Perspective Media: Personalised Video Storytelling for Data Engagement
Lead Research Organisation:
University of York
Department Name: Theatre Film and TV
Abstract
An unprecedented amount of data exists about our lives, environments and the people we share them with. The devices (e.g. phones, smart thermostats and even cars) and organisations (e.g. councils, supermarkets) we interact with on a daily basis, record and store ever more information about things we do and care about. By empowering large numbers of people to access and interpret this data, we can transform the way we understand and make decisions about key aspects of our lives (e.g. health and energy use) and have a greater say in how we are treated by the government and other groups.
We can access an increasing amount of this data by downloading it from our devices or other places like our local council's website. However, being able to get data does not necessarily mean we are able to understand it. Interpreting raw data files requires special software and techniques that most of us are not trained to use. Websites and apps that let us access and browse data in more accessible forms like graphs and infographics can help many people, but still are not right for everyone. Some people do not have the educational background needed to understand these forms of presentation, and others struggle to interpret what the facts and trends they show mean in the context of their lives. Equally importantly, many of us will not find seeking out and browsing data displayed in these ways an enjoyable and enriching way to spend our time - and might miss out on benefits of understanding our data as a result.
This project will pioneer a new way for presenting data to the public that a large and diverse section of the population will be able to, and equally crucially, want to use. We propose that this can be achieved by creating personalised video stories that tell us how our data relates to our lives and the people around us. We call this new form Perspective Media. Imagine a documentary about climate change that uses a personalised narrative structure and graphics based on data from your smart meter to show specific and achievable ways to improve your carbon footprint. Building on the skilled craft of video storytelling (e.g. from TV) to present a personalised perspective on data will allow us to provide an easier route for many people to understand how large and complex data sources relate to their lives. Basing our approach on a highly popular media format like video, with a diverse range of genres, will mean that large numbers of people from different backgrounds will enjoy using it to engage with their data.
Current ways of making video content assume that stories are fixed and linear, with the same information shown to everyone in the same order. Perspective Media, on the other hand, will show each viewer a personalised story about their data. For this reason, new ways of telling video stories that respond to data will need to be developed. These new approaches will, in turn, require new tools and technologies for creating content and delivering it to viewers. The aim of this research is to lay the foundations for these developments by: 1) investigating a range of techniques for presenting data in personalised video story form; 2) analysing the processes and tools that are currently used to make video stories to see how they need to be changed and extended; and 3) exploring how users experience video stories that are personalised to their data, and whether they truly offer a more inclusive and enjoyable way for people to engage with data.
We will achieve this aim by bringing together people with expertise in media production and data analytics with technology designers, to create prototypes of personalised video stories based on data. By analysing these prototypes, and how they are made and received by audiences, we will inform future research into production tools and technologies for Perspective Media and encourage the growth of a community of people in the media industry who create it.
We can access an increasing amount of this data by downloading it from our devices or other places like our local council's website. However, being able to get data does not necessarily mean we are able to understand it. Interpreting raw data files requires special software and techniques that most of us are not trained to use. Websites and apps that let us access and browse data in more accessible forms like graphs and infographics can help many people, but still are not right for everyone. Some people do not have the educational background needed to understand these forms of presentation, and others struggle to interpret what the facts and trends they show mean in the context of their lives. Equally importantly, many of us will not find seeking out and browsing data displayed in these ways an enjoyable and enriching way to spend our time - and might miss out on benefits of understanding our data as a result.
This project will pioneer a new way for presenting data to the public that a large and diverse section of the population will be able to, and equally crucially, want to use. We propose that this can be achieved by creating personalised video stories that tell us how our data relates to our lives and the people around us. We call this new form Perspective Media. Imagine a documentary about climate change that uses a personalised narrative structure and graphics based on data from your smart meter to show specific and achievable ways to improve your carbon footprint. Building on the skilled craft of video storytelling (e.g. from TV) to present a personalised perspective on data will allow us to provide an easier route for many people to understand how large and complex data sources relate to their lives. Basing our approach on a highly popular media format like video, with a diverse range of genres, will mean that large numbers of people from different backgrounds will enjoy using it to engage with their data.
Current ways of making video content assume that stories are fixed and linear, with the same information shown to everyone in the same order. Perspective Media, on the other hand, will show each viewer a personalised story about their data. For this reason, new ways of telling video stories that respond to data will need to be developed. These new approaches will, in turn, require new tools and technologies for creating content and delivering it to viewers. The aim of this research is to lay the foundations for these developments by: 1) investigating a range of techniques for presenting data in personalised video story form; 2) analysing the processes and tools that are currently used to make video stories to see how they need to be changed and extended; and 3) exploring how users experience video stories that are personalised to their data, and whether they truly offer a more inclusive and enjoyable way for people to engage with data.
We will achieve this aim by bringing together people with expertise in media production and data analytics with technology designers, to create prototypes of personalised video stories based on data. By analysing these prototypes, and how they are made and received by audiences, we will inform future research into production tools and technologies for Perspective Media and encourage the growth of a community of people in the media industry who create it.
