First page on storyboard.

Sketch of the hero

 This is one of the designs for the E4 logo. This design was used, are character is green with a red cape to represent it as a hero. 

Set design.

This was to put our ideas down on how the set was going to look. It also state what would be happening in the background and what materials we would uses.  

OFcom is also an independent regulator, who has been given full regulation power from the UK government (Communications Act 2003).  OFcom do not just base their work on advertising.  In December 2009, the day of its formation, OFcom inherited responsibility of five regulatory bodies:

• The Broadcasting Standards Commission,
• The Independent Television Commission,
• The Office of Telecommunications (Oftel),
• The Radio Authority and the Radiocommunications Agency.

If complaints are made against any of these areas, OFcom will inform the company that changes will need to be taken in place, so that a similar situation will not happen again.   Ofcom also have the power to approve and disapprove UK broadcaster’s codes and guideline, if they feel that they do not fit the standards.

Our Idnet will come under the Broadcasting Standards Commission and the Television commission.

Regulations and Our ident.

We cannot contain/portray the following out E4 Ident:

• Inappropriate language.
• Acts of violence.
• Curtly to animals.
• Curtly to children.
• Sexual scene or nudity.
• Sexism.
• Racism.
• Bullying.

Our ident should just promote the channel in a fun and youthful way.

How our ident will relate to the target audience?

Our ident is to represent the fun and youthful element of the channel. The target audience tunes in to E4 to mainly watch comedy, as the majority of the programming touches the genre in one way or another, so our ident will relate to this element. The target audience our ident is aimed at is 16+ and anyone who enjoys comedy. It could also attract people who are interested in Stop Motion animation and Lego fans.

On the hierarchy of needs chart our Ident will come in at Self- actualization, because it is creative and lacks prejudice, as it is make believe synopsis and setting.

For our ident we will need a jungle themed sound as it will go with the setting.  Or we could use a modern track that the target audience can relate to.  We would need to get permission from the artist and the company to be able to use a track.

There are many website that provide free music, for example, Freeplaymusic.com. but it still asks that if you want to use their music, that you email them.

There are also website that provide free sound effects, which we could use for our dinosaur and characters’ in the ident.

• Stonewash.net
• Free-loop.com
• Sounddog.com

Our task to make an ident will give me and my partner the opportunity to approve our media skills. But there will be limitations and challenges along the way, which may mean that we have to re- write parts of our plan.

Requirement

To make our Ident we will have found materials to make our set and characters. Luckily enough we have been given permission by the art department to be able to use some of their resources.

We will be shooting straight to the MAC, form a Sony camera.  I will be using are own hard drives to save our work on to. Again we will be provided with all of these things from college.  Plus the MAC provides the ‘I Can Animate’ software.

This whole experience will let us approve our skills in many ways. We will do are very first stop motion video, so will be learning how to do that. Plus once we get to edit we can get extra practise.

Constraints

Because we are not as experienced as some on Final cut Pro and other MAC software, it may take up sometime asking for help, cutting into our deadline.  Plus if we forget a step in the production, it may mean we have to retrace our steps also cutting into our deadline.

We are to design and produce a funky new Ident to be screened before shows.  We are to use 3d modelling of plasticine, Lego found objects. etc.   We must use stop motion animation techniques and ‘I Can Animate’ software to create the ident.

We will put into pairs and our ident must be no longer then 15 sec.

E4 is digital television for the UK and the Republic of Ireland and owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel was launched 18 January 2001. The ‘E’ in the title stands for entertainment and channel is mainly aimed at 15-35 age groups.  The channel shows a variety of UK and US shows, e.g. Ugly Betty and Shameless. With some of the shows, the channel screen ahead their sister channel, Channel 4.

E4 started out is a pay-for-view channel and was available on ITV Digital. In 27 May 2005 the channel became available on Freeview. This gained more audience for the channel.

E4+1 is a time shift service that is  also available, this shows the E4 schedule an hour late, making it convenient for their audience, so that they will not miss their favourite shows.

E4 Music.

In August 2005, E4Music was introduced. It began at the end of that year’s series of Channel 4’s reality show ‘Big Brother’ and ran through most of the morning/daytime schedule. It was then it was moved to morning schedule only as dramas and sitcoms were moved to the day time schedule. The time slot showed the latest from music artists, music video exclusives, interviews with the artists and music orientated shows.

On 3 August 2008, 4Music broadcaster was launched, broadcasting all music oriented material from E4.

 Big Brother.

