Unit 32 Assignment 3

Grade: Distinction

Unit 32 Assignment 2 (Planning and Production Diary)

Production Diary

4th of December: Started mind map today, I'm thinking about the ideas of musical icons and I'm thinking about the brand identity of ITV so that I can form a better idea of what type of audience would watch the channel and therefore watch my idents. I began looking at what an audience aged 16-25 would like to watch by looking at the kind of things that age range are interested in. I gathered that that generation are particularly interested in social media and they are a big fan of the most popular/mainstream music.

5th of December: Continuing with mind map today. Today I will look in more detail what the brand identity of ITV is and I will think about the types of things that could be included in my ident.

9th of December: Plowing on with the mind-map again today. Should have it finished by the end of today's 3 lessons. Looking at words that I could include, looking at words/images that could be associated with the similar idents and idents that I could make. FINISHED MIND MAP.

9th of December (continuation): Finished mind map, now have the basis of 3 ideas will move on to the sketches/collages for the individual ideas. I will base my designs on being entertaining and featuring things that are interactive and social to reflect the target audience and the variety of the brand identity. I will find similar imagery and ideas to my own to help me analyse my own idea ready to show others and gain feedback. 

9th of December Continuation part 2: Designed an idea for an ident before a music countdown. My idea is very vibrant and based on it being heart-warming and lively which is the brand identity of ITV and will appeal to their target audience in the brief which is 16-25 year olds. This idea is using light trails and colour to show how music can be colourful and almost magical and that ITV is not always what it seems. I gathered pictures and ideas from light trail imagery and other idents and adverts which featured music in some way or another. 

'Music is magical'

1. The setting is of headphones left on the side, we can hear music playing softly and as we zoom in slowly it gets louder. The headphones glow and are colourful -full of light trails transforming into music notes and pulse rates. Camera moves to focus on the headphones with light trails spiralling around the headphones, the tagline and the ITV logo appear under the headphones saying 'the heart of popular culture' 

• Techno soundtrack or an RnB song could be playing in the background as the light trails move on every beat.  

10th of December: Designed another idea for a different ident which would run before a reality TV show on a music channel. My idea would feature a cast and would be like the BBC Ident featuring both visual shots and green screen. It will use social media to show "reality" of two teenagers messaging one another about a new show. We would see graphics of the messages being sent, the ident would use a soundtrack and sound effects. The logo would appear in the right hand side of the screen -transition in -the colours would stand out against the white background. 

Society meets reality

2. This ident is set inside, would use a green screen to make a transparent background, it would be white with two girls sat a few paces away from one another. They are tweeting one another, we hear sound effects going off as notifications sound. As they are tweeting we see it appear behind/beside them using editing to make the "messages" appear. They both phone one another talking about ITV's new reality show and they walk off in different directions still talking about the new show. The ITV logo appears in the right hand side of the screen with the tagline "a new reality..."

•  Soundtracks playing lightly in the background making it light and fluffy.  

10th of December (Continuation): Designed another idea for the final ident which would run before a music documentary. My idea would be filmed like the TMC Ident so filmed almost totally not using a set but then editing the ITV logo into the ident by use of Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. It would go back to the simplicity of music to listen and to have fun, featuring cutaway shots of music references and different ways that people can enjoy music by using several locations and different props.

 'Music is where the heart is'

3. The setting of this is constantly changing and adapting. It cuts smoothly transitioning between people singing and dancing to someone with headphones on or to someone playing an instrument. The music is changing showing different styles and variations,and showing different locations. The ITV logo appears at the end when we see a guitar leaning against a wall, the logo will appear against one of the bricks on the wall. 

10th of December: The design ideas took me a while because my creativity was momentarily stunted. I now have 3 ideas and I can't decide. I think I would like to film it mostly like TMC or possibly use green screen like the BBC but I know for certain that I am not just animating it because I am stronger when filming and gradual editing in Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier Pro. Therefore I think that I will either do my idea of light trailing headphones/music notes for the music countdown ident or my idea of "music is all around" for the music documentary ident. 

11th of December: Started on creating the storyboards for the 3 ident ideas. It is proving to be a bit difficult to actually formulate a clear structure for my idents but I have finished one around an ident running before a music documentary. I would film it in the style of TMC only adding little editing effects later on in post-production and it would be similar to a montage in style featuring different people listening to music/singing/dancing/performing/playing instruments to show people having fun and it would be a nice heart-warming ident showing people of the target audience and music allowing people to have fun and get involved in culture which is similar to the ITV brand identity. 

Music Is Where The Heart Is.

11th of December (Continued): Second storyboard has been completed. This was for the ident that would run before a music countdown. I would film it again mainly like TMC using editing and photoshop after I have filmed the majority of the content. It follows light trails to show how music can make you feel free and how music can be colourful making it different which is what the target audience could like and it features a heart which is the tagline of ITV -'the heart of popular culture' which is hopefully what this ident could carry across.

