Assignment 2 Task Three – Ideas Generation

I have design a suite of three idents for the tv channel E4 and have used the theme of games which i have create them around. The effect of having games as the theme is that this still allows a range of ideas to be used. Each of the idents are different in the type of game that they show, For the first one i chose the game operation and is a classic game that everyone knows. For the second i decided to do tug of war which is a more outdoor game. The final one is a Jack in the Box and is a child's toy. This theme is appropriate for the channel i have selected because the channel shows idents that are random and by having this range of games fits into this category. Another advantage of having games is that i would be able to create some for the a variety of seasons and events.

This idea is asking the classic game 'Operation' and applying it to the E4 logo where the 4 is the object that is being removed. It starts off with an over view of the logo and then changes to a shot of what the logo is looking at, which is a heart beat monitor. After this shot the camera will then go to another over head view and a pincher will appear which is the instrument to take out the 'E' in the logo. As the pincher goes to grab the logo the outside lights up, similar to the nose of the game in operation. after this the camera will go to the monitor and again and the E4 logo will appear on it and then it will flatline.

This ident is taking its influence from tug of war with the E4 logo being at the center. The logo will move from left to right as though it is being pulled and then at the end of the ident the logo gets stretched and rips with a little E4 logo coming out of it and dropping onto the floor.

This ident is taking the jack in the box but changing the clown that pops out it will instead be the logo. This idean is simple and is just a handle turning with the music of 'pop goes the weasel' playing and the logo will then appear. After this it the logo will fall onto the floor tip ver with the camera changing to the top view in order to get the whole logo on screen clearly.

Assignment Two Task Two – Market Research

In order to gain the market research, which will allow us to decide on what form ident appeals most to the target audience. To do this we gathered a collection of ideas from a similar channel which appeals to the same type of audience for us and showed them to the audience. The idents that were chosen were from BBC Three and from different suites. The reason for doing this is to see what key components should be left out or included for the ident I will create.

The first video that was chosen is from BBC Three between 2003 and 2008. This suite of idents showed characters which were slugs standing in front of a large "Three".




The second suite went for a more random approach which was colourful and lively. This ident went from 2008 to 2013



Th final ident revolves around blocks rotating and moving around to create pictures and the logo. This is the newest ident.




After showing the focus group the idents a few times we then proceeded to asking them questions about what they just saw.

The first question that was asked was "Which one did you prefer and why?" Asking this question will allow us to pinpoint the type of ident people enjoyed the most so that we could avoid the less popular ones and try to include the parts that people liked. The following are the answers that were given:

 a) I preferred ident 3 because of the interchanging people.

 b) I preferred ident 2 as it was more interesting than the other idents.

 c) I preferred ident 2 because there was more to look at onscreen.

 d) I preferred ident 1 as it was simple and easy to remember.

 e) I preferred ident 1 as it had humour and was different to conventional idents.

 f) I preferred ident 2 because I enjoyed watching the dancing people. 

From looking at these answers, the second ident was the favourite. The things that people liked most about it was that it was more interesting and there was a lot on the screen to look at. This means that when making the ident it would be best to include movement and make it interesting. This can either be done by suspense or including lots of things.

The second question that was asked was "What was the main thing that caught your attention?" This was to pinpoint specifics that they liked such as colour, sound and movement. The answer to this were:

 a) Bright colours and fast paced
 b) The little animated people
 c) The colours were vivid
 d) Little creature stood out
 e) The red blob on blue background
 f) Neon colour, lots happening

By analysing these answers the two main things that people liked were the bright colours and contrast between the colours. This means that including a contrast along with bright colours would be ideal in order to gain the best effect on getting the audiences attention.

The next question that we asked the audience about the idents was "Which was your least favourite and why?" Avoiding things that make an ident non appealing is just as important as finding what works  best and this is why we asked this question. The answers are as follows:

 a) My least favourite was ident 1, I thought that it was a boring ident

 b) My least favourite was ident 1, It had no real purpose or meaning behind it

 c) My least favourite was ident 3, I couldn't tell what was supposed to be going on 

 d) My least favourite was ident 3, I don't like the way the images moved around 

 e) My least favourite was ident 2, I didn't dislike it, it just wasn't my favourite

 f) My least favourite was ident 1, It was plain and simple, not entertaining

The least favourite overall was the first ident which was the slug talking and the reasons for this was that it was boring because it was simple and wasn't entertaining. By looking at answers to the other questions also the reason for it being bring was that there wasn't any movement or bright colours.


