Network Map of All Storyforms

[mlucas]

Very cool. I had noticed the similarities to Princess Bride and Amelie earlier, but I don't think I mentioned anything.

A Man for All Seasons, Spotlight and Doubt aren't similar to any other storyform (i.e. at least 50% overlap).

That is very insightful information ... A Man For All Seasons just feels very different from other films, at least to me, so that makes sense!!

[fly2spring]

Are colors randomly assigned? Are there any special meanings? Maybe it can be classified according to the Film Genre（such as Drama, Comedy, Action, Adventure and so on）.It's easier to find the reference we want.

[bobRaskoph]

The colors only relate to the cluster/group of the storyforms. If you are similar to another story, you likely have the same color.

Classifying these by genre is an interesting idea though. I will think about that.

[jhull]

Can’t wait to see what it looks like when there are thousands and thousands of storyforms to sample!

[bobRaskoph]

So, I've been employed for two months now (finally), but apparently I still have too much time on my hands.
For every movie and tv episode in my storyform database, I looked up its IMDB entry and noted its genres, release year, rating, and how many users voted for that rating. I used that and the storyforms to do some analysis. Obviously, we only have a very (very) small sample, so it does not actually say that much, but still, it is sort of interesting.

• How do certain storyform elements develop over time? (e.g. concern positions)
• What storyform elements tend to get a higher/lower rating?
• What storyform elements are associated with which genres?

I plan to set up a PDF with my findings and will share it here, if that's okay.

[bobRaskoph]

To give you an idea what this is about, here is a sample for 'Nature'. (Ignore the code, just look at the pretty pictures )

And by the by, here are the most 'unique' stories (i.e. they don't have similar storyforms): 12 Angry Men; A Doll's House; A Man for all Seasons; A Separation; Ally mcbeal (Once in a Lifetime S1E15); Amadeus; American History X; American President; Apt Pupil; Auntie Mame; Barefoot in the park; Bourne Identity; Desk Set; Donnie Darko; Double Indemnity; Doubt; ESPN; Eve's Bayou; Hamlet; His Girl Friday; Inside out; Lord of the Flies; Mrs. Miniver; My so called life; Nebraska; Othello; Peyton Place; Platoon; Reservoir Dogs; Searching for Bobby Fischer; Some like it hot; Splendor in the Grass; Spotlight; Terms of Endearment; The Contender; The Crucible; The French Connection; The Glass Menagerie; The Great Gatsby; The Philadelphia Experiment; The Philadelphia Story; The Wizard of Oz; There's something about Mary; To Kill a Mockingbird; When harry met sally; Y tu mama tambien; Zootopia

[jhull]

This sounds great, but there is a weird warning message with that link...

[bobRaskoph]

I made a page with all the charts I have right now. I hope this doesn't show any warning messages. I don't know what the problem was before. It doesn't use any real javascript... Maybe the images are too large?

What I wrote underneath is not that important. They are conclusions you could arrive at from the data. But again, the sample is small.
In addition, just because a certain combination of genre and story points has a lower average rating than others, doesn't mean you should not try it out. It could actually be taken as a challenge.

[jhull]

First off, thanks for giving me something new to do over the next couple of weeks! Those charts look great...

Secondly - I only get the warning on Safari iOS - it says:

This Connection is Not Private This website may be impersonating "raskoph.lima-city.de" to steal your personal or financial information. You should go back to the previous page.

Details say the certificate is not valid.

[jhay]

In addition, just because a certain combination of genre and story points has a lower average rating than others, doesn't mean you should not try it out. It could actually be taken as a challenge.

I've been working on a sports comedy, and have had a few readers note that it feels a little 'different' to most sports movies. Just took a little look at your data and found that most sports movies are in the 'Actual Work' category and mine is in the 'Actual Dilemma' category; also with a holistic MC. There are a couple other areas where I 'took your challenge', so to speak, and suddenly the 'different' feeling makes a lot of sense.

Fantastic job, @bobRaskoph. Very interesting stuff.

[fly2spring]

This was a great work.

[bobRaskoph]

Details say the certificate is not valid.

I looked into it, and unfortunately I can't do anything about it as long as I'm on that host.

If you guys don't trust this, I will try to create a PDF out of it and place it on Google Drive. It's just that the large images (particularly the rating boxplots) make it annoying.
I'm thinking about making pages for genres individiually... that would make the images smaller.

Would you people be interested in looking at the distribution of Concerns, Issues, Problems, Focuses, etc?

