Hauptbeitrag / Unspoken Emotions in Movies

Introduction Stories are the core of many types of entertainment. Although developers and designers strive to develop new forms of entertainment that deliver richer audiovisual experiences to the audience, one of the key elements – a good story – remains the same. Storytelling is intertwined in people’s lives and has deeply influenced human societies for generations. It ranges from the simplest forms, such as bedtime stories for children, to more complex forms such as plays, movies, and games. Just as children love often-told bedtime stories, sometimes adults enjoy watching classic movies over and over again and never tire of them. Storytelling is not only a matter of howwell the stories are memorized but also the overall emotional experience over the course of the storyline. The link between the story and the corresponding emotions is an intriguing topic for developing new interactive storytelling systems. The scope of storytelling systems is remarkably broad in the domain of entertainment applications. Depending on the level of interaction, storytelling systems range from passive forms, such as movies, to active forms, such as video games. Traditional storytelling, as exemplified by movies and plays, follows a linear arc to construct a storyline in which the audience passively receives the stories that are presented on the screen or stage. In order to enhance the interactivity, new types of digital entertainment encourage the audience to become involved in the stories in different ways. The audience is invited to create or influence the storyline in real time by acting as the protagonist or the director of the narrative. This mechanism has been adopted in many video games, particularly role-playing games. Fig. 1 A conceptual framework of an emotion-driven storytelling system