Purposes and Design of TV idents Task 1b

An Ident is a short motion graphic animation sequence that is used by Television channels to brand and identify themselves. Idents often help to create visual communication between the channel and the viewer. For example, Idents visually help viewers to identity the channel they are currently watching. This often done by including visual representations of the content in which the channel provides. Some television channel do this by combining both camera footage and animation. 


Purpose

Identity: Branding 

Television idents can serve many different purposes. As stated before, Television idents are created, firstly, with the purpose of giving the channel an identity in order for the specific channel to stand out from all the others. This is done in the hope of attracting more viewers. This is connected to the importance and purpose of branding through the use of television idents. Idents are designed in a specific way that represents the specific television channel. This is because  short, unique and creative idents are designed to incorporate everything  that the television channel represents and what it wants to portrays itself as to the audience.It is for this reason that idents are designed with specific colours and graphic visualisations in mind. All of these factors, ultimately represent the channel’s identity, and also suggest to the audience the kind of programmes they can find on this television channel. The ident below is an example of an ident which serves the purpose of branding the TV channel.


Funimation Channel ident

This is the 2012 ident for Funimation Entertainment TV. As you can see, the purpose of this ident is to create an identity for the channel. The ident uses both 2D parallax animation and CGI animation. Funimation is known for broadcasting English dubbed and subbed Japanese anime shows.They also broadcast live action Japanese shows and Western cartoons. The content that Funimation provides is mostly anime related and is aimed at teens and young adults. This is reflected in the ident, as you can see animated speech bubbles and various Anime iconography and conventions (0:02- 0:04). This creates interaction between the audience, because the audience in which the channel is aimed at, will be able to easily know the type of content the channel provides. This ident reinforces the identity/brand and tone of Funimation, which is about having fun and immersing yourself in fictional world. The fact that the ident starts off with the logo in space, further solidifies this point. The ident itself, uses a variety of colours. The main colours that are used are black, white, purple and blue. Black and white is the main colour scheme that funimation uses to brand their channel. It is also the colour of the funimation logo. This suggests that these specific colours were used in the ident for brand identity purposes. Purple and blue are also used. in Japanese culture, Bright, neon colours are typically used to create hyper-realism. Colours such as Blue and purple in Japanese culture, represent adventure,enthusiasm and energy. These colours were used to create and reinforce the tone of the channel. The colours were also used to represent the cultural aspects of the channel.

 The ident includes the logo of the TV channel,it also includes the slogan "You should be watching". The background music creates a Sci-fi feeling. This further reinforces the notion that  Funimation wants the audience to "immerse" themselves in a fictional world of anime.The tempo of the ident is quite fast and there are a lot of effects and fast transitions that are added onto the funimation logo. It is also important to note the duration (Time) of the ident, which is 7 seconds. It can be argued that the tempo and duration of the ident, has been specifically made to be fast paced and short to keep the attention of the viewers,who are likely teens and young adults. This is because teenagers are known to be easily distracted. The tempo, duration and density of information of the ident suggests that it is entertainment led. Short idents are more likely to be used to catch the attention of the viewer rather than to give the viewer information. 

Sky Sports 1 ident 2015


This sky sports 1 ident is another example of an ident used for branding. As the name would suggest, Sky sports 1 primarily provides content that relates to sport, specifically English football. The ident is telling the audience what channel they are watching and what type of content to expect from the channel.The fact that the sky sports 1 logo is shown, within the ident, further reinforces this idea. The voice-over in the ident also says "home of football" (0:07) which tells the audience that the channel is about football. The colours of the logo, Red and Blue, connotes the idea that the channel represents UK sport. Red and blue are colours that have long been associated with the UK. The tempo of the ident is very slow. This has been done to highlight the importance of the moment that is shown in the ident. The ident shows the losing spurs team in a huddle,strategising in the EFL cup semi finals. Team huddles are often seen as iconic and memorable moments to fans. This gives the channel a intense tone. The sky sports logo has been positioned in the middle of the screen, to grab the attention of the viewer. It has also been done to remind the audience of the channel they are watching. The logo also fades in slowly, to intensify the team huddle moment. The Duration (Time) of the ident is 17 seconds. Because the purpose of the ident is to remind the audience of the channel, it is very short. The ident is information-led, because there is a voice-over, telling the audience what they are currently watching. The ident creates interaction with the audience, by using the sky sports logo, which is recognisable to them. 

