OLIVE: Speech-Based Video Retrieval

This paper describes the Olive project which aims to support automated indexing of video material by use of human language technologies. Olive is making use of speech recognition to automatically derive transcriptions of the sound tracks, generating time-coded linguistic elements which serve as the basis for text-based retrieval functionality. The retrieval demonstrator builds on and extends the architecture from the Pop-Eye project, a system applying human language technology on subtitles for the disclosure of video fragments

Subjective Excess: Aesthetics, Character, and Non-Normative Perspectives in Serial Television After 2000

This dissertation aims to fill gaps in contemporary television scholarship with regards to aesthetics and character subjectivity. By analyzing eight series that have all aired after 2000, there is a marked trend in series that use an excessive visual and aural style to not only differentiate themselves from other programming, but also to explore non-normative perspectives. Now more willing to explore previously taboo topics such as mental health, addiction, illness, and trauma, the shows featured in this dissertation show how a seemingly excessive televisual aesthetic works with television’s seriality to create narrative complexity and generate character development. Chapters are arranged by mode of production with the first chapter focusing on the series Grey’s Anatomy and Hannibal as a means of exploring the production and distribution practices surrounding network TV. The second chapter examines the basic cable series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Legion and posits how the narrowcasting of cable allows for more nuanced character representations through aesthetics. In the third chapter, the impact HBO has had on the television medium is explored through Carnivàle and Euphoria. The final chapter looks at contemporary series The Boys and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as a way to better understand how the medium’s production and distribution has shifted during the convergence era. Ultimately, this dissertation will argue that in addition to further explorations of aesthetics, television studies is in need of a medium specific vernacular for creating meaningful textual analyses that avoid an overreliance on cinematic terminology

A Contextual Study of Semantic Speech Editing in Radio Production

Radio production involves editing speech-based audio using tools that represent sound using simple waveforms. Semantic speech editing systems allow users to edit audio using an automatically generated transcript, which has the potential to improve the production workflow. To investigate this, we developed a semantic audio editor based on a pilot study. Through a contextual qualitative study of five professional radio producers at the BBC, we examined the existing radio production process and evaluated our semantic editor by using it to create programmes that were later broadcast. We observed that the participants in our study wrote detailed notes about their recordings and used annotation to mark which parts they wanted to use. They collaborated closely with the presenter of their programme to structure the contents and write narrative elements. Participants reported that they often work away from the office to avoid distractions, and print transcripts so they can work away from screens. They also emphasised that listening is an important part of production, to ensure high sound quality. We found that semantic speech editing with automated speech recognition can be used to improve the radio production workflow, but that annotation, collaboration, portability and listening were not well supported by current semantic speech editing systems. In this paper, we make recommendations on how future semantic speech editing systems can better support the requirements of radio production

Humour support and emotive stance in comments on Korean TV Drama

Viewers on viki.com comment on Korean television drama series while watching: They produce timed comments tied to the timecode of the audiovisual stream. Among the functions these comments have in the community, the expression of emotive stance is central. Importantly, this includes humour support encoded in a variety of linguistic and paralinguistic ways. Our study identifies a range of humour support indicators, which allow us to find comments that are responses to humour. Accordingly, our study explores how commenters make use of the affordances of the Viki timed comment feature to linguistically and paralinguistically encode their humorous reaction to fictional events and to previous comments. We do this both quantitatively e based on a multilingual corpus of all 320,118 timed comments that accompany five Korean dramas we randomly selected (80 episodes in total), and qualitatively based on the in-depth analysis of two episodes. What we contribute is a typology and the distribution of humour support indicators used in a novel genre of technology-mediated communication as well as insights into how the viewing community collectively does humour support. Finally, we also present the semi-automatic detection of humour support as a viable strategy to objectively identify humour-relevant scenes in Korean TV drama

2022-2023 Course Catalog

2022-2023 Course Catalo