Creative Data Ontology: 'Russian Doll' Metadata Versioning in Film and TV Post-Production Workflows

A ‘Russian doll’ is a decorative painted hollow wooden figure that can be contained in a larger figure of the same sort, which can, in turn, be contained in another figure, and this can be repeated as many times as needed. This paper describes the development of an OWL-based ontology designed for metadata versioning in the media post-production industry. This has been implemented using the same Russian doll principle: of a ‘record’ being able to “wrap” (or contain) another record, one which relates to the versioning of that metadata, repeated as often as needed. Our ontology for metadata used in the media industry distinguishes itself from others by addressing the full range of post-production processes, rather than the archiving of a finished product. The ontology has been developed using metadata fields provided by high profile UK-based post-production companies, informed by ethnographic and co-design work carried out with them. This is the basis for a prototype metadata management tool for use in both media post-production and on media productions. We present central design principles emerging from our collaborative research, and describe the process of co-developing this ontology with our partners.