Data Mining: Text Mining, Visualization and Social Media

Awakening the Black Swan

Wakako and I went to see Black Swan yesterday. A very impressive, dark movie. From the discussion in the blogosphere, it looks like a classic sleeper hit (reminding me of The Illusionist, of course).

 

Decoding Avatar

There is little doubt that Avatar, or at least the processes and technologies that created it, represents a watershed in the entertainment business. Having seen the movie on Monday I still feel somehow that part of me is still on Pandora, or at least that I really want to go back there for another visit.

The attention that it is receiving in the blogosphere has the potential to be atypical of movie releases (which usually peak on Saturday of the first weekend). The graph below shows a second higher peak on the 22nd, though this may be an artifact of the latency in the data that Blogpulse collects (I'll check back later in the week with an update). The peak itself is not as high as some (Batman, for example, peaked at 1.75 - see other details here).

This graph below for Kung Fu Panda, for example, is more typical:

What is it about the movie that people are talking about? It seems that the 3d aspect is a key driver.

Actor-wise, Sam Worthington leads Weaver and Saldana:

  

Navigating Complex Movies

XKCD has some interesting (and humorous) graphics describing the paths that characters in movies (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Primer) intertwine.

Watching the Watchmen : Part 5

The main characters in Watchmen are Rorschach, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, The Comedian, Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan. Of these, it looks like Rorschach is getting the most attention in the blogosphere.

Watching Watchmen : Part 4

Do you have your tickets? There is a reasonable trend of people blogging about buying their tickets – enough to get me to go and buy mine tomorrow morning (luckily the cinema is in the same building as my office).

This graph made me happy:

Watching Watchmen : Part 3

It looks like some early screenings have been happening. A few tweets are reporting this:

• Just got out of #Watchmen. How incredibly epic!
• Just finished a Watchmen screening. Review to come soon. Taco Bell sure does go well with movies. #watchmen (clever shilling…)
• #Watchmen just ended. So dark it makes 'Dark Knight' look like Super Friends - suspect most friends will HATE it,.
• etc.

(get more from Twitter search.)

The Blogosphere has something to say about these screenings, though the posts are more forward looking (I’m going to see… rather than I’ve just seen.)

Watching Watchmen : Part 2

Ron Kass, of BoardTracker, kindly sent me a graph of posts in the message board space including the term 'Watchmen’. Compare with the previous post which showed weblog and Twitter attention around the film.

Watching Watchmen

BlogPulse shows a pretty sharp increase in blogging about Watchmen (coming out this Friday):

Twitter, according to Flaptor’s Twist, shows something of a more sedate ramp up (though I’m not sure what sort of sampling Twist is doing).

Unfortunately, BoardTracker doesn’t have any recent content for Watchmen (what’s up Ron?).

Quantum of Spock

It is fascinating to see the opening of a trailer getting more buzz than the host movie.

Update: Just found this picture that predates this post!

Quanta of Trailers

Some may be going to the cinema this weekend to see the new James Bond movie ‘A Quantum of Solace’. Others will be going to see a couple a key trailers for films to be released next year: Watchmen and Star Trek.

(please don’t change the ending of Watchmen…)