Either way, I'm glad that you like that charts. Makes me feel like I didn't waste my time that much.

[Prish]

I wonder if Dropbox would work better.

[bobRaskoph]

For the time being, I made a zip file with the site and all the images.

[mlucas]

I don't think anyone should worry about the certificate since it's valid on other browsers. Must be an issue with Safari's configuration for certificate authorities?

@bobRaskoph, I caught this interesting comment:

Sci-Fi, let them build resistance, especially if spice is involved

Are you referring to a storyform for Dune that I'm not aware of? Or was that just an offhand funny comment?

[bobRaskoph]

Are you referring to a storyform for Dune that I'm not aware of? Or was that just an offhand funny comment?

It was just a "funny" reference to Dune. Since in Dune "the spice must flow" and all that... There is no storyform as far as I know.

[Prish]

I am here at a university, and when I sat down to go on the internet with my new iPad pro for the first time in the secure internet access at this location, I got the scary not trusted words in red on the certificate issued by (etc.) I, immediately, thought of this post I don't think it is a safari thing, since this has to do with the iPad settings. I have to click on the blue 'trust' for the university's secure portal signup. Maybe, they are having us do some of their work...haha

[bobRaskoph]

Because I seem to have too much time on my hands, I added the films' rotten tomatoes and metacritic scores (where available). It is interesting to see how differently some of the story points are apparently valued. E.g. for Romance, Rotten Tomatoes seems to prefer Overwhelming Odds, while the other two prefer Surmountable Odds.

On the other hand, some choices seem to remain clear, e.g for Romance/Love Stories, Complete Tragedy is the least safe for IMDB, RT, and MC, while Personal Tragedy is the most safe for all three.

That siad, there is a problem. Rotten tomatoes has a lot of love for old movies; most of them enjoy 100% and don't have that many votes. Metacritic otoh doesn't have a lot of the old movies in the first place.

---

Here a link for all genre "recommendations".

Here Romance as an example:

IMDB Rating

• Nature:
  • Best: Actual Dilemma (Q1 71.0%, median 73.0%, Q3 76.5%)
  • Worst: Apparent Work (Q1 61.25%, median 73.5%, Q3 76.75%)
• Essence:
  • Best: Surmountable Odds (Q1 71.0%, median 73.0%, Q3 77.0%)
  • Worst: Overwhelming Odds (Q1 69.75%, median 73.0%, Q3 75.5%)
• Tendency:
  • Best: MC Builds Resistance (Q1 71.0%, median 73.5%, Q3 77.0%)
  • Worst: MC Facilitates Flow (Q1 69.0%, median 73.0%, Q3 77.0%)
• Audience:
  • Best: Both (Q1 71.0%, median 74.0%, Q3 77.0%)
  • Worst: Neither (Q1 69.5%, median 71.0%, Q3 73.0%)
• Concern_Position:
  • Best: top right (Q1 71.0%, median 74.0%, Q3 75.0%)
  • Worst: top left (Q1 67.0%, median 71.0%, Q3 77.0%)
• Ending:
  • Best: Personal Tragedy (Q1 72.0%, median 73.0%, Q3 74.0%)
  • Worst: Complete Tragedy (Q1 65.5%, median 76.0%, Q3 76.5%)
• OS+MC:
  • Best: OS_Universe, MC_Psychology (Q1 72.5%, median 75.5%, Q3 77.0%)
  • Worst: OS_Physics, MC_Universe (Q1 69.0%, median 71.0%, Q3 74.0%)

Rotten Tomatoes Rating

• Nature:
  • Best: Actual Dilemma (Q1 83.0%, median 89.0%, Q3 96.0%)
  • Worst: Apparent Work (Q1 55.75%, median 76.5%, Q3 84.5%)
• Essence:
  • Best: Overwhelming Odds (Q1 79.5%, median 90.0%, Q3 95.25%)
  • Worst: Surmountable Odds (Q1 79.5%, median 87.0%, Q3 92.0%)
• Tendency:
  • Best: MC Builds Resistance (Q1 83.0%, median 87.5%, Q3 94.25%)
  • Worst: MC Facilitates Flow (Q1 77.0%, median 88.0%, Q3 94.0%)
• Audience:
  • Best: Neither (Q1 93.0%, median 96.0%, Q3 96.5%)
  • Worst: Holistic (Q1 79.5%, median 85.0%, Q3 93.0%)
• Concern_Position:
  • Best: bottom left (Q1 84.0%, median 90.0%, Q3 93.5%)
  • Worst: top left (Q1 75.0%, median 80.0%, Q3 88.0%)
• Ending:
  • Best: Personal Tragedy (Q1 91.0%, median 92.0%, Q3 97.0%)
  • Worst: Complete Tragedy (Q1 62.5%, median 76.0%, Q3 81.5%)
• OS+MC:
  • Best: OS_Physics, MC_Mind (Q1 86.5%, median 90.0%, Q3 96.5%)
  • Worst: OS_Physics, MC_Universe (Q1 70.0%, median 92.0%, Q3 97.0%)

