Cinemetrics is a tool that not only lets one record data to analyze movies as Yuri Tsivian did in his Intolerance study, but also publishes the gathered data on this web site for everyone to access. This is a collaborative project. The more data will be submitted by the users, the more will be available to them. We hope this will grow into a movie dynamics database useful to everyone.
Compatibility
The full version is compatible with most Windows operating systems. If you don't have a Windows machine, you can use the online version, which does not allow saving the data locally, so make sure you have an Internet connection before using it, or your data might be lost.
Download
1. Windows users are recommended to use the downloadable version, which supports saving and opening files. Click on the following link and choose Save to save the file to a convenient place on your hard drive: cinemetrics.exe. You can also use the online version.
2.
Cinemetrics is free, so mention the tool and this URL address in your publications and to your students and friends. Spread the word!
3. Read the instructions on how to use the tool.
How it works
You are presented with a simple interface allowing you to push buttons as shots on the movie player switch. The software must be run simultaneously with the user watching the movie. So one movie's dynamics data can be gathered in one viewing. There is an option to pause for tea as well. Once the movie is over, you are presented with some basic statistics (length of the movie, number of shots, average shot length). To see the more statistics and the resulting graphs, you need to submit the data to our database server to be automatically analyzed, stored and published. Submission process is built into the software, but you need an internet connection for it to work. If Internet is unavailable at the time, data is saved and can be submitted at a later time. The online version lets you save the data manually to submit it later with the help of the database administrator.