Generic film forms for dynamic virtual video synthesis

The FRAMES project within the RDN CRC (Cooperative Research Centre for Research Data Networks) is developing an experimental environment for video content-based retrieval and dynamic virtual video synthesis from archives of video data. The FRAMES research prototype is a video synthesis system incorporating an association engine for automatically generating associative sequences of video data. Authors preparing video descriptions, association specifications, and component video sequences require guidelines for developing the primitive video components and semantic representations required to create particular film forms. High level formal models of film and video provide such a methodology. In particular, categorical, associational, and abstract film forms can be generated based upon video component descriptors and specifications, while narrative and rhetorical forms require the introduction of independent rules or relations expressing causal and rhetorical relationships, respectively.