CASE STUDY: IESOUSYEHOSUA, TEXTUAL ANALYSIS, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF META-ANALYTICAL SOFTWARE FOR CINEMATIC PROJECTS
RESEARCH/CREATION PROJECT: DESCRIPTION
There are a number of existing software packages on the market that handle script-screenplay and storyboard production. The primary problem with these products is their complete inability to deal with the foundational issue of scripting practices: the semantics of natural language activity pertaining to production of a cinematic/television project. This issue is of fundamental importance. At present, existing software offer the user a rationalized, organizational, and logistical structure that facilitates the development of scripts and storyboards. At their best, they give the user a tool to transcribe, regulate, and format material and, at their worst, they are nothing more than glorified word processing programs that provide highly conventionalized production templates. What they cannot do is provide the user with a software tool that allows for the analysis and extrapolation of semantic content from the ongoing linguistic activity occurring during production for the purpose of providing developmental support for a given project. Professors Clark and Kosseim have established a research team that will consider the semantics of the natural language usage [ spoken {via voice transcription software} & written ] as it pertains to all text/linguistic activity occurring during a cinematic production. The team will be structured around two units functioning as one project team: the Cinematic Production Unit 1 and the Text Analysis Unit 2 . Working over a period of three years, the team's research objective is the establishment of an preliminary set of development protocols and possible software constituents that will facilitate the design of a completely new form of scripting software for cinematic/television and video productions. The set of protocols will address the composition of two integrated constituents: one, textual/semantic analysis and two, database content and structure.
