About Backstory:
The future plan for this
website is to showcase the following idea:
The Internet is the world of the
backstory.
In linear film and video,
backstory (everything that precedes the story) is
crucial to the story but not necessarily shown. On the
Internet, the world of the backstory comes to the
foreground. Stories and inquiries may interactively be
explored in all their breadth and depth -- allowing
for backstories to come to life on the net.
As the screenwriter William
Goldman said:
"Most people think
screenwriting is only dialogue, and that we're those
people who write those dreadful lines that all those
nice, wonderful actors have to say. And the reality is
that the single most important thing contributed by
the screenwriter is the structure."
My idea for the use of
backstory on the net is an area of critical inquiry
for me. While the language of the Internet evolves,
the need for structure, which William Goldman speaks
of, continues to gain importance. In painting,
photography, art, film, television, and finally, the
Internet, structure controls the experience. In the
visual media, an important element of structure is
space. The Internet will allow the space to be
relative, not fixed as in linear media. The notions of
editing (from Eisenstein on) come into play. --
Karen