Opportunities and Limitations of TV Idents.
Opportunities: There was a time when there was only a few TV channels, at this point the channels didn't really have any competition or feel the need to put themselves above the rest and idents weren't really needed. But as television grew in popularity so did the amount of channels, as the numbers grew the channels realised that to get the ratings they wanted they would have to distinguish themselves and start a brand identity. Idents were a great opportunity for the channel to give themselves an identity or a personality. They could chose to use anything to sell themselves to their desired audience. They have the chance to communicate their values and show their audience what they're all about.
Over recent years the number of channels has increased faster than ever, this has once again changed the way idents have been produced, before when there was only a few channels the channels that did exist were broadcasting to a very wide audience and had to use their idents to sell themselves to the general public as a whole, but nowadays we have channels like MTV, Eden, and BBC 3. All of these having more of a niche target audience for example BBC 3's Idents are more colourful and include more animations, are brighter, more fun and they also use more humour because they're aiming them at a younger 'cooler' audience who will appreciate them more than say a typical BBC 1 viewer. Eden's idents are nature based as the channel predominantly shows documentaries on the subject of planet earth and nature. By making idents for their ideal audience they also create brand loyalty, when the viewers see the idents and enjoy them they'll realise that they're aimed at them they will be more inclined to tune in to that channel without specifically turning over to watch a programme they will think 'BBC 3 will have something good on'.
Being eye catching and grabbing the viewers attention is also a good opportunity, idents nowadays are nearly always slightly louder than the rest of the adverts and programmes and idents that use a lot of colour and sound effects work well for this, a lot of people just put the TV on for background noise or just out of habit. With idents that are eye catching they remind the viewer what channel they're on and what programmes are on or will be on in the hopes that the viewer will become interested in what's on. With the advances made in technology over the last 30ish years ident have also become increasingly cheap and quick to make which makes the ident more worthy of spending time and money on so the quality of idents have increased.
Limitations:
There are limitations to producing idents also, with idents only being between 10-20 seconds the designers making the ident have to communicate the brand and the channels values to the desired target audience in that time using predominantly text and graphics without making it seem to crowded or long winded, this gives you an idea of how hard making a quality idents actually is. On top of that the idents have to be visually pleasing and designed well which shouldn't be a problem if its branded correctly and to the right audience but if its not it can have a very negative effect on the channel and the brand loyalty i mention earlier can be lowered, for example if BBC 3 started using the same style idents as Eden a lot of the viewers would be confused and probably not impressed, they wouldn't feel like the programmes are made for them and lose interest and maybe even stop watching the channel all together. Some of the limitations are less obvious like the difficulty of translating graphics and text on to TV screens as not all fonts will translate well making the text look pixelated or broken up, the same goes for some colours, some are prone to noise or appear discoloured so some colours are avoided, the aspect ratio of the idents can also be a problem. Most idents are designed for a 4:3 ratio but not everyone will be watching in that format, a lot of TV's nowadays being HD and wide screen use a 16:9 ratio which means the design will show differently either stretching the ident or squashing it in. Using a lot of text in idents will also have to be considered because as soon as they make a heavily text based ident they're limiting your target audience straight away with people from other countries or people who can't read well not understanding the ident, if they want to show their ident internationally they'll have to translate the text which takes time and money.
The history of BBC 1's idents.
The BBC first displayed a logo during the break between programmes on 2nd of December 1953. The logo's purpose was to identify the channels service, it was a black and white shot of the BBC's first television symbol, it was given the nickname 'Bat's wings'. The bat's wings was actually an image of an elaborate mechanical contraption built by Abram Games, the model featured a small spinning globe in the centre surrounded by two spinning 'eyes' with lightening flashes to either side. Not long after the original ident was filmed the model broke and by the 60's the bat's wings were surpassed by a new ident which featured the 'BBC tv' logo in a circle with a map of britain behind it split into the BBC's broadcast regions.
'The Globe' A new ident was released on 30th september 1963 which first featured the now iconic globe image. This ident was also the companies first to include a continuity announcer speaking over it. In 1966 the globe was reincarnated in another ident known as the 'watch strap globe'.
On the 15th of November 1969 the BBC started transmitting in colour, so they decided to change the ident again this time introducing the 'mirror globe' and had the word 'Colour' included in the ident, doing its job and identifying the new feature. 1974 saw the mirror globe ident change as they chose to change the typeface of the name 'BBC1', they also removed the 'Colour' because it was no longer new news and the colour scheme changed from blue on black to yellow on navy blue background.
1981 and the globe was changed again, the typeface being change yet again to the double stripe BBC1 which was below a green globe on the same navy blue background.
In 1985 BBC1 launched their first computer generated ident, titled 'The Computer Originated World'. Computer graphics had improved and following the success of BBC2's electronic ident it was released on the 18th of february. It featured a translucent blue globe with gold continents and 'BBC1'. The same gold text was then also used for trailers, slides and promos, something they hadn't done before and something that really helped bring the whole brand identity together.
'The Virtual Globe' followed in 1991. It was designed by Martin Lambie-Nairn's branding agency who had other success in idents also designing channel 4's original logo. The virtual globe was played from new laserdisc players and had no soundtrack. This was BBC1's first ident containing a sort of abstract element, at first glance the sphere may not look like a globe but land masses can be seen in the globe and their shadows can also be seen in the background of the ident.
