How movie-makers read your mind
What kind of new technology?
Some are pinning their hopes on emotion-sensing software, such as Affectiva, a company with roots in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These firms use computer programs to analyse video feeds of a focus groups’ faces to judge their reactions: every subtle facial flicker can reveal whether they are amused, afraid, engaged or bored. So the next time a Hollywood studio previews a movie at a test screening, cameras in the auditorium might be viewing the audience just as intently as the moviegoers are watching the screen.
What’s the point? Aren’t test audiences already quizzed?
Yes – but people are unreliable. They might forget exactly which scenes they enjoyed and which they didn’t, or they might not articulate their engagement with the movie clearly. With a moment-by-moment breakdown of their emotional state, Hollywood studies should get a much better sense of the parts of a new film that moved an audience – and the parts that made them want to move towards the exit.
To find out more about the way that new technology is changing arts and the media, check out the World-Changing Ideas Summit in New York on 21 October. BBC Future will be covering the event in full – so watch this space.
See the full story here: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141017-how-movie-makers-read-your-mind?curator=MediaREDEF