|
: the Composer |
 2008 - Interview with Steve Fisher |
| Steve Fisher: | With films and music the scene is changing so quickly as to be almost frightening. |
| Guy Byrne: | No one knows what's going to happen, but big changes are inevitable. |
| SF: | Inevitable and long-needed. The record companies are losing their power. The power to dictate to bands and to the public in terms of what they can listen to. |
| GB: | Music can come from the audience a lot more freely now. |
| SF: | And what'll happen in film? |
| GB: | It's taking a while for the scene to change. It's partly a cash crisis. It was happening even before the credit crunch. Look at the BBC - £2 Billion short and having to make around 2,000 job cuts. British cinema will get smaller because there isn't the infrastructure. It's what director Ridley Scott called his nightmare at Cannes last year - films will be aimed at smaller and smaller screens, culminating in the mobile phone. |
| SF: | So what's the internet going to do to film distribution ? |
| GB: | As people watch films on PCs, and TVs, it'll be less of a communal experience. But there should be more choice. |
| SF: | So cinema will go like record shops? |
| GB: | In the long-term, piracy will force things that way. The window between cinema and DVD release is becoming shorter and shorter anyway. |
| SF: | Yes,times change. Look at CDs. Radiohead allow their fans to pick a price for the CD. Prince makes more money giving away his album with the "Mail on Sunday" than releasing it via the record company and the shops. Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails have given away 2 new "free" CDs. |
| GB: | The downside of that is that in theory there's less money for the labels to promote new groups. |
| SF: | They were never in a rush to promote much interesting music anyway. |
| GB: | They did a good job with Kurt Cobain. Too good a job in fact... |
| SF: | There's such a thing as too much exposure. |
| GB: | No one with any sense would want that. You release the material you want to release and then it's up to the audience to decide how it goes. |
| SF: | Yes, it's the audience who make the decisions now, not the company heads. It's an exciting time. Unpredictable artistically. |
| GB: | Yes, exciting. But for UK film-making - as the BBC lay-offs show, and they get £3.5 Billion from the public every year - in the UK a lot less may happen than you'd expect. |
| SF: | So, just as music has completely changed with downloading, films should change too? Hopefully films won't be like the Led Zeppelin re-union - the biggest thing to happen being what happened 40 years ago? Even though as you know, Guy, I had my Led Zep phase myself... |
| GB: | Sadly Zep's title "The Song Remains the Same" may sum up UK films for the next while. Producers are desperate for tried and tested formulas that they can wheel out. |
| SF: | St.Trinian's... Carry Ons... Hammer horror. |
| GB: | The usual suspects of British film-making. Horror looks like it's coming back. A new UK vampire-type film is - in theory - going to be made and released via the internet every month, and good luck to them. |
| SF: | And what about "Empty Mirror"? |
| GB: | As you know, Steve, vampires cast no reflections... |
| SF: | Cryptic as ever... Well, the soundtrack CD's ready. |
| GB: | Good. |
| SF: | And what's happened to Jane Marsh exactly? I'm worried. |
| GB: | Jane's still alive, definitely. My belief is she's being held in a confined space. |