This invention relates to a technique for improving success of an audio-visual program, such as a movie or television program.
Producers of movies and television shows (hereinafter collectively referred to as “audio-visual programs”) often spend large sums of money on the various elements that make up such audio-visual programs, including but not limited to the theme, the cast, the director, genre, location and release date. The production of an audio-visual program thus represents an investment by a producer who expects to maximize the return on that investment through distribution of the audio-visual program to various recipients. In the case of a movie, distribution typically occurs first to movie theaters. Sometime later, the movie producer will distribute the movie to one or more television networks and/or release the audio-visual program to the public via a DVD. A producer of a television shows will distribute the audio-visual program to one or more television networks first followed by DVD distribution.
Producing an audio-visual program entails careful consideration of the various elements comprising such a program. For example, the process of selecting cast members (e.g., actors) represents a very important task since casting often has a great impact on the success or failure of the audio-visual program. Presently, those involved in producing an audio-visual program view the process of selecting the various elements for that program as an art. In many instances, those individual(s) responsible for producing the audio-visual program will select a lead actor and one or more supporting actors, as well as other elements, (e.g., director, genre, theme, location and release date, for example) based on intuition, thus believing that such selections will yield a successful program because of past successes and/or popularity. In other instances, those responsible for producing the audio-visual program will undertake auditions when possible.
While selecting elements of an audio-visual program, such as cast members, requires creativity and instinct, the process generally remains ad hoc with few if any objective measurements. Thus, the producer, as well as those who make selections on behalf of the producer, have no objective way to evaluate whether different choices will increase or decrease the ultimate success of the audio-visual program.
Thus, a need exists for a technique for objectively evaluating the success of an audio-visual program based on different choices for the various elements comprising that program.
Briefly, a method for recommending at least one element of an audio-visual program commences by first determining the success of an audio-visual program having a set elements initially selected by a user. Thereafter, a replacement element is substituted for at least one of the initially selected elements and the success of the audio-visual program with the at least one replacement element is determined The at least one replacement element is recommended for substitution in place of the at least one initially selected element if substituting replacement element in the audio-visual program yields greater success.
As described in detail below, the system 10 overcomes the aforementioned disadvantage by making intelligent recommendations for replacing at least one initially selected element of an audio-visual program with a replacement element to increase success. The system of
The processor 12 provides output data to at least one output device, illustratively depicted by a display device 18. In practice, the display device 18 displays a graphical user interface (GUI) 20 generated by the processor 12 to guide the user in entering data as well as to display the results generated by the processor in response to such entered data. Other devices for handling output data from the processor 12 could include a printer (not shown). In addition to providing output data to the display device 18, the processor 12 can provide such data to a network (not shown) such as the Internet, via a network interface 21, which also allows the processor to input data from the network. Additionally, the processor 12 could include a speech interface (not shown) for both receiving and interpreting input speech and providing audio output information.
The processor 12 has access to one or more databases that contain data allowing the processor to make intelligent recommendations for replacing one or more initially selected elements of an audio-visual program with replacement elements to increase success. In the illustrated embodiment of
In practice, each of the substitution prediction models 24 will determine the success of the audio-visual program using a particular criterion and provide a numerical indication useful for comparison purposes as discussed hereinafter. Rather than make use of a single substitution prediction model 24, the processor 12 could make use of multiple models, each model making use of the information in the database 22 to populate the model. Thus, as an example, the processor 12 could predict the success of the audio-visual program using both star ratings and Academy® awards as a combined prediction model 24. Other combined prediction models 24 could also serve to predict the success of the audio-visual program.
In addition to the databases 22, the processor 12 also has access to a database 26, which stores substitution models to allow the processor to substitute a replacement element of for at least one of element in the set of initially selected elements for an audio-visual program. In practice, the database 26 includes information about actors, actor groups, directors, studio, genres, themes, locations, and release dates for example. Thus, to substitute a different actor for an actor initially selected for the audio-visual program, the processor 12 could access the database 26 for a list of potential replacements for substitution based on user-specified criterion (age, gender, physical stature, nationality etc.) Further, the processor 12 might suggest replacing the actor with someone having criterion different that the user-specified criterion (e.g., a younger actor) if doing so yields greater success taking into account other parameters. An important attribute of the system 10 is its ability to make decision not on a single-feature basis, but rather taking into account the interplay of the different elements that comprise the audio-visual program. The separate databases 22 and 26 could exist as single database partitioned into separate portions for serving the functions of these two databases.
Following step 210, the processor 12 will present the recommended replacement(s) to the user who will select a replacement recommended by the processor 12 for each element considered by the processor (e.g., either a single element such as lead actor, or multiple elements (e.g., lead actor, director, genre, theme, location and release date). Thereafter, program execution branches back to step 206 during which the processor 12 of FIG. determines the success of the audio-visual program with the replacement element(s) selected by the user during step 212. Thereafter, the user will indicate his or her satisfaction with the success of the audio-visual program determined during re-execution of step 208. The processor 12 will iteratively execute steps 210, 212, and 206 until the user indicates his or her satisfaction with the success following step 208, whereupon the process ends during step 214.
The process 200, as described above, provides a much more objective approach to recommending replacements for the various elements that comprise an audio-visual program. In particular, the process 200 can apply much greater intelligence to the process of casting actors for an audio-visual program by using an objective measurement to compare different actors. As discussed above, each of the various substitution prediction models 24 of
Using the process 200 of
The foregoing describes a technique for improving success of an audio-visual program, such as a movie or television program.