Attention and the Evolution of Hollywood Film

Abstract

Reaction times exhibit a spectral patterning known as 1/ f, and these patterns can be thought of as reflecting time-varying changes in attention. We investigated the shot structure of Hollywood films to determine if these same patterns are found. We parsed 150 films with release dates from 1935 to 2005 into their sequences of shots and then analyzed the pattern of shot lengths in each film. Autoregressive and power analyses showed that, across that span of 70 years, shots became increasingly more correlated in length with their neighbors and created power spectra approaching 1/ f. We suggest, as have others, that 1/ f patterns reflect world structure and mental process. Moreover, a 1/ f temporal shot structure may help harness observers’ attention to the narrative of a film.