Analysis of Intended Viewing Area vs Estimated Saliency on Narrative Plot Structures in VR Film

Colm O. Fearghail, Sebastian Knorr, Aljosa Smolic

Abstract: In cinematic virtual reality film one of the primary challenges from a storytelling perceptive is that of leading the attention of the viewers to ensure that the narrative is understood as desired. Methods from traditional cinema have been applied to varying levels of success. This paper explores the use of a saliency convolutional neural network model and measures it's results against the intending viewing area as denoted by the creators and the ground truth as to where the viewers actually looked. This information could then be used to further increase the effectiveness of a director's ability to focus attention in cinematic VR.