities
Conference Name: Midwest Faculty Seminar “What are the Digital Humanities?”

What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Abstract: Comparative cutting rates
Date: 10/18/2014
Primary URL: http://humanitiesday2014.uchicago.edu/program
Primary URL Description: Event program, University of Chicago
Conference Name: University of Chicago Humanities Day

What Makes them Run, What Slows them Down : Variations in Cutting Rates across Films, their History and Culture (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: What Makes them Run, What Slows them Down : Variations in Cutting Rates across Films, their History and Culture
Abstract: The paper attempts to interpret digital data related to film editing that have been submitted to the online application called Cinemetrics (see http://www.cinemetrics.lv/index.php) by a large group of scholars and students in the time period 2005-2011. The interpretation proceeds from 2 premises, asks one question and proposes three hypotheses. PREMISE 1. It is an established fact that, at certain points, each given film is cut faster or slower than its average shot length (ASL) figure indicates. PREMISE 2. There is little doubt that these are not random fluctuations. That the film’s cutting becomes faster at one point or slower at another must be caused by certain factors. QUESTION: What are these factors? HYPOTHESES: there are 3 kinds of factors at work: 1) Event-driven (ED) factors. 2) Story-flow (SF) related factors. 3) Conventional editing (CE) related factors.
Author: Yuru Tsivian
Date: 3/18/2011
Location: Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Primary URL: http://arthemis-cinema.ca/en/content/yuri-tsivian-on-cinemetrics

What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture
Abstract: Cinemetrics -- an introductory overview
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Date: 4/1/2012
Location: UCLA, LA
Primary URL: http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/Winter2013_Cinemetrics.html

What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: What Makes Them Run, What Slows Them Down: Cinemetrics Looks at Film History and Culture
Abstract: Introductory overview of Cinemetrics
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Date: 3/1/2012
Location: USC, LA
Primary URL: https://dornsife.usc.edu/sll/archives/

A Numerate Film History? Cinemetrics Looks at Griffith, Sennett and Chaplin (1909-1917) (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: A Numerate Film History? Cinemetrics Looks at Griffith, Sennett and Chaplin (1909-1917)
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Author: Daria Khitrova
Author: Mike Baxter
Abstract: The digital age opens film history both to newer tools and the challenges of statistics. One such tool is Cinemetrics, a sizable database of shot lengths that enables users to amass and process numeric data related to film editing. The one-day conference “A Numerate Film History?” is about the possible promises—or traps—that emerge as a result of the encounter between century-old films and the computational statistics of today. Conducted under the aegis of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society and co-sponsored by the Film Studies Center, the conference features Professor Tom Gunning and Professor Yuri Tsivian from Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago and two Neubauer Collegium Visiting Fellows: Michael Baxter, Emeritus Professor of Statistical Archaeology, Nottingham Trent University, UK and Daria Khitrova, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of California, Los Angeles.
Date Range: 3/1/2014
Location: University of Chicago
Primary URL: http://neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu/events/uc/Cinemetrics-Conference/
Primary URL Description: Neubauer Collegium website

Cinemetrics across Borders (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Cinemetrics across Borders
Author: Yuri Tsivian (organizer); use Primary URL to access list of participants
Abstract: It takes skills to tell a story. What skills it takes depends on the medium we use. Film is the medium of showing. What to show closer? What to show longer? What to show once, and what to show again? Filmmakers have dealt with these problems since the beginning of cinema. Those who study film history today need to have a clear picture of how and why filmmakers made these decisions throughout time. What were D.W. Griffith’s favorite camera set ups in 1914? What year was it that Chaplin learned to cut? Questions like these relate to film editing, and will keep coming up as long as film editing remains art. How many cuts does that seemingly seamless Birdman hide? How did they slice and splice the 12 years of real time in Boyhood? Cinemetrics is a website that helps to puzzle out such questions. Launched in 2005 as a digital tool designed to assess and compare various ways of editing films, Cinemetrics has grown into a global forum on experimental methods in cinema studies. Hundreds of film students and scholars from different countries, each with their own research agenda, submit shot-length and shot-scale data to the Cinemetrics website. For years, we have been comrades-in-arms in cyberspace. Between 2013-2015, the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society has enabled us to talk to each other face to face about the value of Cinemetrics data. As part of this project, from April 30 to May 3, 2015 the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society and the Film Studies Center will host the International Conference “Cinemetrics Across Borders” at the University of Chicago, which will bring together filmmakers and scholars from around the world. Co-sponsored by the Adelyn Russell Bogert Fund of the Franke Institute for the Humanities and the Chuck Roven Fund for Cinema and Media Studies.
Date Range: 4/30/2015 - 5/03/2015
Location: University of Chicago
Primary URL: http://neubauercollegium.uchicago.edu/events/uc/cinemetrics_across_borders/
Primary URL Description: Hosting institution website

"Exploring Cutting Structure in Film, with Applications to the Films of D.W. Griffith, Mack Sennett, and Charlie Chaplin" (Article)
Title: "Exploring Cutting Structure in Film, with Applications to the Films of D.W. Griffith, Mack Sennett, and Charlie Chaplin"
Author: Yuri Tsivian
Author: Mike Baxter,
Author: Daria Khitrova,
Abstract: Two graphical methods of exploring aspects of cutting structure in film using shot-length data are presented. The first of these converts the cumulative frequencies of shot-lengths to tabular form that can be displayed in various ways, including the use of correspondence analysis. The method is used to investigate the differences in cutting rates used by Mack Sennett and Charlie Chaplin while directing films for the Keystone Company in 1912–14. Results suggest that previous analyses based on the average shot-length may over-simplify the contrast, and some evidence for the evolution of Sennett’s style in 1913 is also suggested. The methods used, like much of the literature, do not take into account the time-series structure of the shot-lengths. In the second approach presented, this is allowed for by smoothing the time-series of shot-lengths using non-parametric regression. A computer-intensive way of presenting results graphically is developed, that does not commit the analyst to a particular choice of smoothing level, and is used to investigate an ‘hypothesis’ about D. W. Griffith’s cutting style suggested by a ‘prescription’ for pacing implied in comments made in an article published under his name in the 1920s. It is shown that his major feature films between 1914 and 1921 conform to the prescription, but there is not much evidence for it in his earlier and later work.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://dsh.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/08/27/llc.fqv035.full?%2520ijkey=No4z46ujhHo284s&keytype=ref
Primary URL Description: DSH website
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
Publisher: Oxford University Press

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