Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/716619
4 P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C TO B E R 2 0 1 6 editorial A NEW GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION by Michael Baugh, Editor This is a wonderful time to be a designer in television. I know that is not the popular view. Television designers make a fraction of what their sister and brother artists make working on feature films. The hours are longer. The prep time is shorter. The demand for improved quality is evermore stressful. Just like in today's political realm, there is a vocal group of white-haired women and men shouting the notion down and reminding us how great things used to be. But this isn't politics, and reasonable television viewers can't help but see that we're experiencing a new golden age. Most lists of the greatest television shows of all time cull three-quarters of their honorees from the post-Sopranos era, and one of the reasons is that today's television shows look so damn good. As with any revolutionary moment in art, a number of cultural factors have converged to bring about this change. The tools used to create and promote television have changed dramatically in recent years. Other art forms have suffered economic challenges and setbacks. The quality of home exhibition—screen size, resolution, sound—has skyrocketed. Public perception of the form has shifted, and with that shift, better actors and directors and writers are moving into the medium. For designers, the ability to imagine impossible environments, and then build them virtually —and affordably—has been a game changer. Television, an art form that was once the poor stepchild, is laying claim to an ever-growing share of our cultural capital. Serialization has become an increasingly important part of television storytelling. Audiences can now easily watch and re-watch seasons of television, so shows with complex storytelling and elaborate production values attract more of these off-schedule and repeat viewers. Binge watching is beginning to matter just as much from a financial perspective as premier ratings, and the complexity and quality of television is increasing as a result. Modern television viewing is as much about watching an entire season as it is about watching an episode, and the long- term craft of a series now has much greater value. HBO was in the forefront of this change, creating prestige television shows that felt cinematic. Much of its programming looked—still looks—more expensive and sounds more intelligent than your average series, so that it attracts a rabid fan base that is fiercely proud of the programs' professional look and craftsmanship. But HBO is not alone now, and a proliferating array of niche networks (think Amazon and Hulu) are challenging the Establishment. A show needs to look unique enough that critics will notice the difference and talk about it, and studios are devoting the financial resources necessary to achieve that difference. You don't have to say anything more than Game of Thrones to describe a level of television production value that hasn't been matched in decades, if ever. To the extent that we as artists can measure our success, and our influence on the culture, in terms of the quality of the work we are allowed to do, television design is richer and more satisfying than ever before.