3 ms·

You're exactly right. Not only is the ASL (average shot length) decreasing over time, but flurries of quick shots are great for hiding action that doesn't actua

by MAGZine 12y ago

You're exactly right. Not only is the ASL (average shot length) decreasing over time, but flurries of quick shots are great for hiding action that doesn't actually happen. It's definitely can be used as a crutch. Not always, it can accelerate the feeling of action, but often feels lazy, and a disservice to the viewer. e.g. Citizen Kane had an ASL of 12 seconds. Transformers: Dark side of the moon? 3.4seconds! http://www.cinemetrics.lv/database.php http://www.cinemetrics.lv/database.php Average ASL in 2006 was actually 2.9s.

Jtsummers 12y ago
Comparing to Citizen Kane seems unfair as it's not an action movie. So here are some other action movies. (NB: There are multiple entries for some of these but I'm not listing them all). Die Hard 4.5 Die Hard 2 3.1 Die Hard 3 1.8 Armageddon 2.2 -- at least he's ben consistently on the quick side Total Recall 3.7 -- original, 1990 Robocop 3.7 -- original Haywire 6 And I keep trying to search for movies they don't have in the database. So certainly for action movies (1980+), at least for some popular ones, the ASL isn't out of the ordinary. But then I searched for Alfred Hitchcock and got some interesting results. This database has many duplicate entries and some wildly different values. The Skin Game had 3 entries at about the same time (17.1, 17.3, 17.4). However, Rear Window has an entry at 3.7 and another at 8.8, and several at 10.5. I suppose I need to read about their methodology to understand why there's so much variance.
- etcet 12y ago
  It's crowd sourced. They have software that returns timestamps when you click a button and you use it when watching a movie. It's definitely error prone and the data should be treated as if you got it from Mechanical Turk. There's so much data in movies that is really hard to get automatically. We should really be digitizing and cataloging old films if we're able. It's hard to find films in the public domain but this is what we should be doing with them: 4k scanning and digitizing. Perform a rough automatic restoration on all frames and audio then put it all online, every frame in 4k, and accept pull requests. During this process all shots and scenes should be accounted for. They are timed with actors and locations marked. Subtitles should have crucial metadata such as the actor speaking the lines. Music and musicians should be identified.
ctdonath 12y ago
Dark City has an ASL of 1.8 seconds. And it works.

by MAGZine 12y ago

Jtsummers 12y ago

Comparing to Citizen Kane seems unfair as it's not an action movie. So here are some other action movies. (NB: There are multiple entries for some of these but I'm not listing them all). Die Hard 4.5 Die Hard 2 3.1 Die Hard 3 1.8 Armageddon 2.2 -- at least he's ben consistently on the quick side Total Recall 3.7 -- original, 1990 Robocop 3.7 -- original Haywire 6 And I keep trying to search for movies they don't have in the database. So certainly for action movies (1980+), at least for some popular ones, the ASL isn't out of the ordinary. But then I searched for Alfred Hitchcock and got some interesting results. This database has many duplicate entries and some wildly different values. The Skin Game had 3 entries at about the same time (17.1, 17.3, 17.4). However, Rear Window has an entry at 3.7 and another at 8.8, and several at 10.5. I suppose I need to read about their methodology to understand why there's so much variance.

etcet 12y ago
It's crowd sourced. They have software that returns timestamps when you click a button and you use it when watching a movie. It's definitely error prone and the data should be treated as if you got it from Mechanical Turk. There's so much data in movies that is really hard to get automatically. We should really be digitizing and cataloging old films if we're able. It's hard to find films in the public domain but this is what we should be doing with them: 4k scanning and digitizing. Perform a rough automatic restoration on all frames and audio then put it all online, every frame in 4k, and accept pull requests. During this process all shots and scenes should be accounted for. They are timed with actors and locations marked. Subtitles should have crucial metadata such as the actor speaking the lines. Music and musicians should be identified.

ctdonath 12y ago

Dark City has an ASL of 1.8 seconds. And it works.