Idea for a Movie Viewing Assistance System for Aspies/Auties

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I know this is a long post, but bear with me here. I thought of an idea that will truly help aspies and auties understand movies. I'm sure we've all run into this before. You're watching a movie, but you have no idea what's going on: who's the good guy, who's the bad guy, is the current scene happening for real or a dream/flashback sequence, was the guy in a black mask really the killer, why isn't the main character defending himself, etc etc etc. I thought of a system that'll provide hints to viewers. It's called the Cinematic Hint Signaling System, or CHeSS (the extra E is thrown in to make a pronounceable word, and not used when writing out the full name).

About the Cinematic Hint Signaling System
The logo can be a glowing king chess piece, with the wording "CHeSS" below it. It's a play on the name of the system, as well as the fact that the king is never removed from the board. The following tag lines can be used as well. Let me know which one you like the best.
* "Play movies intelligently. Play CHeSS."
* "Don't get pwned by plot twists when you play CHeSS." (a play on the word "pawn")
* "Give the plot twists a checkmate with CHeSS."
This system provides hints throughout the movie to help viewers understand it. It's not, and not intended to be, a movie spoiler, just something that shows who's who. With CHeSS, aspies will be able to understand which character has which role, who's good and who's bad, as well as being warned of an upcoming plot twist that completely changes the perceptions of characters.

Technical Specifications
CHeSS can only work with movies recorded digitally, since I can't imagine how it can be implemented with film-recorded movies. (Luckily, most movies are going digital anyway.) The system will function very similar to closed captioning on TVs, where captions are recorded simultaneously with spoken words or sound effects. Similarly, CHeSS will run with the film recording, and highlight individual characters or scenes on the movie screen, usually for a brief period of time. For instance, the protagonist will be highlighted in a steady green outline for three minutes after first appearing on the screen (more details in the "Examples" section). Similar hints will appear throughout the movie, in the order they were created during production. In the end, the system will provide viewers with a discreet reminder system, and will not be more obtrusive than closed captions on TV. CHeSS-enhanced movies can also be recorded on DVDs or Blu-Ray discs, and the hints will work the same way.

Human Specifications
Individual hints will be created by writers during production. To ensure that they will be helpful to aspies, the people writing the CHeSS hints will be required to have psychological training in autistic spectrum conditions (not disorders). Once the all the hints are written into the movie, the movie will be reviewed by a psychologist, the writers themselves, and a small group of volunteers with AS. The volunteers will write evaluations about how helpful the hints were. If the results are satisfactory, the movie will be released, and flagged as "CHeSS-enhanced", much like the movie viewing-assistance systems for the blind or the deaf. Then, it can run in public theaters during special showtimes, in theaters catering to autistics, or during special education programs in schools.

Examples of CHeSS hints
To give everyone a clear picture of how the system will work, these are the hints it can use. The movie will run just like a regular movie, but with color-coded hints appearing in front of the scenes. Most hints will appear for 1 minute after the character or scene shows up during the movie, unless it's deemed necessary to show the hint longer. The symbols used in the hints are international, and generally do not require translation between countries.
* Protagonists are highlighted in a steady green outline.
* If there are false protagonists, they will be highlighted in a flashing green outline.
* Antagonists are highlighted in a steady red outline.
* If there are false antagonists, they will be highlighted in a flashing red outline.
* Good characters are flagged with the light blue plus sign above their heads.
* Bad characters are flagged with the dark blue minus sign above their heads.
* If the perceived good or bad character changes due to a plot twist, the new character will have the appropriate flag, and the old character will have the same flag crossed out.
* Scenes that are known flashbacks are highlighted with a white oval outline and a clock icon.
* Scenes that are known dream sequences are highlighted with a puffy cloud outline and a bed icon.
* At the beginning of a plot twist or a radical change in the storyline, the whole screen will have a solid yellow outline around it for 20 seconds.
* At the end of either situation, the whole screen will have a broken yellow outline around it for 10 seconds.
* If a scene is perceived to be real but ends up being a dream or flashback, a yellow X will flash across the whole screen for 2 seconds.
* If a scene is perceived to be a dream or a flashback but turned out to be real, a yellow checkmark will flash across the whole screen for 2 seconds.
* Other symbols/flags/highlighting can be used as well, but it's best to avoid text (numerals are OK), so that the symbols can be used internationally with no need of translation.

Some Final Words
If you have the money and the means to develop this system, feel free to do so. I'm not in the movie industry, and don't know how to program digital cinema, but it would be great if someone implemented this idea. I think it can benefit aspies and auties wonderfully! Movies that once seemed confusing and enigmatic can now be enjoyable. CHeSS can even be used in NT classrooms to facilitate movie discussions, at home when introducing movies to children, in nursing homes when showing movies to Alzheimer's patients, and so much more. And most importantly, the logo for the system is as respectful as it gets; after all, chess (the board game) is associated with intelligence. I'm sure it'll be nice for WP to have positive publicity, such as coming up with a great movie viewing assistance program, rather than negative publicity, such as the unfortunate Will_Freund incident (written that way intentionally to prevent Googling).

Last edited by Aspie1 on 27 Feb 2009, 3:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

would this work for porn movies tho???

cuz sometimes i dunno if shes faking an orgasm or not

Nice idea, just bear in mind that flashing things are a no no for many people with autism or AS.

I would suggest that a better thing would be a version of PKzip for movies and some long winded books. It would allow you to get the full experience of either without having to spend so much tuime. You would need a version of PKunzip in your brain.

It's not going to be rapid flashing, since I'm aware of that issue. The flashing will be slow enough as not to disturb most people on the spectrum.

I like this idea. Especially for action films and thrillers. For those of us with ADD and social anxiety/agoraphobia - I'd like to see a TV version.

Add-on packages could include search functionality. ("What did I see that guy in? It's going to drive me CRAZY until I figure it out!! !!")

I need something for telephones. There definitely needs to be a more visual interface - video-conferencing solves about half the problem - but its still not enough. In fact, current video conferencing technology is worse than the plain old phone because its all jerky. It would need to be just this side of HD.

Am neither watch films or use sound but know there is something like that-on sky+ at least [maybe it's on other STBs like normal sky,cable,freeview boxes etc? dont know],to get it on sky+ go to:
services>system setup>language & subtitles>Audio description,and turn it on.

What about my idea of pkzip for films and books ?

The PKzip already exists for books. It's called CliffsNotes (there is also SparkNotes and other study guides). CliffsNotes presents everything in a compact, clearly explained format, and explains things like characters' motives, plot twists, false protagonists, and other things that are hard for aspies to understand. Reader's Digest works in a similar way, but simply publishes abridged or compact versions of full-size novels, rather than explain things. I'm not sure how the PKzip for films would work. For now, I usually read http://www.themoviespoiler.com as carefully as I can, if I'm planning to see a movie I know I won't understand. It's probably not the PKzip you had in mind, but it's the best available technology for now.

I don't know, I guess maybe this isn't an issue for me...but when I don't understand a movie, I just watch it again (especially if I like it).

Most movies these days spell everything out for you anyway (if you miss something, wait a little bit and they'll usually clarify it again), but sometimes if I'm watching an older movie, like when I saw Casablanca, I had to watch it a few times to really "get it".

And sometimes I think movies don't make sense just because the script is so bad

The whole system would be useless for me for one simple reason: You don't say that the characters' names will be displayed next to their faces.

I'm face-blind, and the biggest problem with watching movies has always been remembering the characters. I try to memorize them by hairstyle, usually. It's never completely successful. There are only so many T-shirt-and-jean-wearing short-brown-haired men you can memorize. There are other cues, too: If you're watching "CSI" and somebody's doing an autopsy, you know they're probably the coroner. Somebody with a different race (black and Asian are easy to recognize, but I miss many Hispanics) also stands out. So does someone who's unusually young or old. Sometimes the voices are different. All of that could be solved with a simple tag with the character's name and some pertinent identifying information. For example, "James Kirk, Enterprise Captain". (Just the name isn't enough. Contextless information is no good. And sometimes you don't know the name, so until it's said, only the tag has to be used. For the record, I never actually had problems telling apart people on Star Trek--they have lovely color coded shirts and alien races on top of it!)

You'd need captions for CAPD or hearing impairment, so your system would have to be compatible with CC.

I've seen Casablanca and Rear Window a billion times each because they are so good. In fact, if I like a movie I will see it over and over and over.

But its all the other so-so movies that make it an issue. Or a movie like No Country For Old Men - that are supposed to be really good but are scary and freaky the first time so you're not compelled to ever watch them again. (Didn't get that with Fargo. Loved Fargo and have seen it a billion times.)

That's would be easy to incorporate into CHeSS. When the characters are highlighted with green or red outlines, or with blue plus or minus signs, their names can appear in the same color next to their faces. Supporting characters can have their names displayed in the color of whom they're supporting (green for protagonist, red for antagonist); however, they would not be highlighted with outlines. Extras and bystanders would not need to have their names displayed, since they don't usually have names in movies, and when they do, it's not relevant to remember them. In all cases, the character's name would be displayed for 1 minute.

Keep in mind that CHeSS keeps a distinctions between protagonist vs. antagonist and good vs. bad. In some movies, the protagonist is actually the bad guy. In that case, the killer would be highlighted with a green outline and a flagged with dark blue minus sign, and a police officer arresting him would be highlighted with a red outline and flagged with a light blue plus sign. My system puts more emphasis on showing who's the main character, since it's oftentimes clear who's good and who's bad from the context of the movie.

Last edited by Aspie1 on 28 Feb 2009, 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That doesn't really help. I mean, keep the nametags up throughout every appearance in the movie.

I think that would clutter the screen too much, if the name labels were kept on the screen all throughout the movie. It might even make the movie more confusing to some people. Perhaps CHeSS can come in two versions: Continuous, which keeps name tags and other hints displayed all throughout the movie, and Standard, which displays them only for a brief period of time.

I found my old thread from a while back. I liked it a lot at the time, so I thought: "why not bring it back, at least for a little while?"