Idents are archetypal to big production companies as it’s the gateway to each and every film/ TV show they produce. A lot of these Idents are Iconic in the film industry and most can immediately remind you of some of the companies films. Here I’ll be examining 10 Film & TV Idents and discussing what they are visually and what a general audience connotes to them.

Film Idents

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

I wanted to talk about this ident first because it’s one of the first film ident’s I remember watching as a child. There is nothing more iconic than Leo the Lion Roaring at the start of a film. The ident uses a still shot of what appears to be an emblem of a film reel that loops in the centre to make Leo the centrepiece in which we should be paying attention to. My first recollection of this ident was when I watched 1939’s The Wizard of Oz.

Universal Pictures

The ident for this production company has gone through numerous changes throughout the years, I distinctively remember the last couple of idents primarily due to the music. The music in those ones are rather cinematic and atmospheric which grabs you in. We can see throughout the years they changed visual effects as editing software became more and more advanced. Some of the most popular films in recent history were produced or at least partially produced by Universal so almost anyone will know at least one variation of this ident.

Warner Bros.

Much like Universal Pictures the ident for Warner Bros. has gone through a lot of transformations throughout the years.  Like most, they started off with a basic black and white formula with a WB emblem. This emblem has been a constant throughout the years and is synonymous with their films. I found the Warner Bros. ident quite notable as they have made and are making all the most well known DC comic films. I’ve always remembered the Warner Bros. ident from Scooby Doo as Scooby’s collar held a striking resemblance to the Warner Bros. emblem.

Dreamworks Pictures

Dreamworks is the youngest production company in this list spanning 20 years. The ident started off with a person on a crescent moon fishing followed by text in the clouds.  The only major alteration that has ever been made was the use of balloons that held the text and the colourful text in general. Dreamworks have since made variations for almost all of their films. This makes every film indent more personalised, from worm ident for shark tale to the bee movie ident.

Walt Disney Pictures

Quite like Dreamworks Disney has made multiple idents that follow a general theme of the Disney castle and music; usually the song “When you wish upon a star”. They’ve made idents that cater to each film that is made. In 2006 Disney thought it was best to upgrade their ident for their release; Pirates of the Carribean by making a new computer-generated version. This made the experience of watching a Disney film more exciting for younger viewers. This new ident had different variations to fit with the film it was in. This was because Disney films in recent years hold much darker theme and they thought it would be a nice touch to illustrate that.

TV Idents

Television Idents are very different from film idents. They are played periodically after a TV show has been played and in ad breaks if the channel has ad breaks.

CBBC

I chose to talk about CBBC idents as I grew up watching CBBC and I get a feeling of nostalgia whenever I see one of ident from the 00’s. the CBBC bugs of the early naughties were odd and generally just weird which helped the blobs seem synonymous with the show.  However, the idents from 2007 – 2013 are the most memorable for me. After the first launch of the 2007 ident CBBC began implementing character’s, people and even CBBC presenters in the Ident which really made