When ‘Big Brother’ launched, E4’s morning and daytime schedule showed live coverage from inside the house. There was also a Big Brother interactive service where if the audience pressed the red button, they could choose what camera angle they watched the coverage and find out the latest news from the house. There was also a voting option, so the audience could choose who to evict from the house. Also a number of Big Brother spinning off shows were shown such as, Big Brother’s Little Brother, Big Brother’s Big Mouth and Big Brother’s Diary Room Uncut. The audience could also catch Big Brother repeats.

All of the Big Brother coverage, promoted the channel very well and they gained more audience.

Personality.

E4are well known for there young, fun and abstract attitude and this is own through its unique idents. They have a very humorous tone. E4 became notorious for its promotion campaigns and signature narrator, Patrick Allen, who became the ‘Voice of E4’.  When Patrick Allen passed in 2006 Peter Dickson, who’s voice is vey similar, has been used. The promotions are well known for its droll humour and phrases.

E4 are also famous for their abstract idents. Their main idents a re based in a typically British scene – such as a barn, a beach hut or a hotel – which turn into a “deranged E4 space” where the “weird and wonderful colourfully unfolds”.

E4 also started a ident competition where, contestants could get creative, make and send in their own idents.

E4 Shows.

The genre of many of E4 shows are teen drama and also comedy. Many of the character or presenters of the shows are young and could relate to the target audience of the broadcaster. Skins is a prime example of this. It follows a group of British teenagers and explores real-life issues they go through including, teenage pregnancy, drug abuses, anorexia, parental absence, dysfunctional families and death. The show builds awareness for teenagers.  If the audience have been affected by any of the real life scenarios, E4 provide a help and information line were they can talk to someone for advice.

Target audience.

E4 is aimed at 16-34 year olds. To appeal to the their tatget audiecne, E4  airs show of comedy, drama and music genre.  Also by using the fun  idents and  the comic voice overs. everythign about E4 is gender mixed. They have shows were there is a female protagisit and ones were there is a male protagiset. Most of there shows have a mixed cast, but  in some caase like, The Inbetweeners or Sugar Rush, the show is more aimed at one gender.

Shows like Skins and Misfits can relate to everyone in E4′s target audience. The characters  range from diffrent bckgrounds, lifestyles and face all diffrent senerios, that the target audience are bound to relate to the show is someway.

E4 also show a range of comedy programme and sitcoms, e.g Rube Tube and Friends. This  will realte to the fun lifestyles a young person would like to lead.

Research for the project.

Before we began working on our ideas, we looked at a range of broadcaster’s ident and their histories. We also looked at the history of the idents it self.  We study idents from different channels; we broke each one down and study the synopsis, the theme, colours, the characters, lighting, mise en scene, the narrator, sound and word, etc.

We study the purpose and the meaning of an ident and how it represents and brands the channel to their target audience and the consumers. And we looked at how the idents relate to the types of shows and the broadcaster aired.

When it came to begin planning for our stop motion idents, we looked at different video on YouTube were it is used and also different cartoons and films.  It was good to look at how the animation style was used professionally, for me, it gave me ideas on how to improve my work and make it look as good as it could be.

In this task I will be carrying out a primary and secondary research into the opportunities and limitations of televisions idents. I will be finding my primary research from the company Lambie Nairn, a branding and designing agency. Lambie Nairn are a private company founded in 1976 and are based in the UK. The company are known for banding and re-banding of companies like, The BBC, Sainsbury’s, O2 and Channel 4.

Opportunities.

The corporate identity plays a focal part in the design of a TV ident and logo, because a designer would need something to base the idea on. For example, if a children’s broadcaster needed a new brand, the designer would look at the company’s codes, the target audience and the type of programmes they air. It is also gives the  branding company opportunity to expand and gives the broadcaster opportunity to gain audience.

When BBC 2 needed to be re-branded 2001 because their schedule had changed to attract a younger audience, Lambie Nairn was hired to highlight this change. Keeping the broadcaster’s famous ‘2’ figure, Lambie Nairn brought the figure to life giving it a cheeky, fun and loveable personality. This personality reflected the new schedule and could relate to the audience. The ident were made to show funny and serious situations, so when a show of comedy genre is shown a funny ident would be shown.  BBC2’s viewing increased by 50% because of these idents.

Beforehand the branding company will meet up with the broadcaster and they will discuss the direction they would like to go and how they would like to re brand.

To make it real, these beliefs are supported by a set of personality traits which reflect the tone of voice the brand needs to portray both verbally and visually, A quote from the Lambie Nairn website.

Lambie Nairn branded Channel 4 giving them the identity of the ‘9 blocks’ making out the shape of the number 4.  The brand came action when the channel came into creation.

Limitations.

