Understanding the design of idents

Stefan Constantinou

BBC One ‘Footballers’ Ident

The ident is a continuous shot of men kicking footballs into the centre of a circle from a birds eye view. This is used to predominantly promote Match of The Day and Football Focus that is a big feature on BBC One. The music is a light and quite up beat, the continuity is fit very well with every time the ball is kicked and the beat of the music hits. There are a lot of special effects on the people as they have a consistent glow around them and wavy lines to emphasize where they have kicked the ball too. You can tell this channel is sport related due to the athletes in the ident and the fact that they are playing football. The ident is 27 seconds, this is a lot of time for an ident, the BBC One logo is shown for 11 seconds and is evidently long enough for the audience to easily observe it. The tempo of the ident is quite slow it changes from real time to slow motion constantly, this goes very well with the music which is quite medium paced. It’s relatable to football fans because it literally introduces itself by having the predominant theme being football. Intentionally, it is entertainment led as they’re promoting football which is very active and has a massive audience. This tells me the channel has a category of sport which increases the audience.

ITV News ‘Intro’ IdentThe ident is a introduction to ITV News, it is cleverly constructed as the ident consists to everything important there is to discuss. For example, children are shown in school, this is used to discuss education. People from the army are marching which brings a talking point of war and the military. A birds eyed view shot of traffic brings a talking point of traffic news and which roads are closed and why. Lastly, doctors and nurses are shown which is relevant to healthcare and NHS. A lot of effort has been put into this through choosing the right videos to use in the ident that tell the audience what's relevant and what's not. The ident is 12 seconds and the audio used is the Big Ben bells used to emphasize patriotism as it’s majorly directed toward or is relevant to England/United Kingdom. The tempo for the ident is fast paced because it has many visuals to display in a short amount of time. This is beneficial as rather than prolonging 5 topics, they have rapidly portrayed important issues that are relevant to the majority. The ident is evidently information-led due to it's sophisticated way of presenting itself with formal font. The impression given by the channel is that this is a serious show that gets across the news in the world.

Channel 4 ‘Estate’ Ident

The ident is a hand-held moving shot heading toward the end of the estate balcony. Simultaneously, the ident (4) is becoming a whole as the camera gets closer to the end of the balcony. As the pieces to create the 4 meet, the non-diegetic sound changes to calmer music as the sound and visuals reach there climax. The ident tells me that the channel has shows based on a run down, poverty stricken estate. Examples of shows that link to this are Top Boy, Hollyoaks and Come Dine With Me. These all have reference to the type of people and areas portrayed on that program, it stereotypes them as hooded teenagers loitering and causing mischief. The ident is 27 seconds long and the 4 is complete roughly 3/4 of the way through. The dull sky tells me that it is quite gloomy and is based on reality rather than everything being perfect. It is aimed as a rather lower class people in comparison to higher class due to the rough looking estate. The onscreen tempo is very slow as it is building up to its crescendo through slow movement of the camera. Knowing that the ident will inevitably lead to something that portrays the channel allows the audience to devise their attention and try to figure out what the purpose of it is. The ident is entertainment-led due to it’s lack of sophistication and formality, it could easily be the set of a teenage drug series or something with a high interest point for a young audience. The ident gives me the impression that this channel provides shows and directs its attention towards a young audience of ages from 16-30. The simple reason being that the typical lower class estate is generally known for young troublesome teenagers that hang about, this can be transformed into a show by channel 4 which they have done, and therefore gained a wide target audience for there shows.

Channel 5 ‘Police Chase’ IdentThe ident is a swift action scene of a car chase in pursuit. The police car is chasing a black SS Chevy with tinted windows, the colour of the car is typical of a getaway car used by the bad guy. The music stays consistent throughout the ident, it has a fast tempo to match the numerous shots put together to create this intense chase scene. An assumption of the SS Chevy bursting through a surface toward the camera and creating little cubical objects could be that the action is coming through your TV into your home, this ensures you have the best viewing experience. The ident itself tells me that a big part of this channel focuses on action packed programs and series’ exclusive to this channel. This creates a wide audience as it is one of the most popular genres. As no violence is displayed in the ident, it’s possibly before the watershed as it seems as if it could be a non-explicit show. The ident is 17 seconds, this is over enough time to express the themes of the channel and display the channels logo. The logo is shown for 4-5 seconds at the very end of the ident when the police car becomes stationary. The tempo for the visuals is fast paced as the number of shots makes it seem a lot more intense and rapid than it actually is. Something clever that has been done in this ident is that the license plate on the SS Chevy clearly says ‘CH4 – F1V3’, which initially means Channel 5 which is what’s being promoted. This could easily appeal to many people as action is a high demanded genre on TV. This ident is clearly and evidently entertainment-led due to it’s active highly anticipated chase scene that is very cliché in action shows. The impression given by the channel is that this is typical of the type of programs they do show. Action is a huge part of this channel and they are trying to give that message to people.

Sky Sports 1 ‘Football’ IdentThe ident is a montage of memorable football moments happening consecutively. The most prolonged moment is beloved England striker Wayne Rooney scoring a penalty. The music is a tense build up going from clip to clip, then simultaneously when Rooney kicks the ball, the music drops as it had reached its climax. As the football players are shown, it is displayed as if they’re on a TV or tablet device. This is very intelligent as it has many meanings. For example, Sky Sports consistently try too alert people that they can watch Sky Sports on their phones, computers, tablets and TV, and showing the nations favorite football stars will bring additional attention to the channel. Another example is that in the very last clip of Rooney, as he kicks the ball, the supposable screen smashes as he glides through it. The sound of light glass smashing and dropping makes this more exciting for the audience. As he comes out of the screen, he looks better quality and more high definition, this is how the ident ends which hints to the audience that they’ll get the best viewable experience from Sky Sports. The ident itself doesn’t offer that much information, but to the majority of the United Kingdom who are fond or beyond of football will take a strong liking to this ident and be able to understand what the channel is providing. The tempo begins fast to get through the first 4 footballers, but then slows down on the most popular face of the lot, Wayne Rooney. This will appeal to viewers because football is the most popular sport in the world and the players in the ident are all British. In order of the ident, Steve Morison of Wales is first, followed by Robbie Keane of Ireland, then Craig Bellamy of Wales, then Steven Naismith of Scotland, then lastly the England star Wayne Rooney. These players are seen as role models in their countries and are supported because of their dedication, this makes people want to watch football and this ident has given them and additional reason too. This ident is entertainment-led due to its strictly sport related with lack of words and speaking apart from the ending ‘Sky Sports 1’. The impression given from this ident tells me that the channel itself is predominately football related but displays over sports due to the name. Having popular football players in the ident lets people know that the channel is very mainstream and shows the most popular games.