'The balloon' debuted on the 4th of October 1997.and BBC1 continued with their slightly abstract theme with the balloons design being the globe keeping with tradition. They filmed the balloon over various landmarks in the UK and on a few occasions they filmed other places during special occasions for example there was one filmed over Sydney Harbour during the 2000 Olympics.
2002 and 'Rhythm & Movement' was released after a new controller, Lorainne Heggessey, believed the Balloon idents were boring, slow and dull. They decided to go with a multicultural theme and the Globe was, for the first time not included in the idents at all, instead circles featured in the idents in place of the globes. The channels logo also changed at the same time to BBC with ONE written underneath in a red rectangle. The rhythm & movement idents showed people dancing at various locations to different music styles. The idents proved unpopular with some people claiming they had tried too hard to be politically correct and made too much a point of it, and others were just upset at the globe being abandoned after so long.
The 'Circles' idents were released in 2006 and are still in use now, they still follow the red colour scheme just not as much which in my opinion was a good move. The rectangle in which the logo was is now gone with the logo always in a circle made by different things in each ident. The theme of circles is a link to the globe icon that proved so popular over the years.
E4 - http://theident.gallery/player.php?id=E4-2013-ID-CARAVAN-DELEVINGNE-1
The first ident I've chosen is the E4's 'Caravan Delevingne' one. It has a lot going on in it and isn't like any other ident I've seen, it's set in a caravan park. The camera pans around showing things like children playing in masks, a man pumping a paddling pool up, a couple trying to fix their satellite. The camera then passes by a Caravan with the name 'Caravan Delevingne' A good play on words that their target audience would appreciate with Cara Delevingne being a very popular model especially with the young adult age range. A purple robot with the E4 logo on it is cooking food on a bbq, next to a sign, also purple which says ' I kissed a grill' The robot with the logo is good for the brand identity reminding the viewers what channel they're watching. The same goes for the purple sign, people will associate the colour purple with the channel and the quote on the sign, another play on words again appeals to the target audience with it making a joke of Katy Perry's lyrics, Katy Perry being a popular recording artist for teenagers and young adults. In the background there is a man in speedos spray painting 'JEDWARD FOREVER' on the side of a caravan, yet another bit of humour that their desired audience will appreciate; older people may not know who Jedward are but young adults unfortunately will all be aware of Jedward. I think this is a good ident and accurately shows the type of channel they are. They show a lot of comedy programmes so including humour in their ident was a good idea.
Good Food - http://theident.gallery/player.php?id=GF-2009-IDENT-STIRFRY-1
This ident is a little simpler but still fairly fast paced, it shows a couple out shopping for fresh ingredients before cooking a stir fry. The pace needs to be fast to show the couple going from shopping for the ingredients to eating the finished food. It's obviously intended for their target audience of food lovers. It's filmed nicely and edited well as well. There is a clear colour scheme going on as nearly every shot has the colour green in it somewhere. This could be an underlying message trying to get a natural or healthy feel across which would be beneficial as they are both seen as positive things. It then cuts to the logo which is made to look like a tomato, again that works well as the channel is called Good food and a tomato is good food. I also noticed to green colour scheme continued as the logo is on a green background.
GOLD - http://theident.gallery/player.php?id=GOLD-2012-ID-1
GOLD's ident starts with only their logo on a white background which is a good start as the viewers will have no choice but to notice the logo which is good for brand recognition. A boxing glove then hits the logo and starts a cartoon style chain reaction of contraptions which kind of reminds me of kind of slapstick comedy with the boxing glove and the iron weight on the rope. This works well as GOLD is a comedy channel and the letters stand for 'Go On Laugh Daily'. You see in the background the channels strap line 'Stick something funny on' several times again which is good for brand recognition. And finally it zooms out and the logo returns to the centre of the screen for the end.
NatGeo Wild - http://theident.gallery/player.php?id=NGWHD-2013-ID-1
This ident is fairly simple with the blue, icy looking typography being the only thing to catch your eye at first. It reminds me of an arctic scene as there is wind audio playing in the back, the shot starts to zoom out and the background image and colour of the word 'Wild' starts to change to a rainforest style with the sounds of insects and birds now playing behind it. It changes once more while continuing to zoom out this time the background is the fur of a Bongo, (a type of antelope). It changes one last time as the background changes into a big leaf. All of the images shown are very relevant and works well for the target audience who will obviously be lovers of all things wild.
Sky Movies Disney - http://theident.gallery/player.php?id=SKYM-2014-ID-DISNEY-1
On the 28th of March 2013, Sky Movies Disney was launched. On their first anniversary they released this ident. First I'd like to say how well I think the panning cinema sort of effect works really well as its for a movie channel. The ident pans around what seems like a never ending scene packed with countless Disney references with characters or iconic pictures from Disney films are shown. This is a very good idea and will obviously appeal to the target audience; if they're watching Sky Movie Disney they will appreciate the Disney characters on screen. 55 seconds in the logo appears, the sky movies logo is the same as usual but with the Disney logo incorporated in, once again I think this works well as the Disney logo is instantly recognisable.
Bibliography:
BBC 1 Idents - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_BBC_television_idents
Oppotunities & Limitations - http://jude-hodgson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/opportunities-and-limitations.html
http://naomibillington.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/opportunities-limitations-of-tv-idents/
5 idents - http://theident.gallery/