Planned Impact
We anticipate that the research will have impact in three key areas: the media industry, people who are not motivated or otherwise able to engage with data, and policymakers and organisations that aim to support more inclusive data engagement:
1) The media industry: our findings will lay the foundations for the development of high-quality video stories that are personalised to viewer data by the media industry. The UK television industry is facing the test of responding to opportunities and challenges posed by new online and digital content forms. At the heart of these challenges is an increasing viewer appetite for interactivity and personalisation in the consumption of video media. The BBC has told us that developing new object-based approaches, such as those explored in this project, is central to their strategy for responding to these developments. By providing knowledge that will equip the BBC and other organisations to produce a new, innovative and disruptive form of object-based video content, the project will support the UK television and film industry in responding to this challenge and, therefore, retaining it's world leading position and the economic value it brings (e.g. £10.8bn of GVA in 2014 and international sales in excess of £1.2bn in 2014/15). The capability to produce personalised video stories that motivate and enable a broad spectrum of people to gain personal and societal benefits from understanding their data also has the potential to be particularly beneficial for UK broadcasters with a public service remit, including our project partner the BBC. The direct involvement of media industry partners (BBC, Catherine Allen) in the project's co-design activities will provide an immediate knowledge transfer channel to industry during the project. Impact across a broader range of media industry partners will also be facilitated through two dissemination events.
2) The public: the overarching aim of the Perspective Media approach is to equip a broader and more diverse range of people to understand and, therefore, act in response to the data that exists about them in modern society. Previous research has argued that greater public engagement with data can provide people with significant benefits including improved diet, fitness, mental and physical health, resource use and increased civic participation and involvement in decision-making. By laying the foundations for the production of video stories that can motivate and enable larger numbers of people to understand their data, the project has the potential to have a profound impact on the lives of UK citizens; in particular amongst excluded groups who may not have the requisite educational background or skills to engage with existing forms of data presentation. The deployment of a refined content prototype that provides an accessible and entertaining lens on its viewers' data via the BBC's Taster platform will provide a direct route for immediate social impact amongst a large public audience.
3) Policymakers: motivating policymakers and organisations that aim to support data engagement amongst a broader section of the population to explore the Perspective Media approach (potentially through the collaborative commissioning of content with the media industry) is key to our strategy for facilitating social impact at scale. Our partner the City of York Council will be central to our efforts in this area. Working closely with this organisation during the co-design activities will provide a direct route by which project outcomes can influence local government policy on public access and engagement with data. The PI will seek to facilitate broader policy impact by leveraging connections with high profile policy organisations (e.g. our partners the Open Data Institute and the Digital Catapult) and attending government events, particularly relating to open data policy, to promote awareness of project outcomes and their policy implications at a national level.
1) The media industry: our findings will lay the foundations for the development of high-quality video stories that are personalised to viewer data by the media industry. The UK television industry is facing the test of responding to opportunities and challenges posed by new online and digital content forms. At the heart of these challenges is an increasing viewer appetite for interactivity and personalisation in the consumption of video media. The BBC has told us that developing new object-based approaches, such as those explored in this project, is central to their strategy for responding to these developments. By providing knowledge that will equip the BBC and other organisations to produce a new, innovative and disruptive form of object-based video content, the project will support the UK television and film industry in responding to this challenge and, therefore, retaining it's world leading position and the economic value it brings (e.g. £10.8bn of GVA in 2014 and international sales in excess of £1.2bn in 2014/15). The capability to produce personalised video stories that motivate and enable a broad spectrum of people to gain personal and societal benefits from understanding their data also has the potential to be particularly beneficial for UK broadcasters with a public service remit, including our project partner the BBC. The direct involvement of media industry partners (BBC, Catherine Allen) in the project's co-design activities will provide an immediate knowledge transfer channel to industry during the project. Impact across a broader range of media industry partners will also be facilitated through two dissemination events.
2) The public: the overarching aim of the Perspective Media approach is to equip a broader and more diverse range of people to understand and, therefore, act in response to the data that exists about them in modern society. Previous research has argued that greater public engagement with data can provide people with significant benefits including improved diet, fitness, mental and physical health, resource use and increased civic participation and involvement in decision-making. By laying the foundations for the production of video stories that can motivate and enable larger numbers of people to understand their data, the project has the potential to have a profound impact on the lives of UK citizens; in particular amongst excluded groups who may not have the requisite educational background or skills to engage with existing forms of data presentation. The deployment of a refined content prototype that provides an accessible and entertaining lens on its viewers' data via the BBC's Taster platform will provide a direct route for immediate social impact amongst a large public audience.
3) Policymakers: motivating policymakers and organisations that aim to support data engagement amongst a broader section of the population to explore the Perspective Media approach (potentially through the collaborative commissioning of content with the media industry) is key to our strategy for facilitating social impact at scale. Our partner the City of York Council will be central to our efforts in this area. Working closely with this organisation during the co-design activities will provide a direct route by which project outcomes can influence local government policy on public access and engagement with data. The PI will seek to facilitate broader policy impact by leveraging connections with high profile policy organisations (e.g. our partners the Open Data Institute and the Digital Catapult) and attending government events, particularly relating to open data policy, to promote awareness of project outcomes and their policy implications at a national level.