"Did the sound on the idents match what was happening?" was the fourth question which was asked and the reason for asking this is that sound can be a very important factor in how much the ident will draw the attention of the audience. Although this is a difficult question to be able to interpret into our own idents if will allow us to reference between the least favourite and see whether the sound can be linked to why it was their least favourite. Answers this question were:

a) I think that the sound went well with all of them

b) I think the sound matched although ident 1 should have had sound

c) The sound in ident 2 matched what was happening

d) I thought that they all sounded good

e) Ident 1 was boring and could have had sound

f) The sound in ident 3 matched better than the others

Ident one once again came up being the worst and this was because they thought the ident should have had background music and more sound which made it boring. This shows how in order to make my ident as good as it could be is to include music that will correlate with the movement. This means that if the movement was fast paced then the sound would have to correlate with this.

Assignment 2 Task One - Target Audience Research - survey

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Assignment 1 Task 4 Understanding the design of idents

VIVA

 

The ident that i'm reviewing in the video above is the first one called Knievel and is an ident from the channel VIVA. This ident shows a party scene with young adults in the backgarden of a house. The camera slowly moves to the across the swimming pool to reveal a person on a bmx jumping into the pool. On the bmx there are sprinkler like fireworks on the wheels. All of this is live action and is shown in slow motion. The music in this this ident consists of drums and guitars and is rocky.

During the there is very little information present other than the name of the channel that it is appearing on. Looking more into the contents of the ident however it shows that the channel is for youth because of the young adults partying and the style of music that is on. The party atmosphere along with the BMX at the end represents that it is a fun channel. 

This ident only lasts for about 11 seconds and although it is in slow motion the tempo of the ident still feels as though it is fast and this helps to appeal to the targeted audience of youth because it is exciting. This slow motion sets the tone that the audience should enjoy every moment and they would be able to do that by watching their channel. This ident is entertainment led which means hat it designed to be something good to look at and is not very informative and gives the impression that it is a very entertainment based channel with little or no programming that is informative. 

E4

In this ident for E4 it is made from both live action and animation with objects appearing from the ground and walls. It starts off with a normal room and then grass coming out of the chimney and other random objects appearing. The design of this ident tells you that the channel is very youthful and who a variety of programmes. This is because of the bright colours and the content which is very random. The ident lasts for 30 seconds and is quite slow paced but with multiple things happening at the same time which is able to create the feeling of it being face paced. The music is contrasting to the images because it is almost like classical and calm music where as the video appears to be faster paced and also frantic due to the many things that are happening.

This ident attracts its intended target of teenagers by being very random which sets a tone of fun and happiness. This randomness appeals to the younger audience because now days teenagers have a lower average short attention span and this means that usually things with a story not appeal to them so creating something which is random will keep their attention on the channel. Because the ident is very random this means that that  the ident is entertainment based because it does not provide any information but is there for entertainment purposes. This random and colourful ident gives the impression that the channel shows a variety of programming because of its randomness and that it also shows comedy programmes because of the things that are included in the ident such as a teddy bear falling off a sofa and sheep in party hats.

In this ident the camera tracks along a set of storage lockers through different shots and similar to the ident above random things then appear such as a deer's head and boxes where home appliances then come out from it. The music is also random with it starting of slow and quite but then gradually picks up a bit of speed with more instruments joining in such as a string instrument and is slightly electronic but whilst also sounding natural. Another similarity with the other E4 ident that I have shown is that it is a mix of live action with the camera going around the storage lockers but is also animation with the teddy bear and drum that rolls out of the van. This ident shows the audience that the channel is random and also shows a comedy because of the humour that is shown in it with the teddy bear falling out of the box and also the random microwaves floating out of the boxes. It last the usual length of an ident which is 30 seconds and is shown in full on E4 most of the time and also gives enough time for all of the announcer to announce everything without being rushed. Again, the tempo of the ident is hard to tell because of the slow camera movement, increasing speed and depth of the music but the rapid randomness of what is happening on the screen.

This ident attracts the teenage audience because of all of what is happening on the screen in a short amount of time and with the shorter attention spans of the teenage audience now days with the screen changing often and new things appearing it will be able to keep the attention of this target audience. This ident is very entertainment based with no information being shown on  screen but instead is just full of random things. Overall this gives the impression that the channel is aimed highly at the youth audience but is also open to other age groups.

