Film at 11

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"Film at 11" [1] or "Pictures at 11" [2] [3] is a US idiom from television news broadcasting, in which viewers are informed that footage of a breaking news story will be screened later that day. The word "film" in the phrase dates back to the early decades of TV news when footage was regularly recorded on film. 11 PM is the traditional time for late evening local news broadcasts in the Eastern and Pacific time zones of the United States, while the late evening news comes at 10 PM in the middle time zones (Mountain and Central). [1]

Contents

History

Television news gathering originally involved crews using 16 mm film (or, at lower-budget stations, Super 8 mm film) [4] that would be processed at the station and had to be edited before it could be aired. The time taken for this process meant that film of an early evening event would only be available in time for the late newscast. [5]

The purpose of these "Film at 11" promotions was to attract viewers and increase the program's ratings. However, news broadcasts were not counted in ratings during the time 16mm film was used in newsgathering and hence promotions typically took the form of "newsflashes" or "special reports" that conveyed the facts of the story.

The phrase entered popular culture in the 1970s, often describing ordinary or mundane events with an implication that the said events were being overly sensationalized, or as a short-hand expression akin to "tell you later." [6] The phrase was used in many TV shows and movies from the 1960s through the 1980s, for instance The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), WKRP in Cincinnati (1978), and Short Circuit (1986).

Whether or not he is to be credited with originating the phrase, in West Coast local news the phrase is commonly attributed to Jerry Dunphy during his time with KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

The phrase became obsolete with the advent of videotape as the medium of choice for news reporting, which made playing back news stories instantaneous. [1] .

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Perlman, Merrill (October 31, 2016). "Let's go to the videotape". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 24 August 2024. Other film-related idioms also hang on. You'll still hear people talking about "film at 11," which had its start in broadcast news: In a brief news update, an anchor would promote a story, promising "film at 11." Outside of news, it means "more details to come." (It was also an Eastern Time Zone-centric idiom, since local news would usually be on there at 11 pm; in other time zones, it might be 10 pm or 9 pm.)
  2. ↑ Kershner, Jim (April 6, 1997). "Life of Briley". The Spokesman-Review. Spokane, WA. Retrieved 9 September 2024. Think for a moment about what "50 years in broadcasting" means. For Bob Briley, 73, it means: A career that pre-dated the existence of TV in Spokane by six years. Being a TV news anchor in the days when "pictures at 11" consisted of an Associated Press photo propped up on an easel.
  3. ↑ Romano, Will (January 2, 2023). Moving Pictures: How Rush Created Progressive Hard Rock’s Greatest Record. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 81. This was a prog rock version of "Pictures at 11," or "Film at 11," an old marketing teaser designed to draw a TV audience for the late evening news.
  4. ↑ Paul, Don (June 17, 2017). "Don Paul's early career: Brutal in Bangor, promise in Wichita". The Buffalo News. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
  5. ↑ Kovalchik, Kara (25 March 2014). The Origins of 8 Nearly Obsolete Phrases, mental floss
  6. ↑ "film at 11". The Jargon File, version 4.4.7. 29 Dec 2003. Retrieved 3 September 2024.


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