Organisations
Publications
Hook J
(2018)
Facts, Interactivity and Videotape
Hook J
(2019)
Welcome from the ACM TVX 2019 chairs
Smith D
(2018)
Authoring Object-Based Video Narratives
Title | Brooke Leave Home: An Interactive Film About Care Leaver Support in England |
Description | Brooke Leave Home is an interactive film designed to engage viewers with open data relating to the support young adults receive when leaving the care system in England. The film draws upon a range of data-driven narrative structures and techniques to present each viewer with personalized open data about the support care leavers receive in their own local authority area. In doing so, the film intends to highlight the current levels of inequality experienced by care leavers as a result of the geographic location. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Impact | The involvement of stakeholders from the Children's Society, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Inspired Youth in the production process has led to the initial transfer of ideas for Perspective Media developed in the project in relation to their priorities and practices. Broader impact activities that will seek to present the final product to these and other stakeholders, to inspire them to commission and create related content, are ongoing as part of the Perspective Media project and DC Labs. |
Description | We provide a summary of our main findings so far in relation to objectives. Our first objective is to "investigate and analyse a range of aesthetic techniques for presenting data in personalised video story form". Through an analysis of 300 media items, we have identified 5 narrative structures and 10 designs strategies that offer potential to incorporate data into interactive videos. Interviews and co-design activities with stakeholders from video production (e.g. BBC, Disobedient Films, Rubber Republic, Limina Immersive) and data (e.g. ODI York Museums Trust, York City Council, DEFRA) have extended this set of techniques and provided insight into how they can be applied and/or will need to be adapted in response to particular data sets, organizational goals and author intents. Through the creation of Brooke Leave Home - an adaptive film that presents personalised open government data on care leaver support, based on the viewer's location - we have developed and implemented a further collection of novel techniques. These include methods for: connecting human stories to personalised data using adaptive narrative; establishing explicit and understandable connections between personalised data and stories; balancing individual and contextual data presentation; establishing viewer trust and authenticity in personalised data and its interpretation; and balancing production goals with practical constraints. Our second objective is to "analyse current production tools and processes for video stories (including emergent object-based approaches) to determine how they should be developed for Perspective Media". The outcomes of our content analysis, interviews and first co-design workshop revealed a set of baseline requirements for a production tool and process, and demonstrated the potential for the Cutting Room tool (developed in our related DC Labs project) to meet them. During the subsequent co-design activities and production of Brooke Leave Home, we have explored in detail how Cutting Room and its workflow must be changed and extended to support the production of data-driven videos. This process has resulted in a concept prototype illustrating design features required to support aesthetic techniques identified in objective one and, based on this, a set of technical extensions to Cutting Room that support the techniques and structures needed for Brooke Leave Home, as well as a sub-set of others. Our third objective is to "identify and understand issues affecting user perception and experience of Perspective Media and provide preliminary evidence of its effectiveness". Co-design activities brought together highly relevant, multi-disciplinary groups of experts to interrogate the complex issues of ethics, privacy and data ownership that will affect audience perception and response to video content based on personalised data. A thematic analysis of transcripts from these activities has revealed key design considerations, including consent, data handling and ownership, and tensions between transparency and narrative intent. Additionally, a detailed audience study of Brooke Leave Home has shown that, in the case of Brooke Leave Home, a personalized film was effective in making data understandable and viewers care about it. Quantitative findings showed significant increases in ratings of topic awareness and importance after watching; that most viewers found the presentation of data to be interesting, easy to understand and relevant to their local community; and that viewers felt a strong empathic response and concerned about care leavers after watching. Qualitative responses showed the film was accessible and informative and viewers were able to summarize the main messages of the film accurately, suggesting it was effective in promoting understanding. The study also revealed insight into how the different storytelling techniques functioned to support these positive outcomes and revealed crucial ethical insights (e.g. relating to risks of simplification and perceived objectivity) that can guide the future development of ethically responsible data videos. |
Exploitation Route | By laying the foundations for the production of personalised video content that can help larger and more demographically diverse audiences engage with data present in our modern society, our findings can have significant impact on sectors that wish to engage the public with their data (e.g. energy, recreation, heritage, transport, food, social policy, government, education, environment and health) and companies in the creative economy and digital technology who would create it. There are already some specific ways our findings are being taken forward and further concrete opportunities on the near horizon. The aesthetic techniques and ethical considerations we have identified and developed can be directly applied in future productions by interactive filmmakers. We have made progress towards facilitating such industry uptake by sharing these findings via a web resource and dissemination events and meetings, and via establishing a new collaboration with a local SME that wishes to make data-driven videos for clients. We have already inspired the production of seven prototypical data-driven productions by external stakeholders at hackathon events. We plan to scale up this impact to a much larger number of filmmakers by incorporating the data-driven technical extensions to Cutting Room into a future public release of this tool. Insights about data-driven video storytelling from the project have also been, and continue to be, applied in the ICSF funded WEAVR project, which is exploring data-driven storytelling in Esports. Our findings can also play a very important role in influencing data-holders and policy makers to employ the techniques we have developed to engage public audiences. We believe that the Brooke Leave Home film and findings from its audience study will play a particularly crucial role in facilitating such impact, by providing: i) a compelling and high-quality demonstration of the new data-engagement possibilities our research has enabled and, based on the outcomes of our ongoing analysis, ii) provide evidence of effectiveness that can justify investment of resources in production. We are developing a follow-on funding proposal that will specifically seek to build on our findings to develop impact amongst these groups. |