To find out the limitations on an ident, I emailed a number of graphic designers and branding company, who have had experience, to see if an interview could be arranged. I lucky enough to a reply off of a company called Heavenly, a graphic design company who have made idents for the broadcaster Discovery Knowledge. We arranged to have an interview via Email.  I also received an email back form Lambie Nairn’s P.A, who said that I would get a reply from designer straight away as they are very busy at the Christmas period.

From my questions for Heavenly, I found out that the time limit for a branding project (positioning, identity, guidelines) will take 3-4 months. They also said that the client will give them a time limit and that the project has to be finished by then.  I asked about the budget but because they are the graphic designer, it’s more about what the company who want re-branding spends on them. I found that for a branding project, it can range from £50-200,000.  But they did say that the client will give them a set budget to work with.

I asked if the target audience play a main role in re branding, in which he replied, that they test their band ideas on the consumer to say what they think. They also look at the channels pervious brand and idents.  I asked if the rebranding ideas were down to them or were they giving a brief. In which they replied:

We are typically briefed on a corporate challenge (i.e. need more sales, more awareness etc) and will put together a branding proposal to respond to those business.

I was told that the uses PCs, MACs and Mac software to make an ident. I finally asked if they faced any problems during a project, to which they simply replied:

Creativity is a challenge – but we always get there!

http://www.heavenly.co.uk/

Corporate branding is the way the company wants to portray themselves to their audience by a graphic image e.g. logo, ident. They use them, to try and relate to a range of audience. They also use different branding in specific time slots and channels, depending on who it is aimed at.

Branding is used to make the company well-known. They want  for their company to be easily identifiable, a ‘household name’ and to that the comsumer uses the company again.

The BBC is one of the world well-known broadcaster. Its news logos is very simple making is easy to recognise. The abbreviation is also very simple and easy to remember. The logo’s  background comes in red, blue, black, green, relating to their old logo.  As it has this world-wide attention, these simple branding will be recognised and remembered.

Broadcaster

BBC3

Up until February 2008, the BBC3 logo had connections to its sister channels.  The background was light turquoise blue and the text was white.  The  word ‘three’ is in capitals and is a different font then the word ‘BBC’. I think that this represents who the channel is for, young people. Because the word ‘THREE’ is in capitals, I’m given the impression that the word is being shouted, which implies youth.

I think that they changed the logo, because they may have felt that the old logo may not have appealed to the young audience they were aimed at. The new logo is not as simple. The colour pink  has been added to the logo, I think this was another way the BBC thought it would improve the logo. Pink could represent the modern, young, fun  attitude  that BBC3  want their audience to see. The font of the word ‘three’  has also become more modern.

More4.

I think that the More4 logo goes well with the channels mature attitude. The logo is simple, but the colour is, a rich green, is quite eye-catching.  The broadcaster is aimed at adult, 20+ and the programmes are usual fact based and educational. I think the colour green that is used identifies the More 4 well because, the colours make them came across and serious, but also relaxed feel.  I would say the font of the word ‘more’ and the style of the ’4′ is modern. This is to ensure the audience that, even though the broadcasters is aimed at the older audience, it is not backwards.

Marketing.

With products from More4 and BBC3, like DVD box sets and series, the product would be sold with either the BBC of Channel 4 logo, but a ’seen on –’ sticker will be place on the packaging. This is a good ways to gain more audience for the channel. The money which is profited from the products is given to More 4 or BBC3. There are also merchandise made by both broadcasters. BBC3 do not advertise on the channel, so selling merchandise is a fundamental element in funding.   After attending the BBC Studio tour, we were taken to the gift shop, where lots of different merchandise, from stationary to accessories, were sold. Selling merchandise and products from the broadcaster is a good way of promotion for them and builds awareness.

Scheduling

None of my companies use their branding at specific time of the day. But when its a certain season e.g. Christmas, their themes and indents become more festive. Also around the time of New Year and Easter.  Sometimes when there is a special event like a new show and coverage, idents are made for them and the logo is sometimes customised. For example, Channel 4 have a ident where the character Homer Simpson is featured and is mostly used before an episode.  It is also used before other progamme, meanly comedy. I think the ident relfects the funn side to Channel 4.

Brief History

A TV ident is a small clip of visual and audio to identify the broadcaster e.g. BBC One, E4.  Idents are used by broadcasters to identify themselves in air.  The ident usually contains the broadcaster’s logo and colours, giving the broadcaster a distinctive face. The ident usually try to relate to the audience and the programme that it shows. The first ident for the BBC was shown in the 50s. The ident was very different from what it is today and was refered to as ‘Bat’s Wings’, it featured a tiny spinning globe in the centre, surrounded by two spinning “eyes”, with lightning flashes to either side. It was in black and white for then colour  TV was not invented. The ident  contained the BBC globe, that  has become its trade mark for many of the broadcasters’ years. The ident last from 1953-1963.

