摘要：This article looks at the possibilities of representing the content of movies by utilising the cinematic elements in them. The goal is to improve identifi cation and utilisation of essential cinematic elements in the retrieval of movies. The article identifi es manifestations of cinematic elements in representation made by informants after viewing a test collection containing scenes and an entire movie taken from the Hollywood action- sci-fi –genre. 19 informants took part in the empirical research. Their descriptions of the movie material were analysed qualitatively. Results show that the drama structure together with the cinematic elements form a framework for the description of motion picture content. The drama structure guides and packets the information fl ow from the movie to the viewer. Cinematic elements affect the level of intensity in the movie, and therefore serve to emphasize certain events within the movie. The results show that, as the movie is an entity for the viewer, it is important that in the content description of movies the whole movie, its abstraction levels and cinematic elements should be represented in the movie information retrieval system by highlighting the key elements, not just by cutting out the least important elements.
