In the readings for last Monday, there were two movie analysis methods.

They both devised a method for analyzing movies and TV shows through networks. The first method (1), created a character-net through character dialogue. They also added character roles and communities. The problem is that it focused on dialogue. There are some movies where characters don’t speak but they are major players. Which is were the second method (2) comes in. It used movie roles and not audiovisual features or pure dialogue. This would include a person that doesn’t have many speaking parts but is involved with the dialogue users. The main problem with this method is in movies where it is hard to see characters, and if information is gotten through written text on the screen, because it uses audio and face recognition. Another problem is that it would not be able to interpret body language for character relationships. I think the second method along with audiovisual analysis would give the best results.

I will be answering the questions posted by Dr. Hemphil on her notes page. (Not sure if they are required, so I will include them.)

1. Who is/are the main character(s), if you look just at the data? From the data gathered while watching the first episode, it would seem that Emma, the kid, and the power couple of Prince Charming and Snow White would be the main characters. Emma was mentioned 22 times, the kid was mentioned 13 times, and the couple was mentioned 16 times together and a few more times as solo members. The main character though would have to be Emma, with 6 more appearances than the next highest.

2. What dyads (pairs of people) are likely to get interesting? The obvious one would be the couple, they are together the highest amount. Another pair would be Emma and the kid, and with the queen and teacher included in their somewhere. From the piolet it was seen that their was some conflicting arsing in that group. Also Emma and the kid and queen are put together quite a bit in the data.

3. Which characters do you think form a community? From watching the show I would say that Emma, the kid, and the teacher will form a community. Emma and the kid have a large amount of pair time, and towards the end it seemed as the teacher and Emma boned, and had some pair time.

4. Do you think the show’s “multiple world” settings will be reflected in the data? Why or why not? It definitely reflected in my data taken. Some characters are under multiple names, like Emma is also the baby, and Snow White is also the teacher. Another way of seeing it in the data, is that there are sections where Emma and the kid don’t appear at all. Also some of the characters only interact with Emma and kid in real world, while some characters only interact with Prince Charming and Snow White in the fairy tale world.

5. Think of another show you’ve seen - how do you expect it’s network(s) to differ? Why? One show that I have seen that would be different would be Game of Thrones. I only have watched it up to season five. I would expect the network to be more circular. Where the main characters are all connected but not directly. Also it would be difficult for a main character to be picked because most of the characters get similar screen time over the season.

So the character network is not a perfect circle. But I would say that the main characters are in a circle with the minor characters branching out. Most of the major characters are not directly connected unless they are in the same part of the world, and the world are connected by mostly minor characters.

References:

Park, Seung-Bo, Kyeong-Jin Oh, and Geun-Sik Jo. 2012. “Social Network Analysis in a Movie Using Character-Net.”Multimedia Tools and Applications 59 (2): 601–27. doi:10.1007/s11042-011-0725-1. (1)

Weng, C. Y., W. T. Chu, and J. L. Wu. 2009. “RoleNet: Movie Analysis from the Perspective of Social Networks.” IEEE Transactions on Multimedia 11 (2): 256–71. doi:10.1109/TMM.2008.2009684. (2)