IDENTS Creating yours!

KEY FEATURES OF AN IDENT:

1. COMPANY NAME
2. JINGLE/SOUND
3. GRAPHIC/VIDEO
4. ANIMATION

Following these 2 vodcasts you will find a further breakdown of what an ident is, its appearance (or media language) and examples from the industry and past students. You should also look at the post for the titles/idents vodcast task.
CREATING AN IDENT USING LIVETYPE: JC VODCAST

FILM OPENINGS VODCAST1: IDENTS (DB)


One of the features the exam board (and general viewers via YT + events such as the Creative Arts Evening) most highly praise about AS work is the company idents featured at the start of them.

One of last year's wackier idents!

Each of you will be creating a company ident, so you'll need to blog (evidence Research + Planning) on the following (the individual post titles are in red):

• COMPANY IDENTS EXPLAINED/EXPLORED: What is a company ident; what purpose does it serve? (hint: branding) How many do you tend to see at the start of movies? Do they all have their own 'jingles' or does the movie audio also sometimes override these? Are they always complex, requiring expensive technology to achieve? What is the best/worst ident you've come across? Are there any companies you actually look out for now, feeling their ident is likely to signify a film you'll enjoy? Is it just production co's whose idents feature at the start of movies?

Use screenshots and/or YT embeds (or create a simple vodcast as I did) to evidence your research, showing that your ident comes out of this research. You can use examples explored in class, and resources from this post.

• IDEA/S FOR MY COMPANY IDENT: Simple: come up with some ideas for your own company ident!!! You need a name, but also a visual concept (which you know you can achieve). Its always best to come up with more than one idea. Do a quick IMDB search - has the name already been taken? If it has, but by a one-time or really small time outfit you could be cheeky and take the chance, tho if doing this commercially you'd have to contact the copyright holder and negotiate permission! It would obviously be very helpful if you had any video required for this ident with you; at the very least have posted pics which illustrate what your idea will look like. Consider the font + any animation/positioning of it. Although you're producing a slasher movie, that doesn't mean your ident has to be slasher themed.
  You should blog on this before creating your ident.

• PRODUCING MY COMPANY IDENT: Screenshots are key: detail how you constucted this text - break down the steps taken, including software (+ tools within this) used. You could do this as a simple vodcast.

Again, a simple vodcast would be ideal. Start with the raw materials you assembled: music, images, clips (detail any influences too); then outline the software involved and the steps taken, using screenshots. Next...

• MY COMPANY IDENT: [COMPANY TITLE]: Embed the completed ident! You could briefly outline the semiotics of your ident/the intended branding message.

Kane Griffiths' ident; who knows what inspired it?!

Once we've formed groups, each group can produce a further ident for their new (group) company.
If you want to use examples of existing idents you can record the start of a DVD using the VLC media player (free for both Mac + Windows); QuickTime has a similar function. You'll probably have to convert the resulting file in Handbrake, MPEG Streamclip, or similar freeware video converters to be able to import the clip into FCProX. Handbrake has been installed on the K5 Macs (Mac side only).
You can view past IGS idents on the channel. The 1st vid below is a compilation of some of these; later (these are a couple of years old now) examples can be found in the various playlists on the channel.

Here's a great example of idents being tweaked to fit with the genre/aesthetic of a film, The Matrix and its techno-green opening titles/idents:

For some unknown reason, someone posted a set of idents played in reverse ...

Here's a playlist of 'Hollywood-Labels Idents', and another for 'Movie Studio + Distributor Idents'.
As ever, the YT suggested vids column has plenty more useful options, and you can try your own searches.
Here's a couple more of the quirkier examples from the last few years @ IGS...

The 2011-12 idents are viewable here; this is Dillon's rather striking effort: