The Prose Storyboard Language: A Tool for Annotating and Directing Movies

Abstract

The prose storyboard language is a formal language for describing movies shot by shot, where each shot is described with a unique sentence. The language uses a simple syntax and limited vocabulary borrowed from working practices in traditional movie-making, and is intended to be readable both by machines and humans. The language is designed to serve as a high-level user interface for intelligent cinematography and editing systems.

Text-to-movie authoring of anatomy lessons

“…Each sentence describes all the visual elements, camera actions and animations seen from the start of the recording till the camera stops. It is an anatomical extension of the Prose Storyboard Language [24] that was designed for annotating and directing movies.As each sentence generates a complete shot, it must have all the information necessary to transition into the shot, build the composition, direct camera movements, record all the developments from the initial composition and finally describe the last composition before the camera stops. the detailed And/Or graph of the grammar for Anatomy storyboard language is presented in Figure : 4.…”

LookOut! Interactive Camera Gimbal Controller for Filming Long Takes

“…Drone cinematography is an active area of research. Ideas explored include actor pose driven drone flying [28], controlling subject framing autonomously [32,52], constructing drone paths around user defined way-points [73], learning or mimicking shot style and kinematics from expert drone pilots [1,29] and using the Prose Storyboard Language (PSL) [56] for actor framing and plotting drone paths [20]. Although these methods either use limited UIs and/or non-visual means of actor tracking (GPS and infrared markers), they showed promise for the concept of scripted and actor-driven camera control.…”

“…There is existing work in the literature that allows for expressing film scenes in a standardized form [8,56,71]. The Prose Storyboard Language [56] provides a grammar that's readable by both humans and machines for expressing all aspects of a film scene including where actors are located with respect to one another and the scene, camera framing and positioning, and how multiple shots are sequenced and stitched.…”

“…There is existing work in the literature that allows for expressing film scenes in a standardized form [8,56,71]. The Prose Storyboard Language [56] provides a grammar that's readable by both humans and machines for expressing all aspects of a film scene including where actors are located with respect to one another and the scene, camera framing and positioning, and how multiple shots are sequenced and stitched. The Prose Storyboard Language [56] and other languages like it are powerful because they provide a standardized communication method throughout the entire film-making pipeline, ensuring the overall vision or goal of each scene and the overall film is met.…”

LookOut! Interactive Camera Gimbal Controller for Filming Long Takes

“…Galvane et al [16] formulate a system for drone path planning and actor based framing, and utilize the Prose Storyboard Language (PSL) [43] for a high level description of subject framing. In Nägeli et al [39], multiple drones can be scripted to fly through specific paths in a scene and be guided by actor location.…”