Cinematic television

Cinematic television is a genre of television programming characterized by production techniques and qualities that rival those traditionally used in cinema and movies. In a consultation on tax breaks and relief in 2012, George Osborne, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, defined cinematic television drama as those with production costs of more than £1 million per hour of airtime.
Characteristics
The following are some of the characteristics of cinematic television programs:
*The British Government has propsed defining "cinematic television dramas" as those with production cost of over £1 million per hour of airtime.
* The scenes in the program are carefully constructed, paying more attention to lighting, camera angle, depth of field and shot construction.
* Foreshadowing is used in the story lines.
* Characters are rounder and well-developed compared to those in traditional television programs.
* The story lines of cinematic television programs tend not to be open-ended. Instead, they tend to tell a single story.
* Cinematic television series contain subject matter that was generally prohibited on television. This includes nudity, depiction of sexual activity, depiction of drug use, violence, incest and obscene language.
History and origins
For various reasons, production values in cinema have traditionally been higher than those employed by television. Often times, actors who accepted roles in television series were seen as accepting a step down in their careers. Programs like the 1970s The Love Boat, were notable for featuring guest stars who had been prominent movie stars but were now in the twilight of their careers.
In the late 1990s, owing to their inexpensiveness and popularity, reality television programs became part of the mainstream of network broadcasting. This made less room for traditional programming on the networks. Premium cable channels, in particular HBO, saw an opportunity to fill that void by producing their own one-hour dramas, which, unlike traditional network programs, were not constrained by the content limits placed on broadcast television by The Federal Communication Commission. They pioneered the genre with OZ. Its success inspired other premium channels, then non-premium cable channels, and even networks, to follow suit.
Examples
Examples of television series that meet the production cost criteria include:
* The Sopranos, 1999-2007, 6 seasons, 86 episodes, budget: $2 million per one-hour episode.
* Deadwood, 2004-2006, 3 seasons, 36 episodes, budget: $5 million per one-hour episode.
* Rome (in cooperation with the BBC and Italy's RAI), 2005-2007, 2 seasons, 22 episodes, budget: $9 million per one-hour episode.
* True Blood, 2008-present, 5 seasons to date, 60 episodes to date, budget: $3-5 million per one-hour episode.
* Boardwalk Empire, 2010-present, 3 seasons to date, 36 episodes to date, budget: > $4 million per one-hour episode.<ref name="Boardwalk budget"/>
* Lost, 2004-2011, 6 seasons, 121 episodes, budget: $10-14 million for two-hour pilot episode.<ref name="Boardwalk budget"/>

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