Recently there has been a rise in a new form of onscreen information in fiction television. Made famous by the BBC's Sherlock and Netflix's House of Cards, is the concept of displaying text messages on screen for the audience to see. These messages come completely separate from the phone and aren't your traditional over-the-shoulder shot that we are used to. The interesting difference between the two comes in the execution of the concept. Sherlock features the simple plain text as seen in Image 1 below. Whereas House of Cards, actually uses a text bubble which makes it feel much more directly out of a smartphone texting application (see Image 2).
Image 1
Image 2
Admittedly when you start watching these shows (and I have seen all released episodes of both), it is somewhat distracting that this information is being displayed in this fashion. Once you get a fair ways into an episode however, this technique becomes very effective. I will say that I find the Sherlock format a bit more efficient in lay out and definitely more seamlessly integrated in; House of Cards sometimes uses the technique in a more distracting fashion. Part of the reason why it is so seamless in Sherlock is that Sherlock incorporates it as a way to have insight into Sherlock Homes' mind. When he thinks his way through a problem, his many possibilities are projected onto the screen (see below). This really helps tie the technique together in a big way.
I am very excited to see how this technique of extra onscreen text plays out in the future. It has huge potential to be a great way to help tell stories. I would be interested to see how long it takes for it to jump to movies.
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