Metacritic Rating

• Nature:
  • Best: Apparent Dilemma (Q1 69.0%, median 79.0%, Q3 86.0%)
  • Worst: Apparent Work (Q1 55.5%, median 64.5%, Q3 73.5%)
• Essence:
  • Best: Surmountable Odds (Q1 67.0%, median 76.0%, Q3 83.0%)
  • Worst: Overwhelming Odds (Q1 66.0%, median 72.5%, Q3 80.25%)
• Tendency:
  • Best: MC Builds Resistance (Q1 67.25%, median 74.5%, Q3 82.75%)
  • Worst: MC Facilitates Flow (Q1 66.0%, median 72.0%, Q3 81.0%)
• Audience:
  • Best: Neither (Q1 80.5%, median 94.0%, Q3 94.0%)
  • Worst: Both (Q1 66.75%, median 76.0%, Q3 83.0%)
• Concern_Position:
  • Best: bottom right (Q1 69.0%, median 70.5%, Q3 72.75%)
  • Worst: top left (Q1 60.0%, median 69.0%, Q3 86.0%)
• Ending:
  • Best: Personal Tragedy (Q1 78.0%, median 83.0%, Q3 83.0%)
  • Worst: Complete Tragedy (Q1 59.5%, median 66.0%, Q3 76.5%)
• OS+MC:
  • Best: OS_Physics, MC_Mind (Q1 71.5%, median 77.0%, Q3 80.0%)
  • Worst: OS_Physics, MC_Universe (Q1 66.0%, median 72.0%, Q3 76.0%)

the numbers in the brackets show you the Interquartile Range. 50% of all the concerned movies have a rating between Q1 and Q3 (75% are at least Q1, 50% are at least the median, 25% are at least Q3). Note, we only consider options that have at least 3 examples.

---

Are you guys interested in anything particular? Maybe I simply haven't thought of something I could look into.

[Lulz4]

@bobRaskoph Hi Bob, I didn't think you would mind... your data is amazing, but a little hard to consume... so I compiled it into a spreadsheet and uploaded it so anyone can download.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JI1EGBXd1vSnVfrG5upgyRcSA9dayZpKt94nwN7_OWI

I could see Dramatica adding this as an addon feature, where there could be story engine templates for the different "genres". There could be a "genre" selection that would only limit the dropdowns a little bit but help people stay in the flavor of the movie type they were trying to write.

If someone wants to check my work against Bob's site data, its possible I made a mistake or two. When the analysis was vaguely presented, I did my best to guesstimate the choices and things to avoid.

EDIT: I added a second tab where the data is sorted by "genre", and updated the link.

Thank you for your analysis Bob.

Enjoy, everyone.

[bobRaskoph]

Just a tiny update of the storyform twins/triplets.

Twos:
Smoke Signals = Thirteenth Floor
Singin in the Rain = Station Agent
Star Wars = Birdman
Looper = Wrath of Khan
Pride and Prejudice = Bridget Jones's Diary
Dogma = Matrix
What lies beneath = Arrival
Casablanca = Sicko
Terminator = Unforgiven
Constant Gardener = Beasts of no nation
Dead Poets Society = Midnight Cowboy
Annie Hall = Harold and Maude
Eastern Promises = Eddie the Eagle
Star Trek (2009) = Moana
Back to the Future = Shrek
Nightcrawler = In the Heat of the Night
?????Mad Max Fury Road ?=? Captain America: Civil War?????

Threes:
Bringing Up Baby = Zombieland = Whats up doc
Finding Nemo = Collateral = Pitch Perfect
Limey, The = El Mariachi = Roman Holiday
Almost Famous = Life is Beautiful = Creed
Erin Brockovich = Kung Fu Panda = Hacksaw Ridge
Marty = Queen = Big Sick

???
Romeo and Juliet (Optionlock) ~ West Side Story (Timelock)