Countdown the light trails for ITV

11th of December (Continued): Third storyboard has been completed. I do not feel very confident with this idea, it was really hard to come up with an idea for a reality tv show ident. This ident would be filmed like the BBC Ident which was a mixture of live action and green screen. It shows two girls messaging one another about a new reality show to show how the age range of 16-25 year olds are obsessed with social media but I think that it could come across as a bit boring.

Social Media Versus Reality Television

9th of January: After starting to learn how to use Adobe After Effects to edit the visuals for the logo part of my ident I realised that I could make similar things happen via editing instead of taking a lot of time to film parts of an ident which would require a lot of specialised camera specifications and settings to attain the shots I would have liked. Instead I decided on completing it all on After Effects. After making this decision I chose to expand on my original idea of light trailing for a music countdown by following video tutorials to give me more knowledge of the software and with this I managed to make an ident successfully, only using Final Cut Pro to add in audio and adding in last minute transitions/effects. 

Unit 32 Assignment 1 (Designing Idents)

What is an Ident?

• Logo/graphic that runs before a programme -linking to a channel.  
• Each channel has a different ident but each can have different ones. 
• Idents are informative, idents reflect the attitude of the channel. 
• Idents can give you clues about the target audience. 
• Idents can relate to the programme they are run before. 

Why do we use an ident? What are the purposes of idents?

• To give breaks between programmes 
• Indicates what programme is coming up next -marketing. 
• To keep your attention -to interest you. 
• To represent a certain season or holiday such as Halloween or Christmas. 
• Ident design links to the genre of the programme you are going to see.
• Idents can be for a specific gender.

The Channel 4 Simpsons Ident tells us that the Simpsons is coming next and it shows us that the programme's genre is comedy because we find Homer getting electrocuted funny.



This ITV Ident tells us that the gender the channel/programme is aimed at is women because the colours are bright and girly.

• The purpose of an ident is to persuade an audience to watch the next programme or that the channel is targeted for them. This tends to be by using specific design ideas.
• Another purpose is to create a brand identity -the core, the reputation, the goal of the channel to reflect its' values. For example E4's programmes are a bit weird and quirky like the idents.
• Idents sell programmes -as a marketing tool. This is important for channels that don't run advertising such as BBC. 
• To break up the programmes to give audiences time to have a break, to ensure that they don't turn over. 
• Idents help to map out a TV schedule -not just daily but over the course of the year e.g. seasonal designs. 

Styles of Idents

How are these idents made?

TCM:

• Outside setting
• Camera Kit
• Cast
• Editing Transition (Editing Software such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier Pro)
• Soundtrack

Watch:

• Adobe After Effects/Cinema 4D
• Pre-visualizations
• Voice over

BBC One:

• Set -Green Screen
• Cast
• Props
• Camera Kit
• After Effects 
• Soundtrack

• Outside Setting
• Soundtrack
• Camera Kit
• Editing Software (Final Cut Pro etc.)

• Pre-visualizations
• Adobe After Effects
• Voice Over

• Cast 
• Set -green screen 
• Props
• Soundtrack
• Camera Kit
• After Effects 

Opportunities For...

Brand:

• More viewers.
• Recognition 
• Increase in revenue
• Refresh or reinvent brand identity. 

Designer:

• Could lead to more work
• Recognition (awards etc.)
• Finance
• Building a portfolio
• Builds a reputation

What limitations could you face working as a designer for a channel?

1. The brand may not be satisfied with your product.
2. The client might be unsure of what they want.
3. They could give you a vague briefing which could limit your creativity especially if you have to include specifics such as: a logo or colour schemes.
4. Timescale may be un-achievable.
5. There could be technical failures.
6. There may be last minute changes to the brief.
7. Individuals may manage criticisms in different ways.
8. There could be a risk of damaging your own reputation if you fail because clients talk!

Limitations in Design 

1. Dull
2. Boring props and setting. 
3. The colour scheme is pretty boring -greys and browns.

Limitations in Creativity

1. Not very unique.
2. Doesn't relate to the voice over. 
3. The camera shots aren't really interesting, it looks pretty boring and odd.
4. Doesn't show the channel programming range. 

How it could be made better

1. Make things brighter.
2. Could use a range of settings/locations.
3. Make the ident relate a bit more to the voice over or the channel's programmes. 

Limitations in Design

1. No props
2. Colours are bland and dull
3. Editing is shaky and it looks like a really bad movie. 
4. Sound is echoey.

Limitations in Creativity

1. Not very unique.
2. No variation in sound or colours. 
3. Doesn't interest me. 
4. Doesn't show the channel's range of programming or a brand identity. 

How to make it better

• Make things brighter and more abstract.
• Could use a range of graphics or transitions. 
• Make the picture clearer. 
• Change the sounds up a bit mixing different ones. 

Limitations in Design

• Boring props/setting/colours/costume/sound
• dull

Limitations in Creativity

• no inventive movement or technique. 
• Not very unique -nothing that shows a range of channel programming. 

How you could make it better?

• make things stand out a bit more.
• Range of settings
• variation.