BBC Three

In this ident there are a group of small animated people that meet in what appears to be a round about around a pair of large blue high heels. After a few seconds once all of the people have conglomerated  in the centre they then start to dance in unison to in the style of what appears to be the dance to thriller or similar to. The music has a strong beat and is also a bit electronic which is the style of music that is currently hip for teenagers and is also engaging. This ident is full animation which is good as they are able to give it a bright colour palette and also have things which would not be possible to do in real life such as a person falling out of a building or a 200 ft lipstick. The only information that this ident has is the channel that you are watching. This ident lasts for 21 seconds and is more on the side of being fast paced because of the music and the way that the taxis are driving fast. This ident appeals to the audience because it is random with the shoes in the centre and also the way that all of the pole start to dance in the middle. it sets the tone that this is a random and funny channel. This ident is entertainment led and gives the impression that the channel is not a serious channel in terms programming.

In this ident a puddle of ooze is ebing leaked out from a pipe that a car has crashed into and the a person then appears out from the puddle as though it is a swimming pool with a group of poeple surround the pool and looking. The music in this ident is electronic and is not very fancy. It is a constant sound with the note changing and fluctuating in strength. This whole ident is animation and only contains he channel name so that the audience are able to see what channel they are watching. This ident lasts for twenty seconds and has a slow pace to it as not much happens. It appeals to the audience because it is very colourful and is also random which appeals to the younger audience. This ident is entertainment based and gives the impression of it being a hip channel which shows interesting and funny programmes.

2. After investigating at least five existing idents you must write a summary of your research:

After viewing a range of idents from different youth based channels i have been able to have a look for similarities and differences between them. The main thing that all of these idents had in common was that they are all random in what is included in them. This is seen by the animated teddy bear on E4, the giant lipstick on BBC Three and the BMX jumping into the pool on VIVA. They also have electronic music elements within all of them whether it is subtle or the main musical genre for the ident. 
         Now that i have been able to view and analyse other idents from E4 and similar channels i have managed to gain new information for what i would have to do when creating my own ident for it to appeal to the target audience. One thing that i now know would be suitable to do when creating my ident is to make it random as this is what all of the other idents i have seen are. Another thing is to add electronic style music because this is what is listened to a lot and is also on every ident that i have seen and listened to. Having the channel name or logo somewhere in the ident is also a good to have because the audience can identify the channel they are watching and is included in all of the idents in some form.

3. You must now take one of the idents that you have analysed and collect more idents in that suite

I have decided to have a look and compare the idents from BBC Three and look at what the suite has in common with each other. The way that all of the idents look is similar throughout all with them being cartoons and having a bright colour pallet. This appearance of the ident is easily recognisable as belonging to BBC Three because they all look similar. The key theme to this suite is the miniature characters that are seen around the setting and also get up to shenanigans.

Throughout all of these idents they all contain the key theme of miniature characters, whether it dancing, bungie jumping or simply standing there, they all contain this theme. One difference between the idents is the main background colour, with some being darker and therefore better to be shown later at night and some that have a brighter feel and colour which would be shown earlier in the day. All of these idents seem to have an appeal more towards a younger audience around the age of 16-21. However there is not an actual target audience in terms of gender as all of these idents have a neutral colour scheme with not one colour being overpowering in all of this suite.  there is also no activity which the characters do that is focusing onto one of the genders.

Assignment 1 Task 3 Understanding the design of a suite of television idents

When a channel creates new idents they are usually created as a suite of idents. A suite means a collection with a theme linking them all in some way. The single theme that is kept throughout the suite is used so that the channel is able to maintain or create a new brand identity. The reason for why a number of idents are created is because an ident usually as a specific time and date at which it is able to be shown. This is because depending on the time of day and the content that is being shown a particular ident will be best suited for its tone and the contents of that ident. 

One suite that is very good is the circle idents by BBC in which the current theme is the use of circles within it. One of these idents is a group of dogs performing tricks in a bright green field and running round in a circle. This ident has a certain time where it would be most efficient in setting the right tone for the audience and this would be on a saturday night before a family programme. This would not be a good ident to show on tuesday afternoon before a serious drama or horror as it would set the wrong tone for the content. Other than the content of the programme there is also a certain season on which it would be best as it would not look right in the winter because of its brightness and warmness.

Another ident in this suite is the pedal power in which a group of people on bikes pedalling and generating electricity for a circle of light bulbs. This ident was created and used mainly before the show "Bang Goes The Theory" and this is an example of an ident being placed before a certain show to set the right feeling for the audience for the upcoming programme. This ident has the feel that it is being aimed towards older children and younger adults because of the way that it is shown as exciting by the people working as a team. Other times when this ident would be suitable would be before an informative or scientific programme but not suitable to be showed before a horror or very late at night because of its high energy and playfulness. The season which i would most likely place this ident would be in the spring or summer because of the setting in the woods and the hay. This ident gives the impression of the channel being scientific and educational.

