p4- Understanding the design of idents

Dissection of idents-

E4 idents are a mixture of Animation and time lapse

They usually include lots of random occurrences with multiple things happening at the same time which shows that the channel is entertaining and theres lot happening on the channel.

27 seconds

the ident starts off slow but the further in it gets the faster everything moves as more things occur

this appeals to the teen audience its targeted for as it shows the audience that it is random and entertaining, matching the sporadic interest of teenagers.

this ident is entertainment lead as it doesn't tell you anything about the channel.

being in a bedroom not only matches the fact that teenagers spend a lot of time in there room and the fact that it gets so busy and energetic is saying that watching E4 can make the boring interesting.

This BBC 3 ident is a animation with a surreal setting with gunge leaking out of a pipe with little people watching and a man swimming in the gunge lasting 20 seconds its relatively slow paced with the near enough the only motion being the gunge spreading out and the man swimming.

This ident appeals to its teenage audience because its colourful and entertaining giving the feel that watching BBC 3 makes normal life a little less bland and boring

This ident being a live action, has three people getting in Beetles for a race and starting. this lasting 21 seconds is slow paced with the slow movements of the drivers walking down the steps and driving off. this appeals to the teenage audience as it shows that watching dave is for fun and enjoyment resembled in the race appealing specifically to racing fans which match "top gear" broadcasted on dave.

This ident also being live action has people running around playing cowboys and indians. Lasting 31 seconds with slow transitions between the various people having there fights eventually cutting to a fixed shot of the people going around a cowboy on a zebra. this appeals to teenagers though it being spontaneous and random.

this ident being a animation of zooming out on a plug powering a world which has BBC 3 on it lasting 20 seconds being relatively fast paced with the zoom away from the planet and the taxi driving to the BBC 3 logo, this ident appeals to the target audience by being random and entertaining.

This ident being a animation of a man-horse singing with a medieval background with a leg on a small pig . Lasting 10 seconds with fast movement of the man-horse's singing and actions. this appeals to teenagers though it being spontaneous and random.

Overview of idents-

Though out the idents there are common themes such as being generally fast paced, quite random, most of the time animated in some way and very colourful,including the colours related to those specific channels and all of the idents have a buildup before they show the name of the channel.

Though the study of multiple idents I have discovered for my ident i will require some form of animation, have a occurrence that leads to the reveal of the E4 logo and include the channel colour (purple) somewhere.

Analysis of specific ident in relation to its suite-

Throughout the BBC 3 adverts there are continual key themes, such as the ooze that flows though the pipes that make the BBC three logo, random surreal objects and objects of unusually large size.

in comparison to the other idents in the suite i imagine this ident to be used in the evening due to the fact it looks like sunset in the ident whereas in comparison the "threefall" ident looks more suited for the  morning due to the birds in it.

i expect this ident to be preceding something like "Russell howard's good news" because the show is on generally in the evening and is as some tie ins such as the random objects in transitions of sections of the show and the Tv's which link in with the news sections of the show.

T3- Understanding the design of suite of tv idents

What is a suite of idents
A suite of idents is a collection of idents. When a channel creates idents they create multiple idents, these idents usually have a similar theme linking them and as such provides variety and interests the audience.

Time and place



Suites are useful as they provide idents suitable for most content following them for example match of the day following the football ident and Sports following the bike ident.



Suites are also important to provide various idents to appeal to the correct audience such as the football and bike idents to appeal to sports fans. as well as the two idents being fitting for evening and late night broadcasting due to there dark colour and being the time which sports is normally on.



With suites there also has idents that fit any time of day such as the moon ident for late evening/night, as well as suites having idents to fit any tone like the moon ident to fit a relaxed late night documentary as well as to fit the following program in a appropriate way, for example for a saturday evening viewing audience which is usually families which the Dog ident below fits by being fun and upbeat however this would not be a appropriate ident for a program with a more serious tone to follow, i.e BBC news as they announce some crisis, because it would feel weird to have something upbeat against a serious event giving the impression that BBC doesn't suit serious topics.

With the varying subjects in the idents of the suite it provides a well rounded and varied image to the programs broadcasted on BBC one.

Seasonality and rebranding

Usually christmas idents are created and implemented every year to as well as mark the christmas holiday and to rebrand as the platform to implement the new idents for the following year.

Rebrand

Rebranding for idents can occur for a number of reasons such as; the old idents are getting dated and boring, are not relevant to the programs shown on the channel anymore and to keep the channel in the public mind.