Purpose

Marketing 

Another purpose of television idents is for marketing. By creating an ident, a television channel can than place these at the starts and ends of television programmes, as well as during the advertisement breaks. This is a marketing technique that can be used by television channels, to help remind the viewer about what channel they are watching, but to also advertise the identity and branding of the channel to their current audience. This is because the branding and identity, represented through their ident, may appeal to the viewer, and this will therefore result in the viewer most likely returning to the channel to watch other programmes because they like the identity of the channel, and will most likely like the types of programmes they air too. Also, television idents can be especially useful when a channel is airing a very popular programme, and the ident will tell the audience what channel they are watching, because it is possible that many people may have turned onto a specific channel to watch a specific programme. This provides the television channel with a great opportunity to advertise and market this specific programme to a large, and most likely diverse,audience. This allows the audience to  become familiar with the channel and its’ branding, and are therefore more likely to watch the television channel more frequently. The ident below is an example of a ident used for marketing purposes.

Sky Cinema ident (Stars wars: Force Awakens promo/ marathon) 2015

Sky Cinema is a channel that airs blockbuster films. Therefore, most of the content that is shown on sky cinema is related to movies. This particular ident is promoting the star wars film franchise. It is also promoting the partnership between Sky and Disney (Who own lucusfilms and star wars) The ident uses clips from different star wars movies and inserts them into the sky cinema logo. This is done to tell the audience what channel they are watching and what content to expect. The tempo and speed of the ident is slowed down to draw the audience's attention to the movie clips. The clips within the logo are the most important part of the ident. This is because they are recognisable and they tell the audience straight away what to expect. Doing this creates interaction with the audience. The ident does not add any specific colours. However, the ident uses clips from different star wars movies that include the colours red and blue. This could relate to the fact that Sky's uses red and blue to brand their channels. Sky Cinema is also a UK channel. As stated before, Red and Blue are colours that represent UK. 

Towards the end of the ident, the stars wars theme can be heard (0:20) and the stars wars logo is merged with the sky cinema logo.This highlights the Sky and Stars Wars marketing partnership.to the audience. The reveal of the actual logo is quite cinematic. This is done to convey the tone of the channel. The duration (time) of the ident is 30 seconds.Like the sky sports 1 ident above, the logo in this ident is placed in the middle of the screen. The positioning of the ident draws the audience's attention. In terms of density of information within the ident, There is a lot of visual content. The visual content used (movie clips and logo) are so recognisble to the audience that a voice-over isn't used within the ident to tell the audience what they are watching. This is something that can be linked to Sky's branding. The ident itself is entertainment-led but gives the audience information using visual communication. The Logo reveal at the end visually tells the audience that they are watching sky cinema. 

Purpose

Scheduling: Segmentation within scheduling 

Another, and final, main purpose of television idents is for them to help form the scheduling, and segmentation within scheduling of the specific television channel. The design of the ident represents the identity and branding of the channel, and therefore the types of programmes it shows on the channel. This helps to create the kind of scheduling the television channel will have by the ident representing the kind of programmes the channel will show to the audience. However, the scheduling and segmentation within scheduling is usually created in an ident via the voice-over. This voice-over informs the audience of what programmes are coming up soon and, for example, the voice-over may also announce whether the channel has any new programmes coming onto the channel, and the voice-over will help influence the audience to watch such things by announcing the times and dates of such shows in order to keep the audience aware of the scheduling and segmentation within scheduling through the voice-over of the ident, and this will also hopefully advertise the channel and its’ programmes even more.

