Successes and failures of TV
Idents:
Idents
are small advertisements that market a channel. They both have
opportunities
and their limitations. Some opportunities Idents have are the ability to
brand
their TV channel and appealing to their target audience. They do this by
showing images and playing music that can be used to attract a certain
target
audience. Also Idents are able to identify a personality of a channel.
Some examples include E4 showing a load random props like toys to show
to show the channel as quirky and that its aiming for a younger target
audience.
Some limitations that must be thought of when designing a ident is the resolution and the quality it will be seen when being seen on TV or on-line with websites such as BBC I player or 4OD. It is important that the quality looks right and has a clear picture on screen, especially when its an ident by UK TV Gold when it has a lot of detail and bright colours, some examples include E4 and the Sky Movie channels. Which include loads of moving images and bright colours seen through out the ident.
Some limitations that must be thought of when designing a ident is the resolution and the quality it will be seen when being seen on TV or on-line with websites such as BBC I player or 4OD. It is important that the quality looks right and has a clear picture on screen, especially when its an ident by UK TV Gold when it has a lot of detail and bright colours, some examples include E4 and the Sky Movie channels. Which include loads of moving images and bright colours seen through out the ident.
These
opportunities and limitations show that are different cases of successful and
failed TV idents. The first example I will be discussing is the idents made by
UK TV Gold, specifically their currant ident and one of their idents from 1992.
The reason the older ident is unsuccessful is because barely any information
about the channel is being shown to the audience. All the ident includes is a
man washing a cup in sink, with close ups of the cup. In short no information is being told or shown to the
audience and it doesn't interact with them in anyway. The reason this doesn't
work is because in the ident nothing interesting is happening on screen so it’s
not appealing to a target audience or getting people interested in the channel; not to mention that the actions on screen, the slow tempo and the not very interesting use of time of space (locations of setting) just make the ident very dull to watch.
The current UK TV Gold ident from 2012
on the other hand, it does try to appeal to a target audience
who would be interested in the comedies UK TV Gold broadcast. The ident
does this
by including images that known as comedic or related to comedy. These images include : sticks of dynamite, wind up teeth and
a boxing glove on a spring. All these images are seen multiple times
through
out the ident to identify the channel as a comedy channel. The ident
also uses bright colour density on the props and text to make the channel look
more appealing look at, and to catch the eye of younger viewers. Also the phrase "stick something funny on" is shown
multiple times through out the ident in order to identify the channel as a comedy channel by
informing the viewer their content is funny, in a way it is interacting with the viewer by telling them what their content is, in this case it's comedy. Also the tempo is very fast pace with one action happening straight after another. This is effective because it keeps the viewers interest and attention fixed onto the ident on screen.
Here’s
another example of a more successful ident from one of the BBC’s current idents, this one is entitled BBC
One Kites Circle from 2012. The
tempo is
very fast paced in terms of editing, music and the images being shown
and
moving on screen. The editing uses a lot of quick cuts of the kites
flying very
fast in the air with the people below running behind them, this is being
shown
with some load upbeat violin music being played over the top. This has
been
done to appeal to a younger audience by making the channel seem exciting
and
lively with the people having fun with the kites and the fast paced
editing. This ident is successful because it gives the audience a
understanding of the channels personality as fun and active, it also
shows the channel is aiming for adults because the ident has adults
featured in the ident itself.
However the BBC Bollywood ident is unsuccessful compared to the kite ident is because this ident is really vague about target audience, personality etc. The ident does help identify the colours of the channels logo which is red and white, which are the outfits of the dancers on screen. This ident does also show it is lively with the dancers and it focuses on topics around the world as seen with the Indian dancers and the Bollywood theme. But this ident isn't too helpful in terms of identifying the target audience for the channel. So it isn't helpful in terms of identifying the channel to the viewer and isn't giving a lot of information about programming that they broadcast.
However the BBC Bollywood ident is unsuccessful compared to the kite ident is because this ident is really vague about target audience, personality etc. The ident does help identify the colours of the channels logo which is red and white, which are the outfits of the dancers on screen. This ident does also show it is lively with the dancers and it focuses on topics around the world as seen with the Indian dancers and the Bollywood theme. But this ident isn't too helpful in terms of identifying the target audience for the channel. So it isn't helpful in terms of identifying the channel to the viewer and isn't giving a lot of information about programming that they broadcast.
The
current ident for Sky Movies Premiere is really successful because
it identifies all the different styles and genres of programming that
they broadcast. This we can see from the ident showing a short five to ten
second long scene in a different genre such as western, fantasy or
costume drama. This also makes the ident interesting for the viewer to
look at because each scene has their own different style with the ident
having a huge range of tones and a large colour palate with each style
blending smoothly into each other, as the camera pans across the screen. The ident also helps to attract a
large range of people by showing that Sky has a large variety of
programming that can appeal to people who enjoy some of different genres
featured in the ident. While this ident uses a lot of pretty imagery to
attract the viewers attention, it does use the images to tell the viewer
about the channel itself and that's why this ident is
really successful.
However one of Sky's older idents from 1998 still has the nicely detailed and includes the colourful images happening on screen, it is unsuccessful in terms of information that the channel gives to the viewer. While the ident does have a cinema counting screen like the ones that would be seen in beginning of a silent or old film, that is the idents only image to connect itself as a channel about movies. The imagery does use the bright colours to attract the viewer along with the loud grand sounding music, But it doesn't give any information to the viewer about what is being programmed or even a personality to the channel. That's why the ident is unsuccessful due to the lack of information told to the viewer. In short this ident can be described as style over substance due to being more aimed at attracting viewers, rather than informing them about the channels content.