This ident is also a part of the BBC circle ident and for the most part will appeal to men more if following the stereotype of men liking sports and girls don't. If there was any time of day that this would be suited to it would most likely be around the evening because of the over all colour of it which is darkish which means it would look out of place throughout the day or morning when it is light out. This ident does not appear to have a specified time of year to be shown but if i was to say one then it would be during the summer because it is a sport which is being played and is mostly placed during the summer. Although this ident has a time in which it would be most effective it would also be very ideal to be showed before a televised sports game such as rugby or football or even a sport based programme. This ident shows to the audience that this programme is very lively because of all of the movement and is also good for showing sports.




All of the idents above have a common theme running throughout which is that they all contain a circle within them. Some of these idents have created the circle by using animals or people moving about which gives the impression that everything ends and starts with BBC and that it is also a well rounded channel that shows a variety of programming. The other ident uses lights to create the circle. 
In a suite of idents there are always idents that are created for the purpose of being played during a specific season, christmas being a large one. This gives the channel a sense of eventfulness and is a good way to get the audience to be excited for the season and is also a good chance to promote christmas shows that they will be showing.

Assignment 1 Task Two – Understanding the limitations of the television ident

Typography

For some idents the typography is the main feature which makes it recognisable. For a creator of an ident the typography will usually have to be kept the same because if it was made different then the ident and the brand would not be consistent. This is one limitation as it means the creator has to adhere to a certain font and therefore limits their creativity. Although there are limitations to having to maintain a certain typography in an ident this is also able to be seen as a positive because it is able to give the creator an idea of what the ident is meant to look like and also keeps the corporate identy of the channel. The BBC maintain the same font throughout their channels with the exception of CBBC, Cbeebies and BBC Three. However they change the boldness, size and the capital letters to make them slightly different whilst still keeping the brand identity. Because the BBC font is ket the same this can mean it is boring and also simple.

Colour

Similar with typography, the colour of an ident is important because this will usually be the first thing that the viewer will see and draws them in and also lets them instantly know what channel they are watching. A good example of colour being a main feature is in the BBC as they have multiple channels and the main thing that distinguishes them is the colour used. This is a limitation for an ident as they are limited to using only certain colours and these are usually a single, bold colour. The ident for E4 for example has its colour as purple so this means that the creator is limited to having to make that the primary colour of the ident and therefore may be unable to add certain things which are not this colour like red for instance as this is a completely different colour and will most likely confuse the audience as they would not be expecting that colour and may think they are watching another channel and would also break the brand. There are positives to having to stick to a certain colour in the ident and this is that the brand will stay the same and also the creator is able to have an idea of what can be put in the ident. In the video below it shows a few of the idents that have been used by E4 and they all have purple has the primary colour and are still random so have to been effected by the limitation of having stick to a certain colour.

 

Size

For idents, it is required to have an aspect ratio of 16:9 as this is the size for wide screen. The reason for this is is that now days almost everyone has at least one wide screen or HD TV and this is the ratio that they use. If an ident is made in a lower aspect ratio then when shown on the television then some of the footage will be cut off of the screen so the audience will not see all of the ident and therefore not be efective. Although this is not really a limitation as most people that make the ident will have created it in 16:9 anyway. It has very little impact on the way that the ident is made and what is able to be placed in it.

Duration

An ident has to be limited to a certain duration and this is because they are only shown for short amounts of time such as 20-30 seconds. This means that if an ident is made that is 3 hours long then this will never get shown. This can be thought of as a limitation because the creator has to include all of the information such as the channel and also keep the colours and typography the same. This is also a positive because it means that they will not get carried away with the creation and keep all of that information in the short space of time.






Adhering to a desired tone

Have to adhere to a desired tone by the channel is very very important for an ident because this lets  poeple know what kind of programming is shown and sometimes the target audience. For a serious channel the ident will be a colour that is not too bright or childish such as a bright pink or yellow but more like a blue or green and this will give the audience the feeling of matureness and that it is professional. This is similar to the font that may be used as a childish font would not be suited to a channel that shows serious documentaries or politics shows. The limitations to this is that the creativity of the creator may be stifled as creating an ident for a serious channel there would not be much room for any surreal things such as teddy bears on a boat that is sailing on sand and one falls off and can not swim. The real positives come when designing one for a less serious channel such as BBC Three or E4.

