August 24, 2005 For New Visitors

If you are a new visitor to FilmsFolded, this is the page which explains the site a bit.

All the content here is created by Ted Goranson. The site is in two halves.

One half is the database of film comments. I write comments on films that I have seen and post them to IMDB. You can read them there in the normal way.

They also appear here in a much handier format. All the films here are rated using my evaluation system, where on IMDB they may not be; or the ratings there may not be current.

Here, you can search the comments all sorts of different ways, including by many keywords that you can just click.

Also, a film's comment page here may have additional information added if it is used as an example in the book. And of course then it will link to the appropriate section in the book.

So the book integrates with and extends the IMDB comment database, which is searchable by itself.

The second part of the site is the book itself. Its navigation appears in the upper part of the navigation area to the left. The flippy arrows open subsections. What you are reading now in fact is the first page of the book.

The "book" is evolving in the open, online — meaning you can track the progress as it develops. I have a section that reproduces chapters that have been recently modified and another section that similarly clones new chapters, so you can see what has been changed or added since your last visit.

Feedback is solicited.

The goal here is to understand and describe complex narrative structures, derive something like laws or principles and illustrate those principles with real examples. I have an ulterior motive in this, but along the way, people seem to enjoy the ride, either at the book or the comment level.

So enjoy, and let me know what notions need to evolve more.

The site was designed and is maintained by Toby Schachman, a cool guy.