IdentsBy Nii-Larte Lartey

What is an ident?A moving image/logo that is shown before a programme starts.

Purpose What do you think the purpose of an ident is?

Idents obtain many purposes that are essential in the media:

Link to programme shown after. (Give example with video)

Make viewers aware of the channel they are watching it on.

To sell the channel to us the viewers.

To stand out from competition

Re-branding or re-packaging ident to keep up to date with time period.

Primary Research

Interviews: Here are a few of the answers I came across when doing interviews:

“Purpose for an ident is to advertise a channel and to make the viewers aware of what is going to come on next” – Mervee Tasci

“Basically to fill up time, and to remember what channel you are on. To represent the whole idea of a channel.” – Tice Mehmet

“The purpose of an ident is to tell the viewers what is about to come on the TV, and anticipates the viewers ” – Ronnie Mavambu

Focus Group: Due to my research I found out various information about idents. A majority of the interviewers claimed that an idents purpose is to promote the channel.

Questionnaires: A majority of the participants stated that idents are used to highlight the identity of a given channel. Also, promotes the channels company.

Design What does the design of an ident usually consist

of? The key points for the design of an TV ident are:

• Setting/ Time- Where is the ident set and in what time period? Is it in the past, present or future?

• Tempo- This is how fast/slow paced the TV ident is happening and can often be determined by the music in the background.

• Audience interaction- Do they interact with the audience? Does all the action happen inside the scene?

• Informative or Entertainment- Is the ident there to be informative or is it purely for entertainment purposes?

• Density- How much information is in the ident? How full/empty is the screen? How much space is there?

The ident was made for the BBC three and is roughly 30 seconds long. We firstly see that the ident is animated which instantly informs the viewers that it is non-realistic. The

initial setting of the ident it self seems to be a very peculiar one as we see it being set in a park that consists of giant boxes that have the capability of walking. Within the setting, we are also exposed to giant washing machines, plants, estates and the BBC three logo, which are all connected by swirled tubes that have some sort of liquid flowing through it. One can interpret that it symbolises the consistent ‘flow’ and energy the programmes on

the channel can bring to viewers. Due to the non-realistic features that the ident conveys, we are more likely to believe that the ident has been set in the future, as a

majority of the features don’t relate to our day and age such as: boxes with legs able to walk, oversized plants, washing machines.

The tempo of the BBC three ident is slow paced, which I personally think is effective for this particular ident as viewers can accurately identi fy what’s happening within the

ident. Music also effectively contributes with the slowness of the pace. In the background we hear slow paced mellow music that really complements with what’s being shown in

the ident as it basically creates more of an effect for the viewer.

At the start of the ident, viewers are entirely focused on what is happening within the ident as only music is being played leading us to be focused on the unusual features that

the ident contains. We are exposed to walking boxes that keep repapering as we see undersized people pushing these boxes away. With close analysis, we see that that the

box has tape with the BBC 3 information imprinted on it. One can deduce that the purpose for this is to convey how important BBC 3 is in our society and how it will always be with us; even when we abandon it, the channel it self will continue to lure us in with

more exciting new programmes. Another can infer that as the box also has post stamps, it can represent that the people pushing the boxes are trying to distribute the channel to other people. Midway within the ident, we encounter some informative interaction from a male voice who sounds happy and enthusiastic. He informs us on forthcoming progammes that are

going to be shown on the channel, which is effective as it spurs viewers to stay locked into the channel.

http://www.theidentgallery.com/bbc3/2008/BBC3-2011-ID-DCOTY-BIRDBOX-1.mp4

http://www.theidentgallery.com/e4/dec2007/E4-2007-ID-BARN.mp4

This ident is made for E4. It is 19 seconds long. The ident it self is a clever one, with a very detailed and interesting concept. The initial setting is in a farm shed that then turns in to life as

we start see a lot of movement being made by various items within the shed. We then start to see the setting being altered in to a more vibrant atmosphere, for example: changing the colour of the

wall (which happens to be very dull at first) to purple and white which are more brighter colours that can grab the viewers attention . Furthermore, we see that by changing the colour of the wall

to purple and white maintains the channels natural logo colour and uses those particular colours to covey the channel within the ident. I would personally view this ident being firstly set in the past time then transformed into the present. This is because we witness the ident in an old farmer

shed which can represent the past. But after the transformation, all the lights, colours and items display a sense of a ‘new era’ due to the fact that in our day and age compared to the past; there has been a massive change that has exposed us into modernism, which is what the ident portrays.

The tempo of the E4 ident is slow paced, which I personally think is effective for this particular ident as viewers can accurately identify what is being displayed within the ident. The music

effectively complements with what's being demonstrated in the ident. The music creeps in with sounds of birds which denotes the morning, it then moves into various sounds that are together to create the music. The music it self brings a sense of demolition due to the various sounds that are

made. Plus, we are exposed to destruction in the ident with bombs that are being thrown around,which effectively fits in with the music.

Midway within the ident, we encounter some informative interaction from a male voice who sounds happy and enthusiastic. He informs us on forthcoming progammes that are going to be shown on the channel,

which is effective as it spurs viewers to stay locked into the channel. We see that there is a link with the ident and the forthcoming programme. Within the narrators speech he informs the

viewers of what is going to come on next and tells us that a programme called “War at home” will be shown. Due to the destruction that we witness in the ident by the machine that continues to

plant bombs, it expresses the message of war which aligns with the title of the forthcoming show the narrator announces, which ultimately links.

Primary Research Interviews: Here are a few of the answers I came across when doing

interviews:

“The design usually consists of colourful and catchy images; they use various colours to represent the channel. For example BBC 3 constantly uses the colour pink.” – Mervee Tasci

“The design usually consists of something to represent their channel, such as colour.” – Tice Mehmet

“The design usually depends on what show it is, for example: when Match of the day is about come on they usually show footballers in a circle kicking the ball in the middle.” – Ronnie Mavambu

Focus Group: Due to my research I found out various information about idents. A majority of the interviewers claimed that Idents usually consist of colours to make the ident stand out as well as bold letters. It also attracts the customers.

Questionnaires: A majority of the participants stated that the design of an ident usually consists of stuff that will grab the viewers attention such as: bold letters, bright colours.

I have added two different BBC 1 idents below shown in different years. You clearly see the change between the

two.

What is the reason for this change?

History

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xOCBj_PACE

BBC one has made many alterations to their idents over the years. We see the change from 1969 till present from its simple black and white format to a use of more sophisticated colours. This is due to the use of high-level technology in our today’s society.

Moving images have now been put in place, especially with BBC 1 using the shape of a circle as a constant motif. This is effectively done so that viewers can easily memorise the channel, and also to represent unity and togetherness in our society.

4 Ident

The design of the ident is an effective element to create a memorised and unique picture for the viewers. One of the main examples of this is the channel ‘4’ ident; whilst the camera is moving, we see that they use parts of the surrounding to merge in to a ‘4’ logo. The setting is situated in Tokyo which shows a very busy environment. The narrator announces a forthcoming programme that will be shown that is based on “kung fu fighting” which happens to be a very distinguished segment within the Japanese culture. This brings a link between the two and allows it make the viewers think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R94X1M7r1SU&feature=relmfu

Thanks for your time