Tuesday, 3 June 2014

T1 - Be able to produce a television ident to a brief





 I used several of the editing tools available to edit the footage and create my ident, these include the razor to cut the unwanted footage and the pen tool to add points to change the music volume gradually.







I used the 'Clip overlays' toggle button to add the pink line in the audio timeline and be able to use the pen tool effectively.



To transition from the pool table to the 4Music logo I used cross dissolve by following Effects > Video transitions > Dissolve > Cross Dissolve.

Wednesday, 19 March 2014

T5 - Pre-production planning































T3 - Ideas Generation

I have designed a suite of 3 idents following the theme of Pubs/Bars. This works well with a music channel as music channels are played in bars regularly and can also advertise going out to the pub, giving mutually beneficial results for both. They can all be manipulated to be used around christmas by adding some tinsel, spray snow, decorations, and christmasy music.



The first Ident features a fireplace, after a few seconds a 4 can be seen in the flame. This can be repeated as often as necessary or faded to show a flaming 4Music logo.
 This second Ident follows the front of a bar showing several taps with various drinks available, before showing a drink called 4music on the last tap. The camera focuses on this last tap and zooms as the screen fades and shows a 4Music logo.





The last Ident in this suite shows someone playing pool in a pub knocking the balls from random placements into a 4 which then darkens and shows a 4Music logo as diegetic bar noise quietens, and non-diegetic music starts.



T2 - Market Research

As I have chosen to create an ident for 4Music, the target audience is teenagers and young adults.
I have created a survey to find out how people react to current idents and what they would to see from a new ident on 4Music. This survey is published to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HSLCRPY.



Click here to take the survey


Survey responses


1. Watch youtube.com/watch?v=C4-D8U3oTBw And then rate it on a scale of 1-10.

1  -  0
2  -  0
3  -  0
4  -  1
5  -  0
6  -  3
7  -  2
8  -  1
9  -  0
10 - 0


2. What did you enjoy about the Ident? Why?

-The flashy light
-The guys beard
-guys dancing
-Its very appealing
-The music
-The car makes a nice focal point
-Bright colours, catches your eye immediately



3. What does the Ident tell you about 4Music?

-They play up to date music
-They want to appeal to the majority
-That its an interesting channel
-Its up to date, kinda urban
-They appeal to mass audiences
-They play up to date music








4. What did you dislike about the Ident?

-The lack of things going on
-Lack of background ambience
-Lady was a bit over the top
-It may be a bit too long
-The woman was a bit over the top
-The colour scheme
-The music just isn't what i listen to
5. When would you like to see a new Ident for 4Music?

-Morning - 0
-Midday - 1
-Evening - 4
-Night - 2
















From the Target audience survey, I discovered what peoples thoughts were about a current ident. They rated, between them, around 6, which shows that they didn't hate it, but would most likely want to see something else instead. 

Friday, 18 October 2013

T1 - Target Audience Research

As I have chosen to create an ident for 4Music, I need to work out the target audience for this channel. To get this information I have set up a survey for people to answer, I will also hold a focus group asking similar questions. This will help me to get  more qualitative response compared to the survey.



Click here to take survey

The responses from the survey


Q1 - Do you enjoy watching music video channels such as VIVA, 4Music and MTV?
      - Yes  6
      - No   1




Q2 - How many hours a week do you spend watching these channels?
      - >2   3
      - 2-4  2
      - 4-6  1
      - 6+   1

Q3 - What genres of music do you enjoy listening to?
      - Pop
      - Rock
      - Rock
      - Everything...except Rock
      - Indie, Pop
      - Rap
      - Alternative Rock

Q4 - What kind of setting would you like to see in an Ident?
      - Urban       5
      - Rural        1
      - Coastal     0
      - Industrial  1



Q5 - What is your favourite season?
      - Winter     4
      - Spring     0
      - Summer  2
      - Autumn  1







This shows that the majority of people who watch music video channels spend less than 4 hours doing so, and enjoy more rock music than other, "up to date" music thgat would be expected to be seen on music video channels. I also learned that my target audience would like to a wintery urban ident. 