TV Idents.

BBC3 – Idents -“Blobs”.

I think these idents are clever because there very simples. Audio from different visual clips are put it on top of the animation. The audio isn’t necessarily funny or was used for humour, but the Blob character makes it funny, this is why I find the ident clever. Humour is by the randomness of what the characters say. The idents have no link to the programmes BBC3 show, but could be link by the uses of humour. In 2003 idents were made with the “Blobs” to promote the first season of “Little Britain”.  The ident I have chosen links with the Glastonbury coverage that BBC3 broadcast.

I would say that the ident is set in Glastonbury because of the blob character’s accent and that below them, there are tents and loud music. He has some sort of cane, showing that he is a shepherd. Another blob is in the shot plays the part as a sheep.   Both blobs are standing on the  ‘THREE’ logo. The blob is complaining about the festival claiming that ‘all  music sounds the same’.

After the character has spoken, the modern song of the time is  played and then the narrator introduces the coverage, whoo is presenting it and same of the acts performing at the festival.  The narrator’s voice, like always, is o f a young age, female and has a regional accent.

Also admire the ident because theme and the colours are so simple, yet the ident has a strong effect.  The themes of BBC3 when the blobs were used were, blue for the background and white for the font. This was the same in the logo. I think these standard  colours were use in the lauch of BBC3 because, the channel was part of the BBC  which has a formal reputation. but by giving the channel the blob characters it gave it an informal twist.

The  word ‘three’ is in capitals and is a different font then the word ‘BBC’. I think that this represents who the channel is for, young people. Because the word ‘THREE’ is in capitals, I’m given the impression that the word is being shouted, which implies youth.

There is no natural lighting, for it is an animation, but a spotlight shines onto the characters and the rest of the background is not lighted.  In the Glastonbury ident, steams of  computerised white light are spread around the setting, giving solid object artificial shadows.

Sometime the pace and the tempo can be quite fast, the joke comes quickly in the clip and if the audience is not watching it from the beginning you may miss it. But in some there are two characters with separate dialogue, meaning the characters take up most of the clip, making the tempo slow.

The ident is anti realist, as some form of computer animation has been used. This also means that studio light of natural light has not been used.

Mise en scene is used in some of the idents when the characters used props for the gags, e.g. glasses, wigs.

More4 – Idents.

In the More 4 idents, the logo makes  different patterns and movements, while the narrator introduces the programme.  Some form of computer animation was used to make the idents.  The movement of the animation is very soothing and cool. And giving the fact that the base shape is a circle, it highlights the cool mood to the ident.

In this ident, the narrator talks about a show that will be shown, on the Venezuelan Revolution, about before introducing ‘The Daily Show’.  He uses quite formal language, but then adds colloquial language when he uses the phases: ‘something fishing’.  I think just reflects the channels identity very well, they are professional, but are relaxed and fun.

The designer of the logo, has given the More4 logo reference to Channel 4′s famous ’9 blocks’ logo, by the way the different sized cylinders make up the number 4.

I think the ident are very classy looking, and I think it is easy to tell who the channel is aimed at. They use a very eye-catching colour. The black background helps make the diffrent shades of green stand out and bold.   I would say that the aim is working/middle class, middle-aged people, or simply, adults.

I also think the ident reflect to type of programme they show.  You can tell that some of they shows are going to be of a serious matter. Also factual based.  The ident give a processional, education feel.

The broadcaster’s themes are used in the idents: Black background, different shade of warmth green, chilled music; the instrument used in the ident consist of base guitar, keyboard etc. and in the others More4 idents, harpes and xylophones are used. I think this makes the mature atmosphere to the channel.

The colours and the animation used make the tempo and the pace clam and relaxing. Instead of using a bright fantasy colour, the green could have been chosen to represent the type of programme they show; real life event around the world.   The narrator’s voice is also clam and relaxed and varies on gender.  Also the accents are sometime regional.  No mise en scene, is used as there are no characters in the idents.

More4 and BBC3  are both  available on freeview. This expands/strengthens both broadcaster’s  corporate image. For example,  BBC1 and channel, which is available to everyone  will  advertise shows from More4 and BBC3. If the audience wants to watch them they will have to buy a freeview box.This gains both audience and awareness for both broadcasters. Both broadcaster’s also have stream video service that you can access on the internet. Channel 4 have 4od (4 on demand) and the BBC have the BBC iPlayer. On both services you can access progammes from BBC Three or More 4. This expands and  strengthens  corporate image, because of the use of new techologoy and giving the audience more control on when they watch the programmes.