10
votes
Is there a terse way to say "movies and TV shows"?
I often wish to refer to both "movies and/or TV shows" in a sentence. I wish to refer only to movies, or only to TV shows, much less often. Is there a word that could mean both? If not, should you create it?
And yes, that is a silly, inconsequential, pedantic preoccupation about language. What can I tell you? I have lots of those. I am what I am :P
I think "media" is basically shorthand for movies and TV nowadays. I know it technically includes books, comics, etc. — but I think most people use it to refer just movies and television.
You could also just not specify TV or movies and just say something like, "Watched anything good lately?"
There is the term "audiovisual media" or "AV media" which is sometimes used in the industry.
It can sound a little pretentious in casual conversation, of course. Or something entirely different.
"What are you planning on doing this evening?"
"I think I'll catch an AV or two."
"Uh. Sounds painful. Please use protection."
Then again, just like moving pictures became movies and talking pictures talkies, maybe AV media could become... avies?
I think the line between film and television has now been sufficiently blurred that "I think I'll watch some TV" works in the specific scenario you highlighted.
I vote that we bring back the term “talkies.”
This may be nothing more than a quirk of my familial or regional vernacular, but when I say "show" by itself, which is distinct from saying "TV show," it can sometimes mean broadly "TV show or movie."
Such as, "what show are we watching."
I suppose "show" could also cover live performances.
It's not a great answer, but it's the only thing that came to mind.
'video'? or perhaps 'cinema'?
How about “motion picture”? The Motion Picture Association is a trade group for movies, tv, and now streaming services too, despite it originally solely representing the movie industry. And despite the term ‘motion picture’ generally referring to just movies, I think it actually suits encompassing all forms of video based entertainment/media the best.
Content? You have theater content, streaming content, broadcast content, primetime content...
This is how i refer to both. But I like to vary my language, so depending on mood, context, audience I’ll say things like “pitcher show”, “flick,” “serial,” &c.
Film media, even as few people use physical film anymore.
Maybe "visual media"?
In fairness, "film & TV" is already pretty short.
The Canadian Screen Awards are given to cinematic, television and web series achievements. I think they are sometimes referred to as "screenies". Maybe we could borrow that term and start to refer to films and television as "screenies".
"Films", after all, no longer have much to do with "film", while many (most?) watch "television" on devices that are not "televisions". Meanwhile, it feels like both types of content require screens. At least until we move onto holodecks.
And when I say "both types of content", I'm not actually sure what I'm saying, exactly. The lines between "television" and "film" are quite blurred these days. Is a Netflix film a "tv movie" or just a "movie"? And as I understand it, superhero films have multi-film story arcs, while James Cameron is releasing his quintillion Avatar sequels, presumably telling a larger story. Putting budgets and run times aside, these sound a little like "series" to me.
I suppose a "film" could be called a stand-alone screenie, while a "tv show" would be a serialized screenie.
Or if a TV series is a novel with chapters, a film is a short story. So, screenies and short screenies?