Sectors | Agriculture Food and Drink Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Energy Environment Healthcare Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections Transport Other |
URL | http://datavideos.co.uk |
Description | Developing impact through the process of the research was at the heart of our strategy. We involved stakeholders from targeted impact groups of media professionals (e.g. BBC, Disobedient Films, Rubber Republic, Limina Immersive), data-holders and policy makers (e.g. ODI, York Museums Trust, York City Council, DEFRA) and related groups (e.g. Inspired Youth, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Children's Society) in all stages, providing a knowledge transfer channel via direct and meaningful participation. This resulted in a range of concrete impacts. The project's initial co-design workshop and hackathon were attended by 57 participants from relevant areas including: film, TV, radio, interactive media, data visualisation, data engagement, data science, open data, arts, and the third Sector. Events resulted in multiple requests for further involvement (e.g. 90.9% of hackathon participants reported interest in future collaborations or support) and significant changes in views (e.g. 81% at the hackathon said they were likely or very likely that they would integrate data into a film compared to 36% before; 81.9% rated the influence of the event on their future practice as 3 and above out of a 5 point scale). At the first hackathon event, participants also developed four semi-functional prototypes of data-driven videos based on project findings, demonstrating not only a change of opinion as a result of project outcomes, but also a degree of the skill development required to apply them in practice. A further impact-orientated hackathon was run later in the project, in partnership with BBC Academy (a training and development initiative), Creative England and Storytellers United (a worldwide network of over 350 interactive media practitioners). At this event, project findings were shared with 20 further stakeholders (inc. BBC, Bassajamba CIC, Visioning Lab, Lemon Cog, Future Everything and multiple sole traders) via a challenge presentation; a showing of our Brooke Leave Home Film; a 1-hour training workshop; and close one-to-one mentoring of teams over a 36-hour period. Three teams created prototypes that were based strongly upon the ideas from the challenge presentation, and one directly employed data-driven extensions for the Cutting Room tool developed in the project. We are capitalising on this interest and preliminary skill development amongst media stakeholders by working with our sister project DC Labs to ensure that data-driven films are possible to create (and other features identified in our findings) in the public release of our Cutting Room tool (multiple requests for this have been made at events). Dissemination meetings with SMEs in the Yorkshire region have also provided an opportunity to share our findings with relevant stakeholders, resulting in requests for further information and plans for future activity. In particular, a meeting with Superla.tv has led to the development of a concrete data-driven film idea that they intend to produce. Meetings and presentations with Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Children's Society and the International Federation for the Red Cross have led to requests for further information and plans about how data-driven films could support their goals. Our outreach work around the findings of the grant has and is leading to the development multiple follow-on funding proposals specifically aiming to build impact in new areas. Learning about narrative structures and techniques for data-driven storytelling is actively applied in the £5.8m WEAVR Audiences of the Future ICSF demonstrator, resulting in significant economic and large-audience impact in the context of Esports. We have secured funding in partnership with Leeds Beckett, York's Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and Leeds Children's Hospital to explore how findings can be applied to support complex decision making amongst young adults with cancer. This work has led to a proof of concept that we are working to release on the Cancer, Fertility and Me Website to an audience expected to be over 11,000 and as the basis of a series of NIHR grants that we hope will lead to major impact in the NHS. We have co-developed a research project exploring how findings can be used to support people in fuel poverty in better understanding new energy practices that can help them, in partnership with energy charities (National Energy Action, Yorkshire Energy Doctor). We have developed a proposal on this topic for the UKRI Cross-Disciplinary Responsive Mode pilot that is currently in review following success at the EOI stage. Outcomes from this project around personalised storytelling and data are already beginning to influence conversations in the AHRC CoSTAR Network, including as part of idea development for our LiveLAB centre but also at cross-network discussion events. |
First Year Of Impact | 2018 |
Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Economic |
Description | Reference to publication and also two projects that build on findings of this project in Ofcom Object-based media report |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
Description | AHRC Impact Accelerator Award (OBB) |
Amount | £7,995 (GBP) |
Organisation | Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 08/2018 |
Description | EPSRC Impact Accelerator: Proof of Concept (OBB) |
Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 08/2018 |
Description | Mind Hopping |
Amount | £29,290 (GBP) |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2019 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | PLAYON! New Storytelling with Immersive Technologies |
Amount | £1,671,210 (GBP) |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 11/2019 |
End | 10/2023 |
Description | Responsive Interpretive Storytelling |
Amount | £29,518 (GBP) |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2019 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | WEAVR: Cross-Reality Experiences for Esports |
Amount | £3,953,725 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 20320 |
Organisation | Innovate UK |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2019 |
End | 12/2020 |
Title | Full composition of sample and design space for review of data-driven interactive videos |
Description | This dataset details the composition of the sample for a review of data-driven interactive video content conducted as part of the EPSRC Perspective Media project (EP/R010919/1). The data underpins the TVX 2018 paper "Facts, Interactivity and Videotape: Exploring the Design Space of Data in Interactive Video Storytelling" which can be found at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3210825.3210826. |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | We have made this data available to support further academic study of the films that we analysed. We do not have knowledge of any uptake yet. We have sought to develop impact from this data using a web-based summary, which is reported elsewhere in our submission. |
