Original Movie Research Articles

How to Preserve Unoriginal Photographs? Some Questions of the Film Photonovel

The issue of the preservation of photographic heritage involves much more than vintage prints. Other unoriginal prints – that is, images we only know as reprints of (lost) original prints – are also a matter of concern, and the film photonovel may help raise significant issues in this regard that would otherwise risk being overlooked. At first sight, the specific medium of the film photonovel – that is, the reissue in photonovel format of original movies, a cultural practice that was extremely popular in the second half of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s – raises all of the questions that arise when discussing the materiality of photographic archives: issues of material fragility and decay, authorship and authenticity, and completeness and value. At the same time, the utterly uncanonical status of this corpus, sometimes described as the ‘lumpen’ version of what is generally considered an illegitimate genre, provides an opportunity to ask different kinds of questions with regard to the very definition of key notions such as photography, photographic record, and photographic archive. In this sense, the film photonovel opens a range of questions that continue – yet in a very different direction – Rosalind Krauss’s provocative question on the discursive spaces of photography.

Cell-based therapy for Parkinson's disease: A journey through decades toward the light side of the Force.

This review describes the history, development, and evolution of cell‐based replacement therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD), from the first pioneering trials with fetal ventral midbrain progenitors to future trials using stem cells as well as reprogrammed cells. In the spirit of Tom Isaacs, the review takes parallels to the storyline of Star Wars, including the temptations from the dark side and the continuous fight for the light side of the Force. It is subdivided into headings based on the original movies, spanning from A New Hope to the Last Jedi.

All-Optical Electrophysiology for High-Throughput Functional Characterization of a Human iPSC-Derived Motor Neuron Model of ALS.

SummaryHuman induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurons are an attractive substrate for modeling disease, yet the heterogeneity of these cultures presents a challenge for functional characterization by manual patch-clamp electrophysiology. Here, we describe an optimized all-optical electrophysiology, “Optopatch,” pipeline for high-throughput functional characterization of human iPSC-derived neuronal cultures. We demonstrate the method in a human iPSC-derived motor neuron (iPSC-MN) model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In a comparison of iPSC-MNs with an ALS-causing mutation (SOD1 A4V) with their genome-corrected controls, the mutants showed elevated spike rates under weak or no stimulus and greater likelihood of entering depolarization block under strong optogenetic stimulus. We compared these results with numerical simulations of simple conductance-based neuronal models and with literature results in this and other iPSC-based models of ALS. Our data and simulations suggest that deficits in slowly activating potassium channels may underlie the changes in electrophysiology in the SOD1 A4V mutation.

To brand or not to brand a product placement? Evidence from a field study of two influence mechanisms of positive portrayals of alcohol in film.

We propose that branded and non-branded product placements in movies are interpreted differently and that a movie with unbranded alcohol portrayals influences audiences' alcohol-related beliefs and choices indirectly, through the process of narrative transportation, whereas a movie with branded alcohol placements impacts audiences' alcohol beliefs and choices via a more basic social-cognitive process of influence. Ordinary moviegoers (N = 758) attended a showing of The Snows of Kilimanjaro (2011) in a popular theatre in Tacna, Peru. Subjects were randomly assigned to watch the original movie, with branded alcohol portrayals, or a brand-free, control version. Reactions to the movie and alcohol-related beliefs were collected in a survey immediately after the film exposure and real beverage choices were measured. The findings reveal that exposure to unbranded positive portrayals of alcohol produces story-consistent beliefs and alcohol choices through the process of narrative transportation and that exposure to branded positive alcohol portrayals produces direct effects in terms of alcohol expectancies and brand choice, despite lowering narrative transportation. Although viewers disengage more from the characters, and experience lesser enjoyment and perceived realism when exposed to actual brands in a movie, they still hold positive alcohol expectancies and are more likely to select the placed brand, a process consistent with social cognitive theory. The findings suggest caution about the recommended policy of removing branding from alcohol placements, such as in the case with plain packaging in tobacco, and instead call for effective policies to constrain alcohol product placement, as was done with tobacco placements.

