Task 3 - Understanding the design of a suite of television idents

When a channel create new indents they try to create more than one which can be used at different times before different TV shows this is a suite. All indents in a suite are different but they all have similar features. This is important to keep  a brand identity so the audience recognise the indents as part of that brand. A suit is made up ofm several idents that all have all some link. This means that audiences will see this conncetion and know what ident it is without seeing the logo kepping with the brand identity. Haveing a suit provides interest in audiences because it gives diversity but has a linking feature.


Channel  4 Ident Suite

The Channel 4 idents all follow the same features to form this suite. All idents feature the number formed by abstract urban land scape in some form. These include hay bails in a field and buildings in New York. These idents are used to appeal to there audiences. The idents are targeted towards adults. Channel four is predominately aimed at adults with most of its programs being targeted at adults. The image of the normal objects juxtaposed withe the logo in abstract positions. The logo always features the objects forming the logo to keep brand identity between the logos helping audiences recognise that it is channel four.  The ident is made like this to increase interest in audience because the image at first looks cryptic then forms the channel four logo. This is done to spark the audience interest and make them want to see where the logo will form. 

The ident changes to fit different time of day. In the morning a bright sunny ident is used matching its family friendly shows whereas at night the idents are more night themed with shots of night. This is done to match the time of day so the idents are not out of place.  Two examples of these are the New York Sky scarpper ident for day time and the drive though cinema at night. Both follow the same theame but one is more approt Channel 4 idents are all entertainment themed, all including bright colours and light-hearted neutral images. This is done to match programming that the channel shows because most of the programming is light hearted, but also hard hitting documentaries. Due to the range of programming the idents have to be neither too light-hearted nor too serious so they can be put before any program. This is done so the idents know what sort of programming is going to be shown, so audience can make the decision weither to watch the channel. The time of year also affects idents. This can espeaclly be seen at Christmas with the idents fitting in this the images. Audiences are interested how the idents will include the logo, this is no exception at Christmas. There also needs to be a variety of idents to keep up audience’s interest because repition of idents gets boring. An example of the Christmas, so they use neutral images that can be fit anywhere., is the snowman and snow dog ident.  This ident includes characters are art style from the squeal of the Christmas classic. This done to keep audience interest because they will recognise the characters, so will enjoy it more. 

The suit of channel 4 idents are trying to portray the message they are a adult themed, with neutral themes because the channel shows a variety of programming so the idents need to be neutral to fit with whatever program is on at the time. The idents are effective in showing this neutral style because these idents are used at anytime and do not cause a confusion between programming and the ident as they would if they did not match. The ident neuateal style can be  in the hay ident. The ident dose not include shocking or entertining images  §making it fit in the neautral style of the  suite. The idents all do not have a unique style which would only fit certain programming so they can be used anywhere. The length of indents varies between them. They range from 30 senconds-50 second’s. 

Task Two – Understanding the limitations of the television ident

When creating an ident there is a lot to consider. This helps to come up with a successful ident. There are a lot of limitations that needed to be considered before it is produced. This is This is so a ident that will be successful in keeping the audience interest when they are watching the channel.

Typography

Typography is the text in the ident. Mainly it is the font, size and clarity or the text. This is important because the text is the main feature of the ident is the text, which shows which channel the audience is watching. This all is important for the audience because it shows the channel, if it were unclear they would not know what channel it is. The positive of Typography is that it is the main part of the channel so if it is attractive for the audience they want to view the channel more. If the typography fits the tone of the channel. If the typography was genre appropriate the audience will enjoy it making appealing. Also typography for one channel will be used to create a brand identity .In a brand with more than one channel the typography will be similar. This will mean it will be part of the brand making it recognisable to the audience meaning they would recognise the ident from another channel and watch that channel keeping brand loyalty. The negative to typography is that it is hard to be original. This is because there are many indents already out there so it’s hard to come up with a new ident. Also in a brand you have to stick to the brands identity so it hard to be creative and create a different image. This means that the audience might get bored of seeing the same ident with different colours. An example of this is channel 4. Channel 4 e4 more 4 and the other 4 channels all feature the four in different styles and fonts but ultimately feature the same feature meaning that it hold the brand identity making it recognisable to audience as being part of channel 4 meaning they are more likely to watch it if they like channel 4.  But because they all have the 4 it is hard to be creative and make drastic changes making them look similar to each other.

