Database - Cinemetrics

Cinemetrics tools not only let one record data to analyze movies as Yuri Tsivian did in his Intolerance study, but also publishes the gathered data on this web site for everyone to access. This is a collaborative project. The more data will be submitted by the users, the more will be available to them. This has grown into a movie dynamics database useful to everyone, so learn how to use the tools and go gather the data!

Cinemetrics Chrome extension

This Chrome extension allows users to log shot data with the Chrome internet browser (or any other Chromium-based browsers, such as Microsoft Edge, Opera, Arc, etc.). The extension will not work on other browsers, such as Safari or Firefox. If needed, download the Chrome browser here.

No internet connection is required to run the extension, but connection will be required to submit the completed file to the Cinemetrics database.

Get the Cinemetrics Chrome extension here. Follow the instructions to 'Add to Chrome'. You should get confirmation that the 'Cinemetrics Measurement Tool' has been added to Chrome.

To launch the extension thereafter, select the Extensions icon (a puzzle piece icon to the right of the address bar) and select Cinemetrics.

Two modes are available: the Frame Accurate Cinemetrics Tool (FACT), and the Classic Tool. Most users will start with the FACT mode, which allows for playback and navigation with a video file in the browser. If a user does not have a video file, and is viewing the film on another device or projector, Classic mode can be used. A guide to Classic mode can be found .

FACT

Click the box to open your file browser and select your video file, or click and drag the file from a folder to the box.

Your video file will load in the player. You can adjust the playback speed by selecting the dotted 'More options' icon above and to the right of the video progress bar.

Play the video, or use the video progress bar, to navigate to the first cut. Select the 'Shot' button to log it.

Use the arrow buttons to refine the timing of the cut. Use the single arrows to navigate forward or back in time by one frame, and the double arrows to navigate by five frames. Use the trash can icon to delete any unnecessary cuts.

If desired, select the type of shot from the drop-down menu. To customize your shot type labels, navigate to the SHOTS pane in the upper right corner.

Keyboard shortcuts can be used to navigate the video and log shots. Select the HELP pane to view a list of available shortcuts from within the extension.

'~' : Mark shot

'm' : Reverse 5 frames

',' : Reverse 1 frame

'.' : Forward 1 frame

'/' : Forward 5 frames

After logging your shots, add metadata for the film on the SUBMIT pane. While only the Title is required for submission to the database, additional metadata will be helpful for future Cinemetricians exploring your film data.

To save your in-progress or completed shot data to your hard drive, select 'Export'. This will download the data as a '.cmsx' type file. You can reload the file with the 'Import' button on the FACT pane after loading your video file to continue adding or editing shots.

To submit the shot data to the Cinemetrics database, select Submit on the SUBMIT pane. Within a few minutes, your submission will appear on the Cinemetrics site.

If you do not see your submission in the Cinemetrics database within a few minutes, please .

Using the database

Once you click on a movie in the database, you are shown its main statistics, statistics for each button (if advanced mode was used), and a graph of shot changes.

Interpreting the graph

If the film has up to 750 shots or more, the graph will be as many pixels wide as the number of shots in the film. If there are fewer than 500 shots, the graph will be 500 pixels wide by default. If the film is more than 750 shots, the step of the shots (see Adjusting the graph below) will be adjusted automatically to fit the graph into the page. The graph shows shot lengths from the beginning of the recording to the end, left to right.

There is a column as high as the particular shot's length going from the top of the picture downwards for each shot. The graph is reversed, to show peaks when the shots are shorter and valleys when they are longer, thus depicting the film dynamics more intuitively. Each pixel in a column's height depicts one tenth of a second by default. The graph is 200 pixels high by default, so it is able to show shots lengths of up to 20 seconds. If a shot is longer than the graph's height, the column will have a red tip, indicating that it goes beyond the image height.

Graph legends

The x-axis (time-code) legend displays a code in minutes and seconds of a shot's beginning time. This code is repeated every few shots, as often as the code length allows. The code corresponds to the shot that a little arrow to the left of it points to. In the following example the shot highlited by the green line at 5 minutes and 39.7 seconds.

The y-axis (shot length) legend is connected to the horizontal gridlines that run under the graph every ten pixels. Depending on the vertical resolution setting (default is 10 pixels per second), it shows the shot length in seconds (up to one tenth of a second precision).