Should sequels differ from original movies in pre-launch advertising schedule? Lessons from consumers' online search activity

Sequels have become a profitable strategy in the U.S. motion picture industry because of their strong name recognition. However, while the established positioning of a sequel may help insulate it from competing firms' advertising messages, its familiarity may cause moviegoers to be more easily satiated with advertising from the sequel. Therefore, this study examines how sequels differ from original concept movies in terms of their ad effectiveness. We focus our analysis on pre-launch periods, given these periods' importance in shaping the financial outcomes of motion pictures. We consider the weekly online search volume of a movie as a measure of consumer interest in it, and thus as an intermediate response to pre-launch advertising. We then develop a model that assumes ad effectiveness can decline, due to copy and repetition wearout, and increase, due to forgetting, over time. We find that copy wearout is greater for original movies, while repetition wearout and forgetting are greater for sequels. These findings suggest that sequels should allocate more in early pre-launch periods and less immediately before release, relative to originals, to maximize pre-launch consumer interest.

Mary Broadfoot Walker: 83 years since a historical discovery.

Mary Broadfoot Walker was a Scottish physician who, in 1935, described in great detail the effect of an anticholinesterase drug (physostigmine) on the signs and symptoms of myasthenia gravis. An original five-minutes movie is available online and the skepticism of her contemporary British medical doctors is understandable when the drastic effect of the treatment is shown in this movie. What Mary Walker taught us, more than eight decades ago, about myasthenia gravis continues to be the basis of a pharmacological diagnostic test and treatment of this disease.

Understanding orality through online fanfiction

Fanfiction is a work of fantasy in which fans write stories based on original books, movies, TV series, and other cultural and artistic forms of expression. This study looks into fanfiction dedicated to the popular TV series Breaking Bad. In particular, it examines how fans construct the (spoken) dialogues of their (written) stories. The article explores the pedagogic value of using fanfiction in educational contexts, focusing on the analysis, creation, and enactment of stories inspired by TV series and movies that feature a combination of narration and ‘written speech’. The article also offers practical recommendations for classroom and online activities that support the development of skills and understandings related to writing and orality. The effort of representing speech in a written form (i.e., writing dialogues and descriptions of conversations) can help students reflect, with the aid of the teacher, on the distinctiveness and specificity of written and spoken communication. By comparing, contrasting, and critiquing audiovisual and written texts (e.g., the episodes of a TV series and the transcriptions of its dialogues), and by creating their own dialogue-rich stories, students can improve their understanding of the idiosyncrasies of writing and orality across modes, thus advancing their literacy and critical skills as creative producers, not just consumers, of popular culture and media.

The Sequel to Chance Encounters

Movie-industry analyst David Fitzhugh must estimate the value of the sequel rights associated with Chance Encounters, a soon-to-be-produced movie. The producers intend to use the cash from the sale of the sequel rights to help fund production of the original movie. With the purchase of the sequel rights, the client fully intends to produce a sequel--should the original movie prove successful. Excerpt UVA-QA-0831 Feb. 13, 2015 The Sequel to Chance Encounters In April 2003, David Fitzhugh, a respected movie-industry analyst, was hired to evaluate an unusual business idea—the purchasing of the sequel rights associated with a soon-to-be-produced movie. About six months earlier, Warmer Brothers Studios had approached Fitzhugh's client (a very successful independent-movie producer) with a proposal to sell him the exclusive rights to produce a sequel to Chance Encounters, Warmer Brothers' newest movie. A string of poorly performing movies had left Warmer Brothers badly in need of cash to help defray the estimated $ 25 million cost of making Chance Encounters, and they had come up with the idea of selling the sequel rights. In preparation for the upcoming negotiation, Fitzhugh's client asked him to perform a thorough “data-driven” valuation of the exclusive rights to produce a sequel. The Basics of the Movie Business Movies went through three stages to reach the public: production, distribution, and exhibition. Production was the actual making of the movie. The total cost for this stage was called negative cost: the cost to produce the master negative of the movie. Typically, the largest components of negative cost were salaries of the actors and director, set design and construction, and transportation. On average, production of a movie took about a year, at a negative cost of around $ 30 million. . . .

