Navigating Stories in Films

This report describes the transformation of feature films into hypervideo by representing their story structures using plot unties. Plot units represent cause-effect relationships between characters’ affect states and the events in a story. We use plot units to structure hypervideo links between intervals of video data. We have manually analysed two full-length feature films in terms of plot units. A system was developed to store and edit data about plot units and to navigate films by following hypervideo links based on the structure of the plot units. The effect of plot units was evaluated by having users complete question-answering tasks using the system. Results suggest that when using the links subjects gave better answers to questions about the film. In questionnaire feedback, users supported using this kind of hypervideo for watching and rewatching films on future domestic video players.