Vision On

There was a time, when I was young and dinosaurs walked the earth, that we all watched television together. I don’t mean as a family (though we did that), I mean as a nation. Now all of us weren’t in my Mum’s living room, obviously. We only had a small black and white set so there would have been some serious squinting going off at the back. No, I mean the entire country watched its favourite programmes at the same time. We had to, there was no other way. We had just two or three television channels available via one delivery channel. No repeats, no videos, no download. Grab it now before its gone.

Dixon of Dock Green, Morecambe and Wise, Twin Peaks – whatever genre, whatever era your favourite show was, it was only available right here, right now. And because nobody wanted to miss them then some shows that were watched by half the population at the same time. The Americans had a phrase for it. They called it ‘water cooler television’, meaning that people would be talking about them around the water cooler at work the following day.

We don’t do that now. We can’t. The world has changed.

A conversation at the proverbial drinks machine used to go something like this.

‘Wasn’t (insert name of programme here) great last night?’

‘I know. Who’d have thought that he’d turn out to be the killer?’

‘I knew it all along. He had that look about him.’

… etc, until someone wandered over to tell you that your break ended fifteen minutes ago and the Big Boss was on the warpath.

These days you’re more likely to hear the following.

‘Wasn’t (insert name of programme here) great last night?’

‘Ooh no, don’t tell me! I’ve recorded it, I’m watching it tonight.’

‘Ah ok. Well I’ll just tell you about this fantastic part where he’s abducted by space aliens…’

‘La! La! La! I’m not listening!’

We’ve killed the art of discussing our favourite shows by watching them at different times in different ways. Some still sit around the telly of an evening with the family waiting for the show to start while others record it for later viewing while they go about their lives, not tied down to any entertainment schedule. Some get their televisual delights delivered through their letterbox in box set form on subscription while others still – and this is fast becoming the favourite viewing pattern of many young people – download the show to their laptop’s hard drive. Just as text and social media have drastically altered the way that we communicate with each other generally, this increased choice of deliver channels has changed the way we discuss our entertainment. Now people are more likely to seek out online discussion groups about their favourite television shows. Or radio ones for that matter, as I do with other fans of ‘The Archers’. I know, but I’m old. And old fashioned.

So the conversation around the drinks machine (or the bar) about television is pretty much dead. There’s always someone who is three seasons behind you in their viewing of a show. But while technology has closed this particular door for entertainment consumers it’s opened other doors for creators. A generation ago a writer with an idea for a script would have to approach the television stations either directly or through an agent, then filter their concept through levels of producers and committees until, if they were very, very lucky, something might eventually be made that was a vague approximation of their original idea. They’d get the payment and the credit but not the artistic control. These days things are different.

Just as Lulu and other self-publishing services have made getting a book to market a relatively easy affair, so has You Tube and Vimeo opened up a world of new customers for filmmakers. Write a script, get together with other creative types, make your movie and put it on a site for the world to consume. It’s that easy.

Of course there’s a downside to this. Total creative control and ease of availability decreases the chances that the finished product will be any good…

Shaun Finnie is currently self-editing his first novel.