How we came to eye tracking animation: A cross-disciplinary approach to researching the moving image

In this article, three researchers from a large cross-disciplinary team reflect on their individual experiences of a pilot study in the field of eye tracking and the moving image. The study – now concluded – employed a montage sequence from the Pixar film Up (2009) to determine the impact of narrative cues on gaze behaviour. In the study, the researchers’ interest in narrative was underpinned by a broader concern with the interaction of top-down (cognitive) and bottom-up (salient) factors in directing viewers’ eye movements. This article provides three distinct but interconnected reflections on what the aims, process and results of the pilot study demonstrate about how eye tracking the moving image can expand methods and knowledge across the three disciplines of screenwriting, screen theory and eye tracking. It is in this way both an article about eye tracking, animation and narrative, and also a broader consideration of cross-disciplinary research methodologies.