Hello, friend.
I once imagined this tool only on paper. As a filmmaker, I’ve always been curious about how the development of characters in movies or stage plays could be visualized—not just the protagonist, but every significant character in a story. What if we could track how their emotions and physical states change over time? Imagine, for instance, a TV show where multiple characters share equal importance. Each could be mapped based on emotional states (happy, sad, angry, relaxed, etc.) and physical actions (sitting, running, fighting, dancing, and more).
Emotional Values
These values represent a character’s internal state—like a reflection of brain activity. When you’re sad, fewer neurons are firing, but when you're excited—say, to see your friends or your favorite GitHub repository gets an update—it’s like fireworks inside your brain. CineMotions captures these emotional changes.
Physical Values
These values reflect how characters exist in the physical world, from lying down or sleeping to engaging in intense activities like fighting or making out. Every action counts.
Combining Values
By blending emotional and physical states, we can form a picture of a character’s complete journey. With multiple characters, this creates a fluid, 3D shape that shifts over time, revealing their development scene by scene.
As a starting point, I used American Psycho and its screenplay as a .txt file.
When ChatGPT 3 was first released, I experimented with ASCII art visualizations in the terminal. Later, I condensed everything into a single prompt so ChatGPT could analyze and visualize outputs in real-time. Now, I’ve collaborated with Claude 3.5 Sonnet to create a Python-based prototype.
I know it’s a bit ambitious (and perhaps naive) to think that every movie or TV show could fit into this analysis, as screenplays are often unique works of art. However, screenwriting theory allows us to break many scripts down into common elements, and perhaps patterns can emerge. My goal is to visualize those patterns.
Your contributions are more than welcome. I'm not a professional programmer—just someone who's gotten curious about bits and bytes.