Unmasking „That Obscure Object of Desire‟: A Brief Report from the Films and Facets Project

Abstract

The use of facet analysis as an analytical tool for identifying salient access features of moving images was tested in this exploratory project. Twelve participants viewed three films, and created keywords and summaries for each film. These textual descriptions and access features from four moving image repositories were subject to facet analysis. A comparison of the facets elicited by this approach indicates that subject-related content; especially theme, genre and action may be highly salient access points for searchers in moving image repositories. Overview This exploratory project tested the use of facet and filmic analysis (CRG, 1957; La Barre, 2006, 2010; Ranganathan, 1933, 1937; Spiteri, 1998) as strategies for enhancing access and discovery of moving image resources. Developed jointly at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Universidade Federal Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the study assessed similarities and divergences in the content of written participant responses (n=12) to a set of three films across two different cultures (American and Brazilian). Participants were asked to identify salient film characteristics in the form of keywords and film summaries each person created after watching each film. The researchers conducted facet and filmic analysis of these written narratives as a way to uncover insights to support the creation of enhanced strategies for moving image representations. These insights could provide support for the creation of more robust access and discovery interfaces for films. One enhancement suggested by the findings provides support for the importance of indexing strategies for moving images that focus on subject-related attributes such as theme, action and genre. Films and Facets Project Today, the greatest challenge to the future of facet analysis is to determine the extent and manner in which this technique might be adopted and adapted for use in rapidly developing digital environments (La Barre, 2010, p. 268). The approach taken in this study integrates traditional facet analytic models as delineated by Vickery (1966, p. 43-44), and revisited by La Barre (2010) and replicates the facet analytical model developed in the project Folktales and Facets (La Barre & Tilley, 2010; La Barre & Tilley, 2012). Films and Facets used the technique of facet analysis in conjunction with applicable principles of film study (Cordiero, 2000) to help identify important item features such as item format or theme, and the role of user characteristics such as language, experience, and understanding in textual descriptions created by study participants. The main objective of this study was to analyze written viewer responses to three films in order to extract salient aspects that might help improve retrieval and access to films in a variety of information environments (digital repositories, libraries and archives). This research sought to verify the utility of facet analysis and filmic analysis in the interpretation of the textual descriptions 1 The full results of this study will be presented in a forthcoming (2012) book chapter: That Obscure Object of Desire: Facets for Film Access and Discovery. In Diane Rasmussen Neal. (Ed.) Indexing and Retrieval of NonText Information. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur. The main focus of this report is upon the facet analytical aspect of this Films and Facets.