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The Decline of the Hollywood Empire
The Decline of the Hollywood Empire
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Author: Herve Fischer Translated by: Rhonda Mullins Publisher: Talonbooks (cover image may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 160 Pub. Date: 2006 ISBN-10: 0889225451 ISBN-13: 9780889225459
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About
the Book:
Finalist for the 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award for
Translation (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize)
The digital distribution has levelled the creative playing field
between the towering Hollywood empire and marginalized independent
artists and producers.
The Hollywood empire was built over the course of a century
through hard-nosed business practices such as block booking, dumping
and buying up the competition, turning the silver screen into a
goldmine in the process. The business logic that has driven the
industry since its beginnings has gone into hyperdrive in recent
years, with astronomical sums invested in productions and promotion.
Ironically that massive outlay has gone toward churning out a flat,
made-in-Hollywood universalism that can be exported planet-wide, but
which is simultaneously losing audiences, primarily to the digital
world, at an accelerating pace. The apparently insurmountable
barriers of finance and distribution to entry into the world of
entertainment have served, so far, to keep smaller players out of the
frame and, Hervé Fischer contends, have destroyed the
industry’s creative potential. It turns out too much money can kill
cinema just as certainly as not enough.
In The Decline of the Hollywood Empire, artist and
philosopher Hervé Fischer heralds an inevitable move from 35
mm to digital distribution, which will take what has until now
existed only on the margins of the "entertainment industry" –
independent film, amateur film, documentary and other genres – from
bit players to starring roles: how the Trojan horse of digital
technology and distribution, in the hands of independent producers,
could well toll the bell for Hollywood’s hegemony in the business
of film.
What people say:
"A
work that will definitely interest anyone who cares about the future
of cinema." — La Presse
"The
bard of new media (and new times) has released a fervent, crusading
book that offers both an education and a forecast … The facts may
well soon bear out The
Decline of the Hollywood Empire."
— Qui fait quoi
"AN ESSENTIAL READ. That sums
up the importance of Fischer’s book…." — Le
Canada français
About the Author:
Herve Fischer is a French philosopher and multimedia artist
who has worked tirelessly to promote innovative art forms that
utilize and highlight science and technology. He is an
internationally recognized lecturer and has published numerous
articles, papers and books on art, communications and digital
technology. He holds citizenship in both Canada and France.
Rhonda Mullins is a freelance translator and journalist in
Montreal. She has translated books, articles and film narrations.
Mullins is also the managing editor of the online literary magazine
carte blanche.
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