An ident is the image that we see on the television in the background whilst a starting program is being introduced, or when the channel is running through what programs are still to come. An ident can take different forms, it can either just be a logo ident playing on a loop (the More4 logo), or it can be with the formation of the logo being played out in a story (E4 and Channel 4).
Case Studies
Channel 4: Channel 4 is one of the only television channels that that doesn’t have its own programs produced – instead they screen the programs that have been produced by other companies. The man responsible for producing channel 4s first ident was Martin Lambie-nairn, who has also made idents for several other channels, and is seen as an expert for these creations by many people. He created an image of a 4 that is made up of different parts, to represent the way that the channel brings together all sorts of different programs, for different audiences. The same idea remains in the present Channel 4 idents, but they are presented more as short stories than just a short showing of a ‘logo’. To watch a collection of Channel 4s idents please follow this link - http://www.theidentgallery.com/c4-2004.php
BBC4: The BBC 4 channel is unintentionally aimed middle-aged viewing bracket. It features a lot of documentaries, discovery and history programs. The majority of the younger generation refer to these programs as being ‘boring’, whereas older people (and the producers) see them as being very insightful, educational and somewhat relaxing. The aim of the BBC was to present an ident that was a visual to their motto – ‘A place to think’. Their collection of idents are based upon this motto - such as their ident that features the seagulls in front of a sunset, and the lake with the repetitive ripples visualising the ‘relaxing’ aspect of their channel and then the gigantic book shelf showing the thoughts and the knowledge that the channel could give to the audience. To watch a collection of BBC4s idents please follow this link - http://www.theidentgallery.com/bbc4-2005.php
E4: The E4 idents try to create the impression of a young, vibrant, creative and fun channel. Their idents consist of little random animations, the actions in which result in the E4 logo being created (such as being made by an anteater or by Lego blocks). Purple is always the main colour that is used in these idents. To watch a selection of this channels idents, you no what to do - http://www.theidentgallery.com/e4-2007.php
Sky Arts Brief: The Sky Arts and Sky Creative channels are hosting a ‘student’ competition – they are looking for current students or recent graduates to design a 20 second ‘Sting’ (or ident) for their channel. Here are the rules/requirements:
· The sting is to be created using any desired medium (stop frame animation, hand drawn cells, live action filming, photography, 3D animation).
· The entries have to demonstrate the characteristics of the Sky Arts channel.
· The sting must contain the word ‘Arts’ in the style of their logo.
· The submission must have an original soundtrack – it can not include any commercial music tracks or samples – if commercial tracks are included then the submission will not be eligible.
· All of the work submitted must be the entrant’s original work; the entrant will be disqualified if any of the submitted work has copyright belonging to another person.
Plymouth College of Art Ident
Working with Michelle we decided that we wanted to create our ident as a zoetrope animation. Even though we decided on our medium, it took us ages to some up with an actual idea of what to draw onto the zoetrope, but after having a talk with Tim about this we decided on a ‘comic style’ explosion, with the required text being written in the centre of the explosion, and increasing in size as the drawings progressed. Instead of making the usual 3D zoetrope that contains the slits in the side, we used a very simple mechanism that consisted of our drawings being drawn around the outside of a looped piece of paper that was then placed on top of a turntable. The camera was positioned to the side of the wheel instead of over-head, giving a more 3D result.