Adjusting the graph

The width can be adjusted by changing the Step below the graph. This defines every which shot is depicted on the graph. For example, choosing 1 will draw every shot in the film and can produce quite a long graph for most films, while choosing 2 and clicking Redraw will only draw every second shot, thus decreasing the width of that graph by two. This has no effect on the statistics and the trend lines, since they are calculated taking into account all of the shots and will stay statistically unchanged in relation to graph width. For most full length movies, the step is automatically adjusted to fit around 500-750 pixels when the movie page loads. In this case the word 'Step' is colored red and the stepping is displayed in the menu.

Trendlines

The graph visualization shows a linear trendline (order=0) by default. Manipulate this graph using the Step and Order buttons. For example, a least-squares polynomial approximation trendline is shown below as a red thick line on the graph.

7th degree polynomial trendline of Intolerance

Change the degree of the trendline by choosing a number from 1 to 12 in the Trendline: selection box and clicking Redraw. The default trendline is a linear trendline (order 1). Higher degree trendlines show more detail, but be careful, some trendlines might become quite erratic. It is important to choose a trendline that displays correct movie dynamics.

Likely erratic 12th degree polynomial trendline of Intolerance

Some adjustments may be necessary to the graph size to make the trendline more obvious. For example, increasing the vertical resolution or step will make slopes and curves more pronounced.

Advanced mode statistics

If advanced mode was used to record movie data a table containing statistical data for each shot type will be displayed. It is possible to choose which shot types to display in the graph and which not to by marking checkboxes in the statistics table. Also it is possible add a color code the graph, by choosing Show Colors. This will draw every shot type's bar in a different color.

The particular colors are marked in the table above the graph.

The different types of movie statistics will grow as the database matures. We also welcome your suggestions. User comments under the movie's statistics is one place to leave feedback.

User Tips from Yuri Tsivian

Taking shot lengths of a running movie is a manual operation performed in real time, and like any such operation – driving a car or playing a video game – it, too, takes a little practice and patience to master. Though I am only few films ahead of anyone else who might be willing to try our CineMetrics, I think I can offer a few suggestions. On the other hand, I will be much obliged to anyone who might be willing to share their experience with me or, for that matter, with the rest of potential users.

Take some time to play with the Cinemetrics tools “dry” before you try it out with an actual film. Don’t “Submit” the mock-up data.

When doing your first movie for the first time using the Classic tool, use a DVD version (if it exists) and play it on your computer (if you have one equipped with a DVD player). Thus you will have your movie, your DVD control, and the buttons of your Cinemetrics handy on the same monitor.

Start with the simplest of the options your Cinemetrics menu offers, the 'Shot' button which only registers the general ASL dynamics throughout your film. Wait till you have some practice to try out the shot customization options.

Get your finger used to the idea that it is only when you “release” your mouse button that the Cinemetrics tool reads it as a cut. So it is safe to press your mouse button as soon as the next shot begins (or somewhere in the middle) and hold it depressed till the cut comes, much like you do it when you “drag” icons on a computer desktop.

At first, you will be likely to miss some cuts forgetting to click, and, conversely, to click an extra time mistaking, for instance, a brisk movement within the duration of a shot for a shot change. Do not panic or despair at your first mistakes. Do not start all anew unless you really feel you’ve screwed things big time. Remember: what you aim at is a statistical picture, not a shot list with exact times. Unless most of your clicks are grossly off target (which is highly unlikely) your trendlines will still be more or less accurate. Remember: the choice we are faced with when doing this kind of job is between “more” and “less” accurate, not between “hit” or “miss.”

When using the Classic tool, whenever your doorbell rings, your mind starts wandering, or your wrist gets tired of clicking, keep in mind that you can export the in-progress cuts to your hard drive and re-load them into the tool at a later time. Pause your film first, and then promptly pause Cinemetrics. It helps to take a look at the playback timer in case you will need to play it back for a second or two before resuming the time-taking. Remember: Cinemetrics does not read the “pause” command as a cut, so after you click “Start” again, click when the paused shot ends.

The best spot for a pause is usually a long intertitle – precisely because you can tell at a glance it will be long, even when your film is Japanese, and you are not.

What you measure and what you don’t normally depends on what you are aiming at. I for one always treat intertitles as shots, but do not include the credits and the end title into my measurements. So does Bordwell.

These points are just tips, not the 10 commandments or commands.