November 2019 | Sight&Sound | 5
Editorial Mike Williams
The first issue of Sight & Sound that I remember
with any kind of clarity was from August 1997. The
coverline: ‘The Devil and David Lynch’. The story: Lost
Highway’s journey “beyond the suburban surreal of
Blue Velvet to the edge of identity itself”. The editor: a hip
young gunslinger on his third or fourth issue in charge,
called Nick James. I was 18, and completely intoxicated.
I’d seen the odd copy of the magazine before and
had always been drawn to the same advert in the back
for the New York Film Academy. The black-and-white
print might as well have been neon. The wording
was punchy and my gut felt like I’d been punched:
“WRITE • DIRECT • SHOOT • EDIT –
FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH LITTLE OR NO
PRIOR FILMMAKING EXPERIENCE.”
It’s funny how things go. The journey from thinking
I might not go to university to sitting in an admissions
tutor’s office a couple of months before term started
now seems like a blur. Those adverts had made me
realise it was actually possible to go to uni and study
film, which isn’t something that anyone was going
to come on to my estate when I was a kid and tell
me or anyone else. And while my path has been a bit
digressive, from going full Robert Rodriguez to fund
my own magazine via medical experiments (no,
really, I’m fine – *twitches*), to spending a decade
chasing bands around as a music journalist, it was
those early experiences with S&S that have led me
back here, ready to lead it into a new era. My editorials
won’t be as navel-gazing from here on in, I promise.
But this is an important time in S&S’s history, so I
hope you’ll indulge me for a few more paragraphs.
Magazines are a vital part of our culture. They can
reach deep into our souls in a way most media can’t.
Because magazines don’t just tell stories – or look
cool and smell nice and make a nice thunk when you
drop them on the table – they’re lifelines to people
otherwise cut off, whether geographically, culturally,
societally, or just because their interests sit in a
particular niche. They’re a ready-made community,
offering a ready-made sense of belonging. They
inspire dreams, ideas and ambitions. They’re ours.
In this sense, magazines are like films. And as with
films, the way we engage with what we think of
as magazines in the traditional sense has changed.
The way we interact with and experience content
has changed. This month’s cover star has just made
a movie with Netflix, seen by many as the enemy
of traditional cinema. But that’s not how Martin
Scorsese thinks. He sees a way to get his film made,
to engage with the changing way that audiences
are enjoying films, and as a result is contributing
to a huge cultural shift in cinema that has as
many people fighting against it as fighting for it.
Whichever way you see it, the thing to remember
is that at its core The Irishman is still a Scorsese
movie. Though the way we interact with it and the
way it’s sold to us have changed, its DNA hasn’t.
There’s an interview with Spike Lee in that 1997
issue I mentioned earlier in which he says: “I really
don’t make a delineation between feature films,
music videos and commercials... I try to tell a story
in all those forms.” What he’s describing 22 years
ago is the world we live in today, where you’re as
likely to find great art and expression through the
screen of your phone as you are in a cinema.
Over the coming months you’ll see some
exciting changes at S&S – new ideas, new voices,
new perspectives and new ways of reaching
you. But our DNA won’t change, and our passion
for film will be as clear on these pages in the
future as it is right now. Enjoy the issue.
A PERSONAL JOURNEY
EDITORIAL
Editor-in-chief
Mike Williams
Deputy editor
Kieron Corless
Features editor
James Bell
Web editor
Nick Bradshaw
Production editor
Isabel Stevens
Chief sub-editor
Jamie McLeish
Sub-editors
Robert Hanks
Jane Lamacraft
Researcher
Mar Diestro-Dópido
Credits supervisor
Patrick Fahy
Credits associates
Kevin Lyons
James Piers Taylor
Design and art direction
chrisbrawndesign.com
Origination
Rhapsody
Printer
Walstead UK
BUSINESS
Publisher
Rob Winter
Publishing coordinator
Brenda Fernandes
Advertising consultant
Ronnie Hackston
T: 020 7957 8916
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Over the coming months you’ll see
some exciting changes at Sight & Sound
- new ideas, new voices, new
perspectives and new ways of reaching
you. But our DNA won’t change
ILLUSTRATION BY SIMON COOPER AT WWW.COOPERILLO.COM/PORTRAIT BY ETIENNE GILFILLAN
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