TL_PhD_DataPackage_FilmFormalFeatureEffects

This document describes the three data folders of the doctoral research project “Shaping Film, Engaging Viewers: The Effect of the Visual Formal Features of Hollywood Film on the Narrative Experience” by Tess Lankhuizen with the Graduate School of Social Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Each data folders corresponds to one of three studies in this project. Study 1 Folder Title: TL_PhD_FilmFormalFeatureEffects_Study_1 Study Title: Shaping film: A quantitative formal analysis of contemporary empathy-eliciting Hollywood cinema Description: A sample of 100 Hollywood film scenes were assessed through quantitative manual and computational analysis, with the goal to investigate what empathy-eliciting film scenes look like in terms of those visual formal features theoretically or empirically linked to viewer empathy. Formal features included concern shot scale, face depiction, cut rate, camera perspective and angle, saturation, lighting, motion, and background clutter. Study 2 Folder Title: TL_PhD_FilmFormalFeatureEffects_Study_2 Study Title: Framing Film and Feelings: The Effects of Visual Formal Features on State Empathy, Valence, Arousal, and Narrative Engagement in Mainstream Film Scenes Description: In this exploratory study, we investigated the effect of a wide range of visual formal features on the key narrative outcome variables of narrative engagement, tense arousal, positive and negative valence, and state empathy using a random-factor design. Participants (N = 1046) were randomly assigned one out of 93 film scenes representative of contemporary Hollywood film. Study 3 Folder Title: TL_PhD_FilmFormalFeatureEffects_Study_3 Study Title: Lights, Camera… Empathy? The Impact of Visual Form, Narrative Drive, and Depiction of Physical Suffering on Audience Empathy in Hollywood Film Scenes Description: The aim of this study was to asses if the formal feature effects of mainstream cinema interact with story content. A 2 x 2 within-subject experimental study was performed to test if the effect of the visual formal features of a film scene on affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and empathic distress is moderated by the depiction of physical suffering (depicted v. not depicted) and the narrative drive of the story (action-driven v. dialogue-driven). Student participants (N = 130) were exposed to the same 12 film scenes in an in-class experiment, and their empathic responses to each scene were measured. More information regarding this data package may be found in the README file.