Bring your Popcorn and Enjoy the Show!

An entry for the 2007 Infovis visualisation competition by the Iowa State team, made up of Heike Hofmann, Dianne Cook, Ulrike Genschel, Hadley Wickham, Michael Lawrence, Barret Schloerke, and Spencer Bradley.

Submission

Additional materials

Genres over Time

Explore the patterns we discovered online using Many Eyes, a tool from the IBM Collaborative User Experience research group. Please feel free to look for patterns that we missed and add your comments.

Count by year
Overall, the number of movies released each year is on a steep upwards trend. Once the stills "learned to walk" and technology became available in the early 1900s, we see a surge in the number of movies produced - mainly dramas and comedies were released then.

The interactive features of the Many Eyes website allow to zoom in and focus on individual genres. Have a look at some of them and enjoy the interesting development over time for Westerns, News or War Movies!

Percent of total by year

Romance and the Population
Ever wondered, how babies are made? - We won't go there, but just have a look at the fascinating relationship between romantic movies and population increase! Starting around 1918, we see a strong correlation in the pattern: with a lag of about 10 to 12 years, the number of romantic movies reflects exactly the same pattern as yearly population fluctuation ...

Connections between actors

Network of top actors, connected by co-apperance in movies

 

For a view of the top four "bankable" actors click on the image to the right

Tools we used