Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves Nam Wook Kim - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves Nam Wook Kim - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves Nam Wook Kim Benjamin Bach Hyejin Im Harvard Harvard / Edinburgh Tufts Sasha Schriber Markus Gross Hanspeter Pfister Disney Disney Harvard Narrative Story What is told How it is

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Visualizing Nonlinear Narratives with Story Curves

Nam Wook Kim Benjamin Bach Hyejin Im Sasha Schriber Markus Gross Hanspeter Pfister Harvard Tufts Disney Disney Harvard Harvard / Edinburgh

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Story Narrative

What is told How it is told

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#1 #2 #3 #4 #5

Narrative Order Story Order

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#1 #2 #3 #4 #5

Narrative Order Story Order

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Nonlinear narrative

Telling events out of chronological order

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Gérard Genette

French Literary Theorist (1930-)

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Chronology Retrograde Flashback Flash Forward Zigzag

by Gérard Genette

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How did Genette identify such basic nonlinear narrative patterns?

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Sometimes passing in front of the hotel he remembered the rainy days when he used to bring his nursemaid that far, on a pilgrimage. But he remembered them without the melancholy that he then thought he would surely some day savor on feeling that he no longer loved her. For this melancholy, projected in anticipation prior to the indifference that lay ahead, came from his love. And this love existed no more.

“

p.38-40, Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method, Gérard Genette, 1980

”

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A Sometimes passing in front of the hotel he remembered B the rainy days when he used to bring his nursemaid that far, on a pilgrimage. C But he remembered them without D the melancholy that he then thought E he would surely some day savor on feeling that he no longer loved her. F For this melancholy, projected in anticipation G prior to the indifference that lay ahead, H came from his love. I And this love existed no more.

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A B C D E F G H I

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A B C D E F G H I

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A2 B1 C2 D1 E2 F1 G2 H1 I2 Present Past

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A2 B1 C2 D1 E2 F1 G2 H1 I2 [ ] [ ( ] ( ) ) Flashback Flashforward

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Close reading of a text passage does not scale beyond a few sequence.

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Develop a distant reading technique to reveal global narrative structures

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story curves

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Events 1 Narrative Order 2 3 4 5 Story Order 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

A B C D E

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Events 1 Narrative Order 2 3 4 5 Story Order 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

A B C D E

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Events 1 Narrative Order 2 3 4 5 Story Order 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

A B C D E

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Inspiration

Dissecting a Trailer: The Parts of the Film That Make the Cut- New York Times, Feb 19, 2013

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Inspiration

Dissecting a Trailer: The Parts of the Film That Make the Cut- New York Times, Feb 19, 2013

Trailer Time Movie Time

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Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Story Order

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Narrative Order

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Column = Scene

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Segment = Character

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Band = Location

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Backdrop = Time of the day

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Begins in the middle

  • f the story

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Flashback

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Jules’ story (Red)

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Flashforward

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Vincent’s story (Orange)

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Flashback

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Young Butch’s story (Yellow)

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Flashforward

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Butch’s story

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Flashback

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Jules’ story (cont’d)

Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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Thriller, Crime | October 1994 | Directed by Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction

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fight club

Beginning in medias res

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Memento

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Memento

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Memento

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Memento

Merging Zigzag

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Eternal Sunshine

Diverging Zigzag

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Eternal Sunshine

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12 monkeys

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500 days of summer

Short Zigzag

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500 days of summer

Staged Flashbacks

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500 days of summer

Staged Flashforwards

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500 days of summer

Bidirectional Flashes

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Annie Hall

Bidirectional Flashes

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Annie Hall

Staged Flashbacks

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Annie Hall

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Readability study

Can people read narrative patterns from story curves?

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Readability study

13 Participants

  • 8 female, 12 graduates
  • no expertise in visualization or narrative theory
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Readability study

13 Participants

  • 8 female, 12 graduates
  • no expertise in visualization or narrative theory

Procedure

  • Introduced to basic nonlinear narrative patterns
  • shown how they are represented in story curves
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Readability study

13 Participants

  • 8 female, 12 graduates
  • no expertise in visualization or narrative theory

Procedure

  • Introduced to basic nonlinear narrative patterns
  • shown how they are represented in story curves

20 multiple-choice pattern reading questions

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80% 


(16/20)

  • Avg. Accuracy per participant
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“Putting the origin at the upper left corner was initially disorienting” - P3

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“I needed to remind myself that one thing is narrative and the other is chronological.” - P9

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“I was able to recognize Memento’s curve. It is a totally fascinating idea.” - P11

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How did we build story curves?

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The Internet Movie Script Database - http://www.imsdb.com/

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Features

  • Left Margin
  • Boldness
  • Letter Case
  • Parenthesis
  • etc
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Group1: Bold Group2: Regular

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Group1: Bold Group2: Regular

  • Scene Heading
  • Character Name
  • Action
  • Dialogue
  • Parenthetical
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Scene

  • Length
  • Time of Day
  • Location
  • Interior/Exterior
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Character

  • Verbosity
  • Sentiment 


Scene

  • Length
  • Time of Day
  • Location
  • Interior/Exterior
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MovieDB (www.themoviedb.org)

Character

  • Verbosity
  • Sentiment
  • Gender

Scene

  • Length
  • Time of Day
  • Location
  • Interior/Exterior
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Movie Script Movie Info

Still no information about the chronological order of scenes

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Story explorer

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Movie Script Story Metadata Story Curve

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3

Reconstruct the Chronological Order of Scenes

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Support Visual Exploration of Movie Scripts

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What are potential use cases of Story Explorer?

Expert Evaluation

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Participants

  • 3 Professional writers (W)
  • 1 Literary scholar (L)
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Participants

  • 3 Professional writers (W)
  • 1 Literary scholar (L)

Procedure

  • Introduced Story Explorer
  • Presented narrative patterns discovered
  • Discussed potential use cases
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“The visuals look like musical notes. A literary work has also

  • rhythm. It is fantastic to see the narrative structure in this way.”

Writer#1

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“Students often have a hard time writing a good narrative even if they have a good story. They especially don’t know how to use time well and often overuse flashbacks. This tool can visually teach how time is manipulated in a narrative”

Writer#1

“The visuals look like musical notes. A literary work has also

  • rhythm. It is fantastic to see the narrative structure in this way.”

Writer#1

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“Students often have a hard time writing a good narrative even if they have a good story. They especially don’t know how to use time well and often overuse flashbacks. This tool can visually teach how time is manipulated in a narrative”

Writer#1

“In a TV series, people could use it to help visualize the amount and type of nonlinearity that is typical in early episodes. Similarly, it could help someone who rearrange the rendered scenes and compare different arrangements of events”

Literary Scholar#1

“The visuals look like musical notes. A literary work has also

  • rhythm. It is fantastic to see the narrative structure in this way.”

Writer#1

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future work

Extensions to Different Aspects of Nonlinear Temporality

  • Frequency: repetitive descriptions of a single story event
  • Duration: time taken to narrate a story event
  • Temporal paradoxes: time loops & parallel timelines
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future work

Extensions to Different Aspects of Nonlinear Temporality

  • Frequency: repetitive descriptions of a single story event
  • Duration: time taken to narrate a story event
  • Temporal paradoxes: time loops & parallel timelines

Generalizations to Other Domains

  • Other genres: theater plays, novels, video games, etc
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future work

Extensions to Different Aspects of Nonlinear Temporality

  • Frequency: repetitive descriptions of a single story event
  • Duration: time taken to narrate a story event
  • Temporal paradoxes: time loops & parallel timelines

Generalizations to Other Domains

  • Other genres: theater plays, novels, video games, etc
  • Other data domains: 


comparison of two orderings for the same set of elements

  • 1. Rankings in sports analytics
  • 2. Chromosome rearrangements in biology
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storycurve.namwkim.org