DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sqv9s4n4b
title: Vactors in Feature Films (2010-2013)

description: This article describes a segment of data produced as part of an ongoing
 research project that attempts to catalogue the performance of every
 vactor (virtual actor) in feature films from 2010-2019. Vactors are
 computer-generated (CG) characters that produce performances alongside
 profilmic elements. While vactors are increasingly common in films, they
 are poorly catalogued and often regarded among both academics and film
 critics as disdainful, monolithic performance strategies. A comprehensive
 list of vactors can be used to extract trends about the number of vactor
 performances by year, as well as how certain vactor performance styles
 become more or less predominant with time. By expanding on prior research
 that focuses on vactor performances from 2010, this article explores
 trends in vactor performances across multiple film genres between
 2010-2013. By analysing this data, this article suggests that vactors are
 not monolithic but rather encompass a wide variety of roles featuring
 various degrees of performance nuance and complexity.
description: This study is concerned with films whose initial release dates
 occur between 2010-2013. The research is specifically limited to
 non-documentary feature films and includes a comprehensive survey of
 Western cinema (American, Canadian, Australasian, and European), as well
 as a cursory survey of Bollywood, Chinese, and Korean cinema. I
 cross-reference films listed on the "Internet Movie Database"
 (IMDb.com) with the film catalogue on the website “Wild About Movies”
 (wildaboutmovies.com). I use the software MPC-HC to manually advance
 through a film at discrete 10-second intervals, which allows me to quickly
 search for vactor performances. When in doubt, I also consult several
 industry magazines, including “Cinefex” and “3D World”, as well as visual
 effects news websites, for details about the visual effects production of
 a given film. Each vactor is recorded by film, year,
 genre, and category of vactor performance style(s) (it is possible for a
 vactor to participate in more than one performance style throughout a
 film).
description: Each of the files listed here contain data that pertains to one
 of ten different performance styles I have previously defined in
 relationship to virtual actors (vactors) in film. The structure of each
 file is similar. The columns includes are "[PERFORMANCE STYLE] by
 Genre [YEAR]", "Movies", "Total Movies", and
 "Total Roles". "[PERFORMANCE STYLE] by
 Genre [YEAR]" includes a list of popular film genres in which vactors
 have featured. This list is repeated for each year of this study: 2010,
 2011, 2012, and 2013. There is a separate CSV document for each
 performance style: anthropomorphised, basic animal, complex animal,
 cosmetic, non-realistic, physical, sentient, stylised, true synthespian,
 and verisimilar. "Movies" represents the
 names of the films that correspond to a particular genre in a given year
 that also include vactors. "Total Movies" is
 the number of the films listed per genre in a given year.
 "Total Roles" is the number of individual vactor roles
 across all the films listed per genre in a given year.
 <br> Below the 2013 data, there are additional values for
 "Total Roles", "Total Appearances", "Total
 Movies", and "Repeated Roles". In this
 context, "Total Roles" refers to the sum of roles in the
 "Total Roles" column, representing the full count of
 [PERFORMANCE STYLE] vactor roles in feature films between
 2010-2013. "Appearances" refers to the sum of
 all appearances of [PERFORMANCE STYLE] vactors in feature films between
 2010-2013. This value may be different from "Total Roles" if the
 same vactor role appears across several films.
 "Repeated Roles" refers to the number of instances in
 which a single [PERFORMANCE STYLE] vactor role has appeared across
 multiple feature films between 2010-2013.