Colour

The colour is a important part of the ident. The colour will be feature both in the ident and logo. This is important because it is one of the first features they see atheistically. This is important because the colours attract the audience to the ident making them more interested in the ident. The positive to colour is that channel has a certain colour that always features I the logo and ident. This means that the audience recognise that is part of that channel so it keeps brand identity. This means that they recognised as part of that channel and want to watch it. This is important to the audience so they know what channel it. The negative to colours is that you have to always include the channel colour. This means it is harder to find ways to include that colour. This means it’s harder to be come up with ideas because you need to find a way to include that colour. Also it s harder to be creative and original because you have to include that colour so it is harder to make different one than what is already out their. This causes the audiences to be less interested because the idents because they all look similar. An example of this is Tlc. The TV channel Tlc idents all includes the colour red. This is because the logo is red. This red keep the brand identity meaning the audience will recognise it and associate the red will that Channel making them want to view it. But the creators can't be too original because it has to include the red making all the idents look similarly causing the audience lose interest.

Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio is import when making a ident. Aspect ratio is the size of the video when it is on screen.  It is important to any film project because it makes sure that the video is not too small causing black bars or too big so it goes off screen. The audience do not want to see big black bars on screen and they want to see everything on screen so they understand what is happening on screen.  The audience will not want to watch a channel if they cannot see what is happening. The positive to aspect ratio is that it give the film makers idea where to put everything on screen, so they know what can be see and have an idea what can fit. This is important also to the audience because they need to see everything on screen with out it going off screen. Also it means that the creator can see how much room there is the screen is not over crowded. This is important so the screen is not too packed distracting from what is happening on screen. This is important to audiences because it dose not look packed or distracting so they don't pay attention to what is happening. A negative to aspect ratio is that there is a certain space that everything can fit into ,so not everything might not fit on screen which means that something’s might have to be taken off screen.

Adhering to a desired tone

Adhering to the desired tone is important when making an ident. This is important because each channel have a different tone and has different tone, so when creating a ident they need to fit each criteria. An example of this is on a kids channel they will have bright colours, shapes and fun sounds, whereas a news channel will show more serious images like the globe and parts of the news. The tone has to be appropriate so the audience wants to watch the channel, because if the tone is wrong (e.g. a scary one on a kids channel) will make them change channel. This will make the channel unpopular. Adhering to the appropriate tone is positive because this means you have an idea of what can be use. There is certain things that should be included in an ident for a certain theme channel (e.g. dark and scary tone on a crime channel). This makes it easier to come up with an idea. This appeals to the audience because they know what to expect when it comes to an ident so it is easier to make it popular. A negative to adhering to a desired tone that the creator cannot be creative. This is because they have to fit in that tone so they have to include only certain things in the ident. The creator cannot do anything they want in the ident because the channel has a certain tone so it has to have certain features (e.g. a home channel should have homes and furniture in the ident). Another negative is the when adhering to the tone the idents will start to look similar because there is only so much you can do. Which means that all the idents will lack originality. This will cause a loss of interest in the audience, which will mean less people will want to watch the channel.  An example of this is Dave. The idents usually include adult themes including alcohol. This is because the channel is for adults from 20s up especially men. This is done to appeal to the audiences of the channel. 

Duration

Duration of a ident is important thing to be considered. An ident needs to be long enough if it is need to cover a big time back but it needs to also be able to shorten it for a smaller time gap. In TV there are time slots that are quite long for many different reasons including early show finishes and the audiences do not want to watch a black screen leading them to change the channel, so an ident needs to cover that space so they don't change the channel. Also if the gap of time is quite small due to reasons like over running show times an idents needs to be smaller to fit this gap, so the idents need to be able to be shrunk down to fill the small gap. If the ident was too shorts there would be gaps which will bore audiences and increase the chance of the audience changing channel. If the ident was too long it would overrun and take up time for the show on the next show making the audiences miss parts of this show or a later show. The durations of an ident is a positive because you can set the time of the ident to cover any gaps that appear between the shows so there is no black screens. This is important for audiences because it keeps their interest especially when the ident caters to that audience. A negative to duration is that when creating the ident it has to  fit in a certain space of time, so some ideas are not possible meaning it is harder for the creators to come up with ideas for idents. Also the idents need to have a repetition. When making the ident the ending needs to be repeated, this makes it harder to come up with ideas because they need to be repeated. This repetition also makes it boring for the audience because they keep see the same images repeated. This might make the audience bored and want to change the channel. Also the repetition of the ident might bore the audience when they watching that channel. An example of duration of a ident is the neon lights ident. The short ident lasts 15 seconds whereas the long ident lasts 24 seconds. The long ident is used when the gap is long and vice versa. These idents are appropriate because when they are on screen there is a repetition which means it can be lengthened tor shortened, also there is something happening in the ident so the audience do not get bored.