Chance Encounters Ii

Movie-industry analyst David Fitzhugh must estimate the value of the sequel rights associated with Chance Encounters (CE), a soon-to-be-produced movie. The producers of CE intend to use the cash from the sale of the sequel rights to help fund production of the original movie. With the purchase of the sequel rights to CE, the client intends to produce a sequel to CE--should the original movie prove successful. Excerpt UVA-QA-0783 Rev. Jun. 15, 2012 Chance Encounters II In April 2003, David Fitzhugh, a respected movie-industry analyst, was hired to evaluate an unusual business idea—the purchasing of the sequel rights associated with a soon-to-be-produced movie. About six months earlier, Warmer Brothers Studios had approached Fitzhugh's client with a proposal. For $ 3 million, Warmer Brothers offered to sell the rights to produce a sequel to Chance Encounters, Warmer Brothers' newest movie. A string of poorly performing movies had left Warmer Brothers badly in need of cash to finance this latest project. Warmer would use the $ 3 million sequel-rights fee to help defray the estimated $ 25 million cost of making Chance Encounters. In return, Fitzhugh's client would receive exclusive rights to produce a sequel to Chance Encounters. Fitzhugh's challenge was to evaluate this proposal and report his findings to the client, a very successful independent-movie producer. The Basics of the Movie Business Movies went through three stages to reach the public: production, distribution, and exhibition. Production was the actual making of the movie. The total cost for this stage was called negative cost: the cost to produce the master negative of the movie. Typically, the largest components of negative cost were salaries of the actors and director, set design and construction, and transportation. On average, production of a movie took about a year, at a negative cost of around $ 30 million. . . .

Small Screen to Big Screen Made-for-TV Movies in American and International Cinemas

The American TV movie has a lowly reputation, generally seen as melodramatic and derivative with low production values. However, this widely held stereotype obscures both the industrial significance of the telefilm and the variation in budget, genre and even exhibition site, within the form. From the late 1960s to the 1980s, each network invested in and broadcast multiple original TV movies per week. Many of these films garnered high ratings, but their success did not stop there – during this period of high production volume, some telefilms were able to jump from the American television screen to cinemas around the world. In this industrial history, I reconstruct the conditions that made possible this global exchange and shift in exhibition site, including the Financial Interest and Syndication (Fin/Syn) Rules, European television policies, and, drawing on Brian Taves’ study of B-films, changes in telefilm budget levels. This period of flexibility was short-lived, but it illuminates the shifting conditions that control the movement of media through different sites of exhibition.

A Markov random field approach for modeling spatio-temporal evolution of microstructures

The following problem is addressed: ‘Can one synthesize microstructure evolution over a large area given experimental movies measured over smaller regions?’ Our input is a movie of microstructure evolution over a small sample window. A Markov random field (MRF) algorithm is developed that uses this data to estimate the evolution of microstructure over a larger region. Unlike the standard microstructure reconstruction problem based on stationary images, the present algorithm is also able to reconstruct time-evolving phenomena such as grain growth. Such an algorithm would decrease the cost of full-scale microstructure measurements by coupling mathematical estimation with targeted small-scale spatiotemporal measurements. The grain size, shape and orientation distribution statistics of synthesized polycrystalline microstructures at different times are compared with the original movie to verify the method.

Exploiting character networks for movie summarization

Movie summarization focuses on providing as much information as possible for shorter movie clips while still keeping the content of the original movie and presenting a faster way for the audience to understand the movie. In this paper, we propose a novel method to summarize a movie based on character network analysis and the appearance of protagonist and main characters in the movie. Experiments were carried out for 2 movies (Titanic (1997) and Frozen (2013)) to show that our method outperforms conventional approaches in terms of the movie summarization rate.

Frecuencia de uso y funciones de las interjecciones italianas y españolas en el hablado fílmico y sus repercusiones en el doblaje al español

In a previous publication (Zamora & Alessandro 2013) it was shown that certain single-word, and mostly multi-word interjections are more often used specifically in the Italian linguistic system, and therefore in its film language, than in the Spanish one. In Spanish, other linguistic resources with the same pragmatic and discursive function are used. With the data obtained from our previous investigation and based on a descriptive analysis of an Italian-Spanish film corpus made up by original and dubbed movies, the objectives of this work are, on the one hand, to confirm the frequency of use of specific interjections in both film languages in order to examine the role and the importance of this linguistic resource in the orality of both languages; and, on the other hand, to verify which procedures or patterns have been applied by the translators when dealing with this special class of words.