Therefore, it is extremely important that a television ident serves all of its purposes, in order to make the television channel and its’ programmes more successful.The ident below is an example of an ident used for scheduling and segmentation. 

Film 4 stairs ident (Thriller)  2014

(Ident with voiceover: https://theident.gallery/player.php?id=FILM4-ID-2014-STAIRCASE-1)

This is an ident for Film 4; the channel produces contents aimed at teens,young adults and adults .The channel content mainly consists of  films. Film 4 uses a suite of idents. A suite of idents are idents that all have a similar theme that links them together. Having a single theme helps to maintain/brand identity, which is useful because it's less complex than having a lot of themes. In the case of film 4, each ident includes the logo and reflects the genre of the film that the viewer is about to watch. This is done by using a typical location and prop that a particular genre would use. For example, the location used in this ident above, is a location that one would typically see in a thriller movie. Not only does this ident reflect the genre of film that the audience is about to watch, it also reflects the content and theme of the actual channel (Brand identity). The ident is moving as if it is a strip of celluloid film. Celluloid film is widely recognised as a symbol or iconography for the film industry and films in general. Therefore, having a ident move in such a way, only reinforces the idea that this channel's identity is about films. In a way, it can be argued that this ident shares a similar purpose to the funimation ident, in that they both visually convey the identity of the channel.However, this particular ident differs in the fact that it is being used for segmentation of the schedule. The duration (Time) (30 seconds) of the ident further solidify this notion. The on-screen tempo of the ident starts off slow and then builds up quickly (0:06), Almost like a Celluloid film animation. As mentioned, before the ident itself, has characteristics of a Celluloid film strip. This again, puts emphasis on the tone of Film 4 as a TV channel.

 

The positioning (space and time) and colour of the film 4 logo is important as well. At the beginning of the ident, the logo does not appear. However, as the ident starts to move (0:05) the logo begins to appear. Again, this is something that relates back to the Celluloid film strip concept of the ident. The position in which the logo is placed, allows it to catch the attention of the audience. It is placed in the center, which is known as the "natural field of view".The only colour that is prominent in the ident is red. Similarly to Funimation and BBC One, the Film 4 ident incorporates it's brand colours. Red is the colour that film 4 uses to brand their channel. This ident is information led, rather than entertainment led. This is because the ident includes a voice-over which is providing segmentation within the scheduling of the channel. The density of information on screen isn't that much. The reason for this could be because of the voice-over. The voice-over already tells the audience what is coming up next. There's also the fact that the ident itself, uses visual communication to tell the audience what they are about to watch.

Purpose

Marketing: Packaging and Repackaging

Television idents are also created for the purpose of packaging and repackaging the channel. For example: if there is a change in the branding, identity or even the types of programmes a specific television channel shows, idents can be used to symbolise a change in such things to the audience because idents can be reasonably quickly made to represent the new identity, branding and new programmes that a television channel my now be showing. Television idents therefore have an important role in packing or repackaging a channel and what they represent, by simply changing or altering the channel’s idents.  Television idents are also used for packaging and repackaging the channel depending on the time of the year. A television channel may have one main ident, but they will then repackage this and create an ident similar to the original ident but just slightly different so that it suits a certain time of theme. For example: an television channel may want to create a specific Christmas ident that is shown on their channel over the Christmas period and between Christmas television programmes. The graphic designers who create the ident will then take the main original ident and repackage it a little so that it incorporates some Christmas themes. Therefore, the audience will still be able to identify what channel they are watching it because it has some of the same elements of the original ident, but then they will also be able to tell that its Christmas and that this channel probably has a Christmas themed schedule with Christmas themed television programmes due to the additional Christmas elements that have been added in order to repackage the ident. The ident below is an example of repackaging.

BBC One ident

This BBC one ident is important because the ident focuses more on the visual representation  which encourages brand loyalty and which idents do currently. whereas before idents would just have simple text and display the name of the channel.  Branding is important because the channel can sum up the whole personality of the ident.