filmil

Filmil is a fictional, open specification designed to describe and encode film metadata and narrative structure for digital analysis and archival workflows. It provides a machine-readable representation of a film's scenes, shots, timing, color grading, sound cues, and rights information, with the aim of enabling interoperability among analysis tools, restoration systems, and scholarly databases.

Origin and development: Filmil originated in a hypothetical collaboration among film scholars and digital archivists in the early 2020s as a thought experiment to imagine how film metadata could be standardized across formats. The name blends 'film' with a suffix often used in language specifications, signaling its role as a descriptive framework rather than a playback format.

Format and data model: The specification is schema-based and described using a hierarchical structure. Core entities include Film, Scene, Shot, Frame, and Element. Each entity carries timing information (timecodes), technical attributes (lighting, color grade, camera), and media references. It also supports annotations, rights metadata, and provenance data.

Usage and reception: In fictional contexts, filmil is used for archival catalogs, scholarly annotation, and restoration planning. Proponents emphasize improved interoperability and richer metadata, while critics note the complexity of implementation, governance requirements, and the lack of real-world adoption beyond demonstration projects.