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

T4 - Understanding the design of idents



This ident shows a plug winding around 2/3 rings and plugging into the 4Music logo, lighting it up. Each of the rings shows a different area of christmas, the green ring shows the traditional christmas tree, the blue shows pine cones and the yellow shows presents. The design of the ident tells us when it should be shown, the dark background suggests that this would be an evening ident with the logo being like a christmas tree and lit up at night. This ident lasts 13 seconds and is quite fast paced as a result. And it appeals to audiences with the use of bright colours and christmas theme, a holiday celebrated globally. Its most definitely entertainment as most people know what channel they are watching and tells you the channel at the end of the ident. It gives me the impression that they will be celebrating christmas in the form of music.



In this christmas ident, we see people doing generic things that are done at christmas time, such as wrapping presents, writing cards and drinking and eating mince pies. There isn't a whole lot of information included to tell us about the channel other than that they will be playing christmas songs over winter. The ident lasts 28 seconds which should be long enough for the majority of program information. The onscreen tempo mixed but mainly very fast, with shots changing within a few seconds of each other. It appeals to the viewer by offering a happy and cheerful place to listen to christmas during christmas time, and is entirely entertainment led using the image of a modern christmas to appeal to a mass audience. This gives me the impression that the channel, like most channels, celebrate christmas.



This ident for MTV Hits features different blobs moving in tune with the music, mimicking various dance moves. The ident doesn't reveal the channel name until the very end, with each lasting around 10-15 seconds. The onscreen tempo for each ident changes but is generally fast paced and uses this to distinguish between genres and channels with the use of different styles, for example, in one ident club music is used whereas in another soul is used to appeal to a different audience. These idents are more entertainment based but don't miss out on the opportunity to advertise the channel. These idents give me the impression that this channel will play a mixture of popular music.



This ident for 4Music shows two people dancing around a petrol station and the design tells us the channel through the distinctive pink and white colour scheme. It lasts about 30 seconds of fast paced dance and music to appeal to a younger audience. It does this as well by using a particular type of music and dance. And again this ident is mainly entertainment led but still tells the viewer where they are. I get the impression that this channel would show a lot of current and mainstream music.



This suite of idents show several parties through the viewpoint of a snowglobe which then gets shaken up. The design tells us what time of year it its and that MTV will be showing christmas-ee stuff. Each ident lasts around 15 seconds and have a speedy tempo. It uses different types of parties to appeal to a different viewer base; the first uses a rocker party, the second uses a generic party to advertise MTV Hits, and the third uses a club to appeal to that audience. The idents are mostly information based to show which MTV channel the viewer is on through the use of music and having the channel name onscreen for the majority of the ident. It gives me the impression these channels play a variety of music between them.

Summary

A common theme throughout the idents is the use of movement, and how the music in the background fits the visuals and can be manipulated such as in the MTV snowglobes idents. Common key conventions used are bright colours, animation/animation-like movements and a sense of humour. Elements I need to include in my ident are humour and manipulation of the diegetic world (either with time or animation).

Suite analysis



These idents are part of the Snowglobe suite used by MTV over christmas 2009. The others fit in with the rest of the suite by showing the view of a club/party through a snowglobe that gets shaken up. It is different from the rest in the suite by the setting and the channel it was used for as well as the audience it is trying to appeal to. I would expect the ident to be shown at all times, maybe more likely to be seen at night or in the evening. And to appear next to a program about music or after/before a song.

Friday, 20 September 2013

T3 - Understanding the design of a suite of television idents

What is a suite of idents?

A Suite of idents are a collection of several idents that are all linked by some theme. This provides a variety of idents to choose from and makes it more interstin for the audience to watch. As well as maintain the channels theme or create a new brand identity in the case of a new channel.



Time and place

Having this variety of idents to choose from ensures the right type of ident appears next to the right program content, for example, a positive ident wouldn't be appropriate next to something such as "The Godfather". It is also useful to have different idents for different times of the day.





Re-branding a channel

New ident suites can help to rebrand a channel and change the image affiliated with this channel. This has happened recently with more4, who have changed from a mature channel with documentaries  to a more open ended channel.




 These 3 idents are part of the same suite for BBC1, and all use the theme of circles. They don't really appeal to a specific audience, unless its appealing to circle enthusiasts. They aren't aimed at a specific time of day but may be used before certain programmes, such as the hippo ident would be used before a documentary,  and the footballers before a sporty program. They're intended to be used throughout the year, and convey no particular message about the channel.

The 3 idents used the theme of circles in different ways, the 2 lower ones use live action, whereas the hippos are likely more CGI than entirely live action.