KÜLTÜREL MİRASIN ÇİZGİ FİLM SENARYOLARINDA KULLANILMASI

Toplumların sözlü kültürlerine ait ürünler zaman içerisinde değişip dönüştürülerek farklı anlatılara kaynak oluşturmuşlardır. Bu sözlü kültür ürünleri kimi zaman bir edebi metne, kimi zamansa bir senaryoya aktarılmışlardır. Çizgi filmler de bu sözlü kültürün getirisi geleneksel kaynaklardan faydalanan sanat dalları arasındadır. Mitolojiler, masallar, halk hikâyeleri, efsaneler, destanlar, ninniler ve daha pek çok geleneksel anlatı çizgi film senaryoları için önemli birer kaynak oluşturmaktadır. Batı’da Walt Disney, Doğu’da ise Stüdyo Ghibli gibi Dünya’nın önde gelen animasyon stüdyoları geleneksel anlatıların klasikleşmiş unsurlarını çizgi film senaryolarında yeniden kullanmak ve yinelemek yoluyla güncellemektedirler. Böylece kültürel hafıza süreklilik göstermektedir. Türkiye’de ise sinema ve çizgi filmde senaryo anlamında özgünlük ve yaratıcılık en temel sorundur. Bu çerçevede Türkiye’de çizgi film senaryolarının konu ve yaratıcılık anlamında yaşadığı kısır döngüden kurtulmasının, Türk kültürü içerisinde süregelen geleneksel anlatıların senaryolarda kullanmaya başlamasıyla mümkün olacağı düşünülmektedir. Bu araştırmada, çizgi film senaryolarında geleneksel anlatılardan nasıl yararlanılabileceğini ortaya koymak amaçlanmaktadır. Türkiye’de Anadolu Üniversitesi Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi Animasyon Bölümünde yürütülmekte olan “Öykü Tasarımı” dersinde “geleneksel anlatıların çizgi film senaryolarında kullanımı”na yönelik gerçekleştirilen çalışmada öğrenciler kendi coğrafyalarının kültürel miraslarını kullanarak farklı içeriklerde senaryo uygulamaları gerçekleştirmişlerdir. Böylece özgün ve ulusal bir çizgi film geleneğinin ortaya çıkarılmasında kültürel mirasın ne denli zengin bir kaynak oluşturduğu ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır.

Portrayed emotions in the movie "Forrest Gump".

Here we present a dataset with a description of portrayed emotions in the movie "Forrest Gump". A total of 12 observers independently annotated emotional episodes regarding their temporal location and duration. The nature of an emotion was characterized with basic attributes, such as arousal and valence, as well as explicit emotion category labels. In addition, annotations include a record of the perceptual evidence for the presence of an emotion. Two variants of the movie were annotated separately: 1) an audio-movie version of Forrest Gump that has been used as a stimulus for the acquisition of a large public functional brain imaging dataset, and 2) the original audio-visual movie. We present reliability and consistency estimates that suggest that both stimuli can be used to study visual and auditory emotion cue processing in real-life like situations. Raw annotations from all observers are publicly released in full in order to maximize their utility for a wide range of applications and possible future extensions. In addition, aggregate time series of inter-observer agreement with respect to particular attributes of portrayed emotions are provided to facilitate adoption of these data.

Metamemory ratings predict long-term changes in reactivated episodic memories.

Reactivation of long-term memory can render the memory item temporarily labile, offering an opportunity to modify it via behavioral or pharmacological intervention. Declarative memory reactivation is accompanied by a metamemory ability to subjectively assess the knowledge available concerning the target item (Feeling of knowing, FOK). We set out to examine whether FOK can predict the extent of change of long-term episodic memories by post-retrieval manipulations. To this end, participants watched a short movie and were immediately thereafter tested on their memory for it. A day later, they were reminded of that movie, and either immediately or 1 day later, were presented with a second movie. The reminder phase consisted of memory cues to which participants were asked to judge their FOK regarding the original movie. The memory performance of participants to whom new information was presented immediately after reactivating the original episode corresponded to the degree of FOK ratings upon reactivation such that the lower their FOK, the less their memory declined. In contrast, no relation was found between FOK and memory strength for those who learned new information 1 day after the reminder phase. Our findings suggest that the subjective accessibility of reactivated memories may determine the extent to which new information might modify those memories.

