Film-Shot-Counter

KOKEŠ, Radomír D. Film-Shot-Counter. Online. 2019, [citováno 2024-04-24]

Basic information

• Original name: Film-Shot-Counter
• Name in Czech: Počítadlo filmových záběrů
• Authors: KOKEŠ, Radomír D.
• Edition: 2019.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Specialized database
• Field of Study: 60405 Studies on Film, Radio and Television
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords in English: database; average shot length; ASL; statistics analysis of cinema; poetics of cinema; Hollywood cinema; Czech cinema; film history

Abstract

The database is assembling and offering results of author’s “cinemetric” measurements of films and television episodes. To calculate the average shot length (i.e. ASL), author measures the length of the film in seconds and then divide it by the number of counted shots. In the database, it is possible to find more than 2500 measurings of more or less contemporary films from many countries. Besides the fact that visitor can find hundreds of ASL measurings of movies from the last decades, the database is fairly unique from at least three other reasons. (1) It includes an almost entire number of preserved films of Czech silent cinema and at least 33 % of Czech sound cinema production from each year till (so far) 1933. (2) It covers a large number of films not just from Hollywood, but from many other cinemas as well; e.g. from Central and Eastern European countries. (3) It consists of a lot of entirely rare silent films from the 1910s all around the world. It is needed to point out that very ASL values themselves are not the final results of any research. Those values are meant to be used as tools for further analysis. In the case of a particular film, the very ASL value will help us to get a rudimentary awareness of its editing pattern, but it will not tell much more. When analyzing a particular movie, it is therefore much more useful to observe the ASL’s variations during its course. On the other hand, by the force of ASL values or shot counts, we can gain a lot of various and inspiring suggestions for stylistic research in case of groups of films. An acquaintance of ASL values can facilitate the juxtaposition of various film or television works of a period, region, genre, company’s or director’s production. Since that we can put forward many research questions. This database offers extensive as well as reliable background for such questions.