Deconstructor: An Online Film Analysis Tool

Partner(s): Larry Engel School of the Arts Released: July 2003 Archived, no longer available.

This tool assists in exploring cinema's visual syntax through its arrangement of shots and organization. Students use the Deconstructor to view and dissect film scenes into series of shots, allowing them to focus on examining the components of the whole in order to layer and juxtapose variables across time. Students can view film scenes, excerpt a series of shots from the scene, and provide a description of each shot by considering the common variables such as shot type, time and angle. The information from each excerpt of the film will then become part of a larger visualization synchronizing the shots chosen by the student, with a graphical representation of their descriptions. This aims to provide a sense of score for each scene and material that probes further analysis. The further analysis will take place in the form of a final paper using the data students have generated in the Deconstructor as their primary source material.

See original web page: https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/engel/deconstructor/

Related project categories:
Arts | Custom Software Applications and Tools

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