The Committee to Nuke Elysium

Our perception of eras seems chiefly dependent on the limitations of the technology that records them. The 20s are speeded up in our heads because the cameras were cranked by hand, creating an unnaturally hasty frame-rate. The 40s, however, are in part characterised by the crackly analogue sound that accompanies most war footage. The 50s are a combination of starchy monochrome US shows and lush cinematic Eastmancolor that stretches into the 60s: this is the era of glamour and dreams, and a colour palette Mad Men seeks to emulate. The 70s have a raw deal: they seem to chiefly exist in the form of grim, murky 16mm news footage of people gazing sullenly at acres of brown wallpaper. With the sole exception of the Wombles, everyone in 70s footage looks as if they’re being held there against their will.

Then in the 80s, our memories are transferred on to video, lending them a shiny, slightly tinny feel. The analogue video age lasts until roughly the turn of the century, at which point everything starts turning crisp and widescreen. Around 2005 things start making the transition to HD – and then we get to today, and a weird new trend is emerging. I first noticed it some time around the Egyptian revolution, when I was suddenly struck by a Sky News report from Cairo that looked almost precisely like a movie. Not in terms of action (although that helped – there were people rioting on camelback), but in terms of picture quality. It seemed to be shot using fancy lenses. The depth of field was different to standard news reports, which traditionally tend to have everything in focus at once, and it appeared to be running at a filmic 24 frames per second. The end result was that it resembled a sleek advert framing the Arab Spring as a lifestyle choice. I kept expecting it to cut to a Pepsi Max pack shot.

Since then, I’ve noticed similarly glossy-looking reports popping up on Newsnight and the like, so it may not be long until this is the norm. I’m guessing it’s a practical decision rather than an artistic one: this is how the new ultra-portable, ultra-useful digital cameras make things look: everything’s a teeny bit polished, a teeny bit Instagrammed. You see it everywhere: even Holby City looks like a movie these days. The news is just following suit.