48 2. FIVE STORIES TO A MODEL OF VIDEO STRUCTURE
data set, is where Melanie moves along the dock and into the boat. Shots 44 and 45 begin the
pattern of displacement along the Gini value that was typical in the earlier alternation. is alter-
nation pattern develops strongly between 48 and 54—alternating Gini values remain almost xed
in place along the Gini axis and they occupy a narrow band of the axis. At 55, the shot crosses the
0.5 boundary and the subsequent Gini values suggest alternation again, though of a more widely
distributed sort. It is during this fragment that Melanie has watched Mitch, then, at 54 Mitch runs
to the house and at 55 Melanie stands up and tries to start the motor. e second center displays
a form of alternation, but this takes place in a manner that presents almost a mirror image of the
alternation in the trip out—the alternation here hanging below the .5 line. As the second center
closes, the alternation repeats the pattern of the trip out—all the Gini values arcing above .5.
2.4.11 DISCUSSION OF STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF BODEGA BAY
SEQUENCE
e order of magnitude dierence between the mean dierences for key frames and nonkey frames
presents a numerical representation of the key frame tact. We have a precise, numerical way of
speaking of the key frames identied by Bellour, as well as an automated way of detecting them.
e clustering of Gini coecients in the “on water” sequences with distinctly dierent and
separated patterns presents a numerical representation of the alternation tact. Melanie’s Brenner
house sequence presents a distinctly dierent numerical and graphical representation, giving us the
hinge tact. e numerical and graphical “bunching up” in the representation of Mitch’s discovery
of Melanie and their double seeing alternation, presents us with the second center and a means for
speaking precisely of the twocenters tact.
Bellour does not speak to any signicant degree about the gull strike on Melanie, though the
strike is often mentioned in other discussions of the Bodega Bay sequence. e entire strike is ap-
proximately one second of running time and may have been too microscopic for Bellour to address
in his analysis. However, the numerical analysis and graphical presentation present a striking data
set. Almost every frame presents a Gini value signicantly dierent from its predecessor. is is a
very high entropy portion of the sequence—several rapid changes in the data stream in less than
a second of running time is a very dierent pattern from that of any other portion of the lm. We
suggest that digital precision might have enabled Bellour to speak of this fragment.
In some sense, the hardest thing about what we are doing is seeing what is actually comput-
able only from the physically present data. at is, lm criticism and analysis have so long depended
on human engagement with the physical document that the distinction between the data stream of
the document and the contribution of the viewer’s prior knowledge of what is represented remain
dicult to tease apart. So we can easily cluster shots with roughly similar RGB patterns. However,
going from an MS of Melanie in the boat to an LS of Brenner’s house, while it shows us an RGB
49
change does not show us anything that would denitively indicate MS to LS. Also, one could
imagine a change from MS to LS (say a cityscape of one or two building fronts to a LS of several
buildings) in which the RGB would remain fairly constant. Within any one lm or one director’s
body of work we might be able to make some calculations that would describe/predict CS MS LS
changes, but there is just nothing inherent only in the data that makes that a widespread property.
is problem does not diminish either Bellour’s analysis or the digital analysis—it simply speaks
to the complexity of understanding lmic documents and even simply describing them accurately.
Indeed, this demonstrates one of our initial assertions: that the engineering of the message structure
and the semantic meaning are separate, complementary notions.
at said, the close correlation between the frametoframe analysis and Bellour’s writing
suggests that our use of an expert analyst’s response to e Birds indeed demonstrates the validity
of this approach to numerical and graphical representation of lmic structure. Perhaps one of the
most signicant consequences of the close correlation is the availability of a vocabulary for descrip-
tion and analysis. A fundamental problem with previous systems of analysis has been the reliance
on words to describe visual, timevarying documents. Being able to represent visual attributes and
timevarying states of the attributes at the pixel, frame, frame set (“shot”), sequence, and document
level with the same processes and terms should enable deeper and more fruitful analysis.
At the same time, the techniques provide means for discovering structural elements. It
would be too facile to suggest that we now have a robust mechanism for automated description of
lmic structure; however, we do at least have a robust automated means for mapping the structure.
We could run any lm through a frame by frame comparison of RGB and be able to state that
certain portions remain stable for some time, then change; and at some points, rapid changes take
place—the points of change, the points of discontinuity in the data stream, represent points where
something dierent is happening.
Perhaps even more intriguing and a likely avenue of rewarding research would be the use of
RGB ngerprints in classication. Do all of Hitchcock’s lms, or at least those from a particular pe-
riod, share the same ngerprint patterns? If De Palma is the heir to Hitchcock, do his lms actually
bear a numerical similarity to Hitchcock’s lms? Do music videos and early Russian documentaries
(for example, Vertov’s (2002) Man with the Movie Camera), lms with very dierent structures from
the classic Hollywood lms studied by Bellour, yield useful numerical descriptions?
Of course, most moving image documents are made up of more than simply RGB data. Mul-
tiple sound tracks for voice, narration, sound eects and music signicantly increase the amount
of data available for analysis; however, there is no reason that these timevarying data could not be
described using a similar numerical and graphical technique.
As we have demonstrated here, the data available for analysis is not limited to the signals
available in the physically present document. Bellour’s analysis of e Birds, in essence, becomes
another signal or memetic attribute of the document. Other critics who have commented on e
2.4 STORY FOUR: FUNCTIONAL ONTOLOGY
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