URL | https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/en/datasets/full-composition-of-sample-and-design-space-for-review-of... |
Description | Inspired Youth Consultation on the care experienced young people |
Organisation | Inspired Youth |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | I facilitated two sessions with care experienced young people, and had 8 meetings with the staff at Inspired Youth. This involved describing the project, explaining why we were interested in the experiences of care leavers, listening to the experiences of care leavers as described in their own words, and participating in some of Inspired Youth's `The one percent' (https://theonepercent.uk) project activities. |
Collaborator Contribution | Inspired Youth are a not-for-profit Social Enterprise who combine digital media production, arts and participative inclusion techniques to make an on-going positive impact in communities with a particular focus on engaging and empowering marginalised people. They have worked extensively with care experienced young people. In particular, we partnered with Inspired Youth who were working on a project with a group of young care-experienced people, who had either recently left care or were about to make the transition into independent living. The staff at Inspired Youth provided useful documents and information sources on the topic, attended 8 meetings with us, providing guidance on the topic of care leavers, assisted in the organisation and hosting of two sessions with a group of care experienced young people which enabled us to collect information to assist in the script development for our film. They also connected us with additional organisations working in the area, in particular the Jospeh Rowntree Foundation and the Children's Society. |
Impact | By engaging with the young people involved in a project led by Inspired Youth we were able to gain better insights into the topic of our film. The audio data collected from the sessions was used to inform a film script based on a fictional character. Through our conversations with the young people three key areas in the transition to independence were highlighted: i) setting up home; ii) managing bills and finances (in particular, council tax); and iii) getting qualifications and employment. A discussion around the unequal provision across the country and of a potential `postcode lottery' was also raised by the young people. In particular they were interested in how other councils had made care leavers council tax exempt to the age of 25. This influenced the story arcs and narrative we used in our interactive film prototype. I gave a talk about the project and how the young people had influenced our project at the launch of a film inspired youth made with the young people at York Mediale. This event was attended by numerous members of York City Council, The Jospeh Rowntree foundation, The Children's Society and other not for profit organisations working in areas relating to young people and social equality. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Perspective Media - BBC R&D |
Organisation | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
Department | BBC Research & Development |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Worked with members of BBC R&D to explore data-driven film concepts via design workshops, a pitch to a commissioner and via multiple meetings with their staff members as part of our broader collaborations in OBM production. We have also supported BBC events in OBM by giving presentations etc. on the specific angle our research brings and to disseminate findings and plans, and providing a training workshop and mentoring. |
Collaborator Contribution | BBC have provided support including: participation in project scoping interviews, staff attendance at design workshops in organisational and mentoring roles, involvement and feedback in planning for the Brooke Leave Home production, provision of staff expertise for production evaluation, support in planning and execution of dissemination event of project findings to BBC staff, assistance in recruiting for project activities by professional networks (e.g. Storytellers United). |
Impact | i) Direct input into project research findings around data storytelling strategies and understanding of issues and challenges; ii) direct input into the development of Brooke Leave Home interactive film |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Perspective Media - City of York Council |
Organisation | City of York Council |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Research partnership exploring how data-driven film can be used to help public audiences engage with data from their open data platform, York Open Data. Activities in the collaboration have included: input into the development of the research proposal, one-to-one meetings exploring the potential of data-driven film with respect to their organisational aims, participation in group design workshops exploring how their data sets could be communicated via interactive film. In the future, this collaboration will continue through the dissemination and evaluation of the Brooke Leave Home film (which presents open govt. data) and how the concepts it illustrated could be transferred into their future practice. At present our impact is confined to raising awareness and attitudes toward interactive film as a data engagement approach for policy. However, in the future we intend to explore options for content production around CoYC datasets. |
Collaborator Contribution | City of York council were involved in the project from the earliest stages, feeding into both the direction of the work and the development of the proposal via meetings. Members of the organisation then attended interviews and design workshops to feed into design workshops exploring concept development and ethical and practical issues of data-driven film. |
Impact | Key outputs include: i) development of data-driven storytelling strategies and design implications reported in project publications (1 published, 2 planned); ii) application of data-driven storytelling strategies and design implications in Brooke Leave Home film |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Perspective Media - Digital Catapult |
Organisation | Digital Catapult |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Staff involvement with Catapult to facilitate dissemination and impact activities described below. |
Collaborator Contribution | Digital Catapult have provided support to the Perspective Media project, with the aim of supporting impact and knowledge transfer under their remit. Core activities that Digital Catapult have and will provide include: publicising and supporting the recruitment of participants for interviews, hackathons and other research activities among their expansive network of relevant companies and organisations across the Digital Catapult network of local centres; hosting an industry dissemination event at their London center (planned); and facilitating economic impact from the research by providing access to expert advice on the commercial application of research outcomes across our regional network of partners and our international links in this space (planned). A Digital Catapult staff member also fed into project design workshops, bringing experience from her professional background and related projects in the area of data-driven storytelling. |
