Ontology-Driven Interactive Visualization of Film Production Complexity Using a Visual Language

Early, effective director-producer communication enables detection of resource-demanding film production requirements so that a workable production plan can be formed. Traditional communication tools are limited to articulating standard production elements as lists. Yet, production complexity can be affected by latent variables with indirect impact which remain unarticulated. An ontology-driven, interactive visualization system is proposed for exposing production complexity. The system is built upon a visual language for recording directorial choices, employed for system input. By exploiting Ontologies, the visual input is analyzed in real-time and semantic metadata are extracted representing production complexity with focus on latent variables. The metadata are transformed back into an aggregate visual form which combines with the visual input, creating useful synergies. In this way, the system creates a collaborative virtual workspace facilitating director-producer communications. A real-world deployment and an evaluation demonstrated the system's advantages over traditional tools.