Automatic generation of video narratives from shared UGC

TLDR

End‑users record video at social events and upload it to a shared repository. The study presents an evaluated approach for automatically generating video narratives from user‑generated content, demonstrated with a prototype system for assembling school‑concert stories. The prototype, MyVideos, uses Narrative Structure Language and ShapeShifting Media to automatically create personalized movie narratives from the uploaded footage. Focus‑group, interview, and field‑trial evaluations in the Netherlands and UK confirmed the approach’s effectiveness and yielded additional insights.

Abstract

This paper introduces an evaluated approach to the automatic generation of video narratives from user generated content gathered in a shared repository. In the context of social events, end-users record video material with their personal cameras and upload the content to a common repository. Video narrative techniques, implemented using Narrative Structure Language (NSL) and ShapeShifting Media, are employed to automatically generate movies recounting the event. Such movies are personalized according to the preferences expressed by each individual end-user, for each individual viewing. This paper describes our prototype narrative system, MyVideos, deployed as a web application, and reports on its evaluation for one specific use case: assembling stories of a school concert by parents, relatives and friends. The evaluations carried out through focus groups, interviews and field trials, in the Netherlands and UK, provided validating results and further insights into this approach.