Impact | i) Facilitation of all research outputs on Perspective Media project by supporting participation recruitment for design activities; ii) direct input into development of project findings relating to storytelling strategies and challenges of data-driven film |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Perspective Media - Limina Immersive |
Organisation | Limina Immersive |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Project staff members worked with Limina staff to co-develop concepts for data-driven films as part of project design workshops and other meetings. |
Collaborator Contribution | Limina staff contributed to the project from the output, providing input into the development of the proposal topic and plans. Limina staff took part in the hackathon event, providing feedback and mentoring to participants. Limina took part in a day-long production meeting in which ideas for the project film (which would become Brooke Leave Home) were discussed, and also provided feedback on multiple occasions online. Limina facilitated a film pitch with a commissioner from the BBC, which had significant impact on the development of the project film. |
Impact | i) Direct input into project findings on data-driven film techniques and understanding of issues and challenges; ii) significant input into shaping the development of the Brooke Leave Home data-driven film |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Perspective Media - Open Data Institute |
Organisation | Open Data Institute |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Researcher gave a talk at the ODI on the project topic and preliminary findings. |
Collaborator Contribution | ODI to provided support for the Perspective Media project, which primarily related to partner recruitment and dissemination via networks. Additionally, an ODI staff member attended design workshops to directly feed into the development of data-driven film concepts and explore challenges and issues. |
Impact | ODI supported development of project outcomes via recruitment and dissemination via their networks. ODI staff also directly contributed to the development of data-driven film concepts and understanding of issues via participation in design workshops. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Perspective Media - Superla.tv |
Organisation | Superla.tv |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | During project dissemination and exploitation meetings project staff presented project outcomes and discussed how they could lead to impact on Superla.tv's practice. Superla.tv are an SME in the Yorkshire region with a strong interest in developing data-driven interactive films for their existing clients and to attract new business. The impact of these discussions are reported change of views and plans to make data-driven content for clients (which will have economic and cultural implications). Our initial discussions have led to the development of a co-authored funding proposal by York and Superla.tv to carry out a collaborative project. This project will explore how findings from the project can be directly applied into Superla.tv's practice. If funded, the project will have impact on Superla.tv via knowledge transfer and skill development, and through the creation of a high-quality portfolio piece that can be used to attract clients. The collaboration has also extended into our sister DC Labs project, with Superla.tv working with researchers to use our Cutting Room tool to create a production for display at the UK Government's annual presence at SXSW. |
Collaborator Contribution | Superla.tv have contributed ideas and staff time to the process described above, contributed significant time to proposal development, and proposed substantial in-kind contributions to the project proposal. Superla.tv are also due to contributed to the expert evaluation of the Brooke Leave Home prototype. |
Impact | The collaboration is in its early stages, as it was founded as a consequence of activities in our dissemination and impact work package. However, so far the following concrete outputs have been developed: i) plan for co-development of film; ii) draft of funding proposal to support knowledge transfer and production. These outputs are, however, intermediary steps towards the broader impact we aim for, as described in section 1. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Title | Data-driven filmmaking extensions for Cutting Room |
Description | We have developed extensions to the Cutting Room tool (developed in sister DC Labs project) to support a range of data-driven filmmaking techniques identified in the project. These extensions are functional and have been used in the production of Brooke Leave Home. However, they are still very much prototypical and, therefore, not yet available for release. However, we intend to integrate them as features of a future release of Cutting Room. |
Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Impact | The extensions formed the basis of the data-driven aspects of the Brooke Leave Home film, which have, in turn, underpins a range of impacts described in our submission. The extensions were also made available to a team of non-academic stakeholders at a hackathon that was run as part of our dissemination and impact activities. The extensions enabled the team to make a working prototype of a data-driven film idea. |
Description | Databox Hackathon @ Mozfest |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Two researchers attended a hackathon event at the Mozilla conference. The aim of our attendance was two-fold, to showcase work on the Cutting Room tool that is being developed in the Digital Creativity Labs project and to build industry connections for the Perspective Media project. Our attendance build connections between academics from the Databox project and also with industry practitioners in attendance. In particular, the event allowed us to showcase project ideas to Brett Gaylor from Mozilla, and this led to a number of follow-up discussions about how our research could inform their work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.databoxproject.uk/2017/09/02/databox-hackday-at-mozfest-2017-thu-26-oct/ |
Description | Discussion / interview with Katherine Round, Disobedient Films |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Raise awareness of our project with the professional community working in related areas. Gain insights from professional practitioners working on interactive films to inform the development of the project; invite for future collaboration and participation in events; collect data for research purposes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Discussion / interviewed Dejan Levi, Games writer |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Raise awareness of our project with the professional community working in related areas. Gain insights from professional practitioners working on interactive films to inform the development of the project; invite for future collaboration and participation in events; collect data for research purposes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Discussion with Matt Golding from Rubber Republic |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Raise awareness of our project with the professional community working in related areas. Gain insights from professional practitioners working on interactive films to inform the development of the project; invite for future collaboration and participation in events; collect data for research purposes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Dissemination and exploitation meeting with Fresh Cut Creative |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | As part of the impact and dissemination activities for the Perspective Media project we approached a number of SMEs in the Yorkshire region to discuss how the data-driven film concepts developed in our project could apply to their work and to forge future collaborations through which these connections could be exploited. This meeting took place with the MD of Fresh Cut Creative. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Dissemination and exploitation meetings with Superla.tv |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | As part of the impact and dissemination activities for the Perspective Media project we approached a number of SMEs in the Yorkshire region to discuss how the data-driven film concepts developed in our project could apply to their work and to forge future collaborations through which these connections could be exploited. This meeting took place with the MD and sales director of Superla.tv. The meeting led us to commence a collaboration around the development of a data-driven interactive film that would aid audiences in understanding data about CCTV cameras and other aspects of surveillance culture. In a follow-up meeting the research team met with Superla.tv for a day-long concept development workshop in which the proposed film and its production process were planned in more detail. Following this workshop, we and Superla.tv co-authored a draft funding proposal to AHRC Creative Media Labs to support the planned work. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Filmmaking hackathon for data-driven storytelling |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A film making hackathon was organised from a Friday evening until Sunday evening, to provide the opportunity for a hands on session building working prototypes of data-driven video stories and developing innovative scenarios and use-cases. Over the course of the weekend participants received training on how to use the software developed at University of York to create interactive and non-linear narratives. They received feedback and support on ideas from an expert panel (ODI, BBC R&D, Professor in Interactive Media). Participants explored how personalised content could adapt to the viewer's interests, pulling in contextual information that might make the data more engaging and meaningful. Each group created a working prototype and surfaced a number of opportunities and challenges for data driven film. 30 participants attended with a broad range of expertise and organisations (including Limina Immersive, ODI, BBC R&D, DEFRA ). Areas of specialism included: Film, TV, Radio and Interactive Media, Data visualization, Data Engagement, Data Science, Open Data, Arts and Third Sector, PhD researchers, creative industries, artists, academics. 90.9% of participants reported after the event that they were interested in future collaborations or support for developing project ideas with us; 81% reported that that it was likely or very likely that they would integrate data into a film project after the hackathon compared to 36% beforehand. Participants were also asked to report on their opinion on the usefulness of interactive video for engaging people with data before and after the hackathon; 64% viewed it as potentially useful and 36% as useful prior to the event but after the event 56% of participants had shifted opinion stating it was 'very useful' and the remainder useful or potentially useful. When whether the event will influence their future practice or work, all participants responded yes, to some extent, with 81.9% rating the influence as 3 and above out of a 5 point scale. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.digitalcreativity.ac.uk/events/filmmaking-hackathon-data-driven-storytelling |
Description | Industry-facing web resource on data-driven narrative techniques and strategies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In order to present some of our findings on data-driven narrative techniques and strategies in a format that would be more accessible and engaging for non-academic stakeholders (i.e. those who might not be attracted to read our publications) we developed a web resource. This web resource is freely available on our project website. We have used the web resource multiple times to help industry and other collaborators understand the opportunities posed by data-driven film and the particular implications it can have for their practice/institutional goals. For example, the resource has been distributed at two hackathon events to 70+ stakeholders, in order to guide ideation around data-driven film prototypes (many of which were then implemented). Also, the resource was used to to scaffold ideation in the development of a data-driven film idea with Superla.tv. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
URL | http://datavideos.co.uk/inspiration/ |
Description | Interviewed Alex Wittholz |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Raise awareness of our project with the professional community working in related areas. Gain insights from professional practitioners working on interactive films to inform the development of the project; invite for future collaboration and participation in events; collect data for research purposes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Interviewed Andrew Beck Grace, Interactive film maker |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Raise awareness of our project with the professional community working in related areas. Gain insights from professional practitioners working on interactive films to inform the development of the project; invite for future collaboration and participation in events; collect data for research purposes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Invited Talk at the York Mediale `The One Percent/ Film Screening |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | I gave a short talk after the film showing to promote the perspective media, data driven film, data around care leaver experiences and the beneficial collaboration with the young people and Inspired Youth. I also had conversations at the reception with people working for local government and local charities who were interested in how data-driven films might work for them. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://inspiredyouth.org/care-leaver-movement-makes-profound-impact-with-the-1-at-everyman-cinema/ |
Description | Meeting with The Children's Society |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | We met with four employees from The Children's Society to discuss the Perspective media project and the short film that we were producing. We told them about data-driven films and discussed how it might be useful for their information provision activities and campaign strategies. They had increased interest in how interactive digital media technologies could be employed within their outputs. They shared data with us on the topic of care leavers and offered to disseminate project outputs and provide feedback on the resulting video output. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Meeting with The Joseph Rowntree Foundation |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) contacted us to find out more about the project and discuss the possibility of collaborating on projects. JRF is a British social policy research and development charity, that funds a UK-wide research and development programme. It seeks to understand the root causes of social problems, to identify ways of overcoming them, and to show how social needs can be met in practice. They were interested in learning more about the approaches and methods we are using for data driven films as they are keen to diversify the ways in which they present the data they collect and publish to broaden the audiences they engage with. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Object-based Storytelling Hackjam |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | A 36-hour object-based and interactive filmmaking hackathon was organized jointly between the University of York (Perspective Media and DC Labs projects); BBC (R&D, Academy); Storytellers United; and Creative England. At the hackathon, participants were set a challenge to create interactive films that helped lay audiences understand modern datasets. The presentation of this challenge was based on findings from the Perspective Media project and, also, the project's Brooke Leave Home film was shown and web resources provided to guide ideation. A workshop was run by York researchers in which participants were taught to use the Cutting Room tool (developed in DC Labs project) and also its Data-Driven Extensions (developed in Perspective Media project) to create interactive films. The 20 participants at the event included 5 from academia 15 from industry and the third sector. Non-academic organisations that stakeholders represented included: BBC, Bassajamba CIC, Visioning Lab, Lemon Cog, and Future Everything. 7 other participants were sole traders / freelancers in the digital media sector. The event was also attended by a number of mentors (from organisations inc. BBC, Limina Immersive, Frame Trail) who were exposed to the tools and perspectives from our work during presentations and also when working with teams around ideas. Three of the teams created prototypes that were based strongly upon themes proposed in the data-driven film challenge. Additionally, two teams chose to use the Cutting Room tool for their prototype - and one used the data-driven extensions for it developed in the Perspective Media project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/en/events/evt20181224160559251 |
Description | Panel chair for "Exploring Digital Technology and Platforms in Film" at Aesthetica Film Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chaired panel on Exploring Digital Technology and Platforms in Film at this internationally recognised film festival. The panel comprised three filmmakers from three different countries, who all work across the globe (e.g. with roles on films such as the Life Aquatic, Spectre, Gangs of New York). The panel provided an opportunity to discuss innovations in object-based broadcast and VR at DC Labs with an audience of professionals who weren't not fully aware of the opportunities these posed for their practice. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Perspective Media - Pitch to BBC Commissioner |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | In collaboration with our project partner Limina Immersive, we pitched a range of film ideas for the project production to a commissioner from the BBC. The aim of this activity was to a) disseminate the ideas and approaches developed in the project to a professional practitioner with the potential to influence practice at the BBC and b) gain valuable feedback that subsequently fed into the concept, design and delivery of the Brooke Leave Home production. In addition to directly supporting Perspective Media, the pitch contributed to the development of a new and ongoing relationship with the commissioner. This relationship has subsequently been extended via a visit to our lab and is now leading to discussions around the relationship between our OBM research and both BBC Taster and BBC Three. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Presentation and discussion of data-driven film to International Foundation of the Red Cross |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | A representative from the IFRC visited to discuss the opportunities for concepts and technology for data-driven film developed in the Perspective Media project could have for their work. In particular, there was interest in how the approach could be used to enhance the video-based reporting they do of development projects. Discussions are ongoing for a follow-up project with Newcastle University that would bring these ideas to fruition. A PhD student from Newcastle who would be involved in this future work attended also (secondary audience). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Talk on Developing a Platform for Object-based Broadcasting and Perspective Media at Mozfest 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | I described our work on both object-based media and the plans for our newly funded Perspective Media project (EP/R010919/1) at a BBC Community Event at Mozfest 2017. The event was attended by over 50 interested practitioners from across the professional media sector. We received reports of people changing their views around the possibilities for responsiveness in television production in questions and follow-up discussions and a requests for further information. The event also allowed us to showcase the excellent progress we'd made on the project to the BBC, who have subsequently decided to integrate the tools presented even more closely into their plans for OBM. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://mozillafestival.org/house |
Description | Virtual reality: immersive doc encounters workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Attended build collaborations around data-driven film and its relationship with VR amongst industry practitioners attending event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Workshop on Data-Driven Video Storytelling |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | We organised and hosted a day-long workshop exploring personalised, data-driven, video storytelling with people who were interested in data-driven videos. This involved reviewing the state of the art and exploring the potential of the form for the various industries and contexts represented. We also explored future collaborations and ways for the attendees to continue their involvement with project. The workshop was held at the university and involved 27 participants from a range of professional backgrounds and geographical locations. The attendees covered a range of professional contexts and areas of specialism: professionals from broadcast, user experience design, software engineering, research and development (e.g. BBC R&D) film and sound design, digital heritage for cultural organisations (e.g. York Museums Trust), data engagement and government open data initiative specialists (e.g. York City council and DEFRA), media innovation and data specialist (e.g. The Digital Catapult), postgraduate students and academics interested in data/film/interactive media and film makers, UI/UX designer. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.digitalcreativity.ac.uk/events/workshop-data-driven-video-storytelling |