Here as a example of a channel that has gone though rebranding:
Initial


Post rebrand


The rebrand is a massive improvement as it is brighter and more vibrant thus looks nicer as well as having a memorable gimmick (the flipping shutters) which makes the new idents and logos more memorable and enticing to go on that channel.

T2- Understanding the limitations of the television ident

Typography

Typography being the art of typed text and how its displayed, For example the type of font, its size and its colour.

For idents from big brand broadcasters such as BBC Typography can be limiting as it only allows small change in text between the many channels to keep a constant identity between them which limits the individuality of the channels to there audiences.

However this consistency with slight changes can make certain channels within a broadcaster more memorable as they see the variations quite often creating a level of channel loyalty as well as promoting a common brand identity that people can remember and associate BBC to when they see something that reminds them of the typography.
Colour
 Colour is limiting as to keep a constant brand identity every ident has to have there channel linking colour in it.




 For example E4 has purple throughout its idents this is beneficial as it reminds you of E4 when you see the colour purple and making E4 recognisable just be the colour purple. Similarly to BBC one's Constant theme of red which has the same effect. this can limit what the creators can do with idents having to require a specific colour in each ident all the time however this also allows the designers to creatively design many subtle ways to import the channel colour without it being overly obvious which creates a subconscious link of the colour to the channel.

Aspect ratio

The aspect ratio is the size of a image on a screen or monitor. For idents the aspect ratio has to be 16:9,(a widescreen resolution) it has to be this resolution as nearly all TV's in households are now widescreen.
If a ident was in 4:3 resolution it wouldn't fit on a widescreen TV leaving black space.
This has little or no impact in ident making apart from making sure the ident is high quality otherwise it will look bad on the bigger 16:9 widescreen TV's.

Adhering to a desired tone- 

Idents have multiple purposes one such purpose is to adhere to a desired tone, which means that they need to fit a certain tone that draws in specific audiences such as channel four's idents which are calm more relaxed than other idents and worldly settings, thus fitting a more middle aged audience.
whereas idents from a channel like dave are more energetic random and action focused fitting more for teens to young adults.
This is a good feature of idents as it draws in the specific audiences that the tone is set for however that also alienates the other audiences not covered in the tone, which can reduce ratings on that channel.





Duration-

Idents have to fit a number of needs and one such need is to fit in any length of time when there are breaks in program scheduling and technical errors occur. these idents need to be able to fit very small amounts of time such as 10 seconds a example of such is nickelodeon idents. additionally the idents need to be able to fit long periods of times as well when there are major technical errors from a minute up to 5/10 minuets. various durations of idents such the bbc one dogs ident which has a short and extended versions are useful to fit any situation however they can be repetitive and boring if shown for extended periods of time or repeatedly.

T1-Understanding the purpose of television idents and the opportunities they present

Identifying the channel

The most recognisable role of a channel ident is to identify the channel you are viewing.

The first ident was implemented in 1953 to resolve the identifying issue of channels posed by the broadcasting of alternate channels to the BBC such as ITV, The first ident being for BBC was nicknamed "bat wings" due to the shape of the graphic.

Organising the schedule

Idents also play a important role in informing the viewer of the next program and following programs and entice the viewer to carry on watching as they may enjoy what they have been informed is next.

Segmentation of scheduling

Idents play the vital role in scheduling to fill time between programs to promote programs, to provide a break for hosts on 24 hour shows such as BBC news which has no adverts and to fill time to regulate time scheduling on non commercial channels with no adverts such as BBC who implement various length idents to fit the amount they need to use.

Creating the correct tone and appealing to the target audience

As well as identifying the channel the ident provides the audience with information about the channel and shows the target audience of the channel creating the right tone for the channels "brand"to keep the target audience interested and allow the target audience to become familiar with the logo and style of the channel providing a visual reminder whenever they see something similar to the channels style and make them want to watch the channel.
Such as the targeted focus on young adults and teens on BBC3-



Creating corporate identity

Ident additionally fulfill the role of creating a corporate identity By creating a brand easily recognisable  by the ident in numerous countries and consistency between multiple channels under the same name enhances the status of the corporate identity of the broadcaster.

Branding for particular content

Idents also can be used to promote certain programs or events to draw views for that specific program and incite audiences to watch that channel as it may have other similar programs to the one they like that they may enjoy, advertise a channel rebranding and a new channel.