Role Chameleon
A biological membrane map where departments are organelles and careers leak across them as thickening ribbons.
Some departments are “permeable ladders” (e.g., editing → directing), while others are structural silos.
Question: Which departments most commonly share credited individuals?
Method: Count people with credits in more than one department and aggregate department-pair frequencies.
Prediction: Creative-adjacent roles (editing, producing, writing) show high permeability into directing.
Test: Rank department-pair bridges by volume and test stability under thresholds and filters.
Departments form a cell: distinct, alive, and connected.
Ribbons thicken where careers repeatedly cross-credit.
Permeable ladders stand out: the film industry’s hidden migration routes.
- imdb.film_cast
- imdb.film_crew
- role_chameleon.json
Lower the threshold to see small migrations; raise it to isolate the “career ladders” where one department frequently becomes another.
Drag to rotate: the cell is a lens — not a static chart.