Assignment 1 Task one - Understanding the purpose of television idents and the opportunities they present

The ident was first made in 1953 by BBC and this was because with the introduction of new channels such as itv channels then needed to distinguish themselves from one another and the way they done is is by creating idents. The first ident used by BBC was nicknamed the "Bat Wings" due to its similarities to a bat wing.  As time went on the idents for these channels did along with it due to new technologies being introduced. One f the most famous idents from BBC is the globe that was used in 1963. The why the ident was the most effective way of achieving the goal of distinguishing between different channels was because they were able to be used at any point during the broadcasting of the channel. 

Apart from being used to show the audience they were watching a certain channel they were also used for organising  the schedule. This means that during the time of the ident there could be a voice over or added information to the ident to tell the audience what programmes are going to be shown on that channel, usually what the following three programmes are going be shown. At the time this was very important as there were not the technologies of today to be able to see what programmes are going to be shown. Another reason for telling the audience what programmes are going to  be shown is was to also try and entice the viewer into continuing to watch that channel. The ident is the ideal time to organise the scheduling as this is a time when the only information that was previously shown was what channel the person is watching and nothing else so including this information meant that it made full use of the time. Below is an example of BBC Two introducing what the next few programmes are going to be on so that the audience are able to know in advanced and also hopefully be enticed to continue watching the channel. 

Idents are also able to provide other services, especially for BBC channels as they do not contain any advertisements  This other use for idents is for the segmentation of the schedule which means it enables a chance to use up time between programmes in order to keep the programmes starting at the right time. This is useful because a typical programme will have a half hour time slot however will not be on for that whole thirty minutes so idents are used to make up for the remaining time. For the BBC an ident will usually last for about a minute however is rarely played for the entire length but is made to be a minute incase there is a need for extended information to be told or if an error has occurred at the studio and they need to cut to something. Below is an example of a full length ident which is the length most actually are however the the one underneath that is the length that is typically found on BBC but is useful to have the full length one to hand incase of emergencies. 

Now days creating a cooporate identity is important due to the fact that channels are now no longer only shown in one country but instead can be transmitted world wide. This corprate identity is able to used both on and off air which means that it could be used for merchandise such as DVDs. This means that on the box of a DVD which belongs to or is shownon BBC then a logo will be put onto the box inorder to  show the corprate identity. A corprate identity usually brings with it a brand that is recongisable to the public. Making a brand in this way means that people are likely to become loyal to that brand and threfore channel. The cstomer will know that there is a certain standard of programming in from this channel which they are able to rely on and without this brand they are unlikely to get this kind of loyalty as the public would be less likely to know what programming belongs to what channel. Below is an example of what the BBC logo is on all DVDs and this gives the public a brand to look for when buying an official BBC DVD and is able to be recognised around the world.

   

The content of the ident is very important to think of when creating it. The reason for this is because it gives the audience an idea of content is shown on the channel. Sometimes people may not know what kind of programmes a channel shows and use the ident to get an overview of the stye of programming. One example of this is on BBC Four whos idents are consistantly mature showing a flock of segull flying or many bookshelves and a librarian. Without knowing the channel from viewing these types of idents the audience would be able to guess that it is a mature channel which shows informative programmes. These kinds of idents would not be suitable to a channel which shows sports as it will give the audience the wrong idea of the sort of programe it is. As you can see from the video below this would not be suitable for a sports channel as it does not have anything to do with sport and also would not reach the target audience.

Included with giving the audience a quick oversight of what programmes are shown on a specific channel the other side are people that know the channel and watch it regularly the ident will need to appeal to the target audience and the poeple that are loyal to the channel. If the audience expects a channel that is fun and appeals to teenagers then having an ident with a classroom and people learning would not be suitable so therefore not appeal to the target audience. instead it would be colourful and random. An example of this is BBC Three whos main colour is pink as it is bright and fun. Not only is this feeling given through the visual but also the music that s played as it sounds electronic which is hip and now which will entice the target audience for this channel.

If a channel is known for a specific programme or genre or show an event then this is likely to be shown in the indent. One thing that some channels do that are in this situation are to package the entire genre that they specialise in or the specific programme to show audience and let them know that they show that programme, genre or event. An example of this is on BBC which shows a new series of Strictly Come Dancing and this is only shown on that one channel. The whole ident is about Strictly Come Dancing and this helps to promote the show without mentioning it and therefore getting the most out of the time with the ident. This is an example of a channel packaging a eerie in a subtle way by showing glitter balls which are used during the show. This is also an example of how an ident can be used as a marketing opportunity to promote a show.