Shot Logger, an online system for cataloging frame captures and calculating average shot lengths, has just been put into beta release. For several years, I've been struggling to find a good way to keep track of frame captures from film and television. And I've been intrigued by the statistical style analyses conducted by analysts such as Barry Salt, David Bordwell, Warren Buckland, Charles O'Brien and Yuri Tsivian. Recently, I created an online system that marries the frame-capturing capability of VLC media player with an online image gallery (called Gallery). Essentially, the way it works is: the analyst uses VLC to capture frames that have their time code contained in their file names. They then upload the frames to the Shot Logger Gallery. Using the time-code stamped file names, Shot Logger calculates the average length of shots in a film or television program. So far I've only entered data for 8 TV programs/films, but I hope they illustrate how Shot Logger might be of use. Presently, I am limiting Shot Logger to my own frame captures, but, if it seems useful, I plan to open it up to other analysts' submissions. Also, Shot Logger is based on free, open-source software (VLC media player <http://www.videolan.org/vlc/> and Gallery <http://gallery.menalto.com/>) and it, too, will be released as open-source software (once its rough edges are smoothed). This means that anyone may use the Shot Logger software for their own projects. My principal use of Shot Logger is for the analysis of visual style and editing in television, but I can see other potential uses for it. For example, filmmakers might want to use it to create a visual log of their projects. Libraries might want to use it as a way to generate meta data about videos in their collections. Anyone who needs to track video material might find a use for it. There's still a lot of room for improvement and I'd love to hear any comments/suggestions you might have. You'll find it at: http://www.shotlogger.org/ Let me know what you think! -- Jeremy Butler www.ScreenLex.org www.ScreenSite.org www.TVCrit.com www.AllThingsAcoustic.org Professor - TCF Dept. - U Alabama ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu