Genre Network Analysis
The nodes are distinct genres, the edges are the genres’ co-occurrences in an interview. We treat the network as undirected. The parameters we chose to visualize are “Shortest path length” for nodes and “edge-betweenness” for edges. Shortest Path Length shows the number of steps from the node to other nodes in the network. Edge-betweenness points to the nodes that are crucial for the network as a whole; the nodes that hold it together (even though these nodes might not be referenced frequently and not central to the network). The larger and darker nodes correspond to the shorter path lengths; the thicker and darker lines indicate edge-betweenness. The three genres with the shortest path length are Comedy, Skazka (the fairy-tale film) and Blockbuster (popular cinema). All three appear in more than one interview and co-occur with a large number of other genres. The thickness of the darker lines—edge-betweenness—gives some interesting results. For example, trophy films are only mentioned in one interview, yet their edge-betweenness makes them prominent node in the network. Our guess is that trophy films occur in the interview with a large number of diverse references to genres which are only mentioned in that interview (such as silent cinema, retro and classic cinema). Comedy is prominent both in terms of the shortest path length parameter and in featuring the largest number of “thick” edges. In other words it is central to maintaining the network. In fact, as the genre graph indicates, comedy is the most referenced genre in the interviews; moreover, it is the genre that is a common denominator between female and male interviewees. As a result, it co-occurs with (and holds “together”) such diverse genres as short films, documentary films, western, adult films, fantasy and patriotic films.
Persons Network Analysis
The parameters we chose to visualize are “Degree Centrality” for nodes and “edge-betweenness” for edges. Degree Centrality identifies nodes with the highest number of ties to other nodes. In this visualization they are marked as the largest and darkest. The central node is Andrei Tarkovskii, followed by El’dar Riazanov, Leo Tolstoi, Federico Fellini and Sergei Bondarchuk. The list includes two art cinema directors, a Russian classical writer and two Soviet-era filmmakers. An interesting feature of this visualization is the presence of the second network in the upper right corner. It is disconnected from the main one, that is, none of the names occurs in any other interviews. Moreover, none of the other persons occurs in the second network. This separate network consists exclusively of American actors (plus a British actor who plays in Hollywood movies). The interviewee is a young male. For more discussion see Qualitative Analysis.