What do you wish to see? A summarization system for movies based on user preferences

Video summarization aims at producing a compact version of a full-length video while preserving the significant content of the original video. Movie summarization condenses a full-length movie into a summary that still retains the most significant and interesting content of the original movie. In the past, several movie summarization systems have been proposed to generate a movie summary based on low-level video features such as color, motion, texture, etc. However, a generic summary, which is common to everyone and is produced based only on low-level video features will not satisfy every user. As users’ preferences for the summary differ vastly for the same movie, there is a need for a personalized movie summarization system nowadays. To address this demand, this paper proposes a novel system to generate semantically meaningful video summaries for the same movie, which are tailored to the preferences and interests of a user. For a given movie, shots and scenes are automatically detected and their high-level features are semi-automatically annotated. Preferences over high-level movie features are explicitly collected from the user using a query interface. The user preferences are generated by means of a stored-query. Movie summaries are generated at shot level and scene level, where shots or scenes are selected for summary skim based on the similarity measured between shots and scenes, and the user’s preferences. The proposed movie summarization system is evaluated subjectively using a sample of 20 subjects with eight movies in the English language. The quality of the generated summaries is assessed by informativeness, enjoyability, relevance, and acceptance metrics and Quality of Perception measures. Further, the usability of the proposed summarization system is subjectively evaluated by conducting a questionnaire survey. The experimental results on the performance of the proposed movie summarization approach show the potential of the proposed system.

When to Sell Your Idea: Theory and Evidence from the Movie Industry

I study a model of investment and sale of ideas and test its empirical implications using a novel data set from the market for original movie ideas. Consistent with the theoretical results, I find that buyers are reluctant to meet unproven sellers for early-stage ideas, which restricts sellers to either developing the ideas fully (to sell them later) or abandoning them. In contrast, experienced sellers can attract buyers at any stage, and they sell worse ideas sooner and better ideas later. These results have important managerial implications for buyers and sellers and show that, in such contexts, policy interventions that discourage buyer participation—such as stronger intellectual property protection—may diminish the market for ideas and hurt inexperienced sellers. This paper was accepted by Bruno Cassiman, business strategy.

When does it make sense to do it again? An empirical investigation of contingency factors of movie remakes

A substantial number of current Hollywood productions are remakes of earlier motion pictures. This research investigates the economic implications of this strategy. It develops a conceptual framework of brand extension success in the movie industry that builds upon the sensations and familiarity that a movie offers and uses this framework to illustrate how remakes differ from other movie brand extensions (e.g., sequels). The sensations-familiarity framework is complemented by a contingency model that identifies factors which influence revenues and risk of movie remakes. Using a dataset of 207 remakes released in North American theaters between 1999 and 2011 and a matched sample of other movies, the authors find that, on average, remakes do not increase revenues but do reduce financial risk. The authors also provide evidence of the contingency role of several factors, including the original movie’s awareness and image and the relationship between the original movie and the remake. These insights should be valuable for the movie industry, as they can guide movie producers in their selection of movie brands that, if remade, should be more successful at the box office than the “average” movie remake.

Death Before Disco: The Effectiveness of a Musical Metronome in Layperson Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training

BackgroundA novel musical memory aid has been proposed for aiding laypersons in complying with the American Heart Association (AHA) cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines of 100 compressions per minute (cpm). ObjectiveThis study tested usefulness of such a memory aid to improve layperson long-term compliance with CPR compression rate guidelines. MethodsA prospective randomized controlled trial was conducted using CPR-untrained laypersons. Subjects received either a standard CPR educational experience (AHA Heartsaver® CPR class) or an experimental CPR educational experience (AHA Heartsaver® CPR class augmented with a musical metronome). Experimental group subjects were taught to perform compressions to the cadence of a pop music song (The Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive”; Saturday Night Fever, The Original Movie Soundtrack; Polygram International Music, 1977) with a tempo of 100 beats/min. Compression rates, depth of compressions, and correct compressions were measured initially and upon retesting ≥6 weeks post-training. ResultsControl subjects had a higher mean compression rate both immediately (121 [standard deviation {SD} = 21] vs. 109 [SD = 15] cpm; 95% confidence interval [CI] of mean difference 4−19; p = 0.002) and at follow-up (120 [SD = 20] vs. 111 [SD = 13] cpm; 95% CI of mean difference 2−16; p = 0.014). Compression rates stratified to 100−120 cpm demonstrated no difference between groups initially (39% vs. 48%; p = 0.382), but more experimental subjects maintained these rates at follow-up (43% vs. 74%; p = 0.003). ConclusionsSubjects trained to use a musical metronome more often maintained a compression rate of 100−120 cpm at ≥6-week follow-up, suggesting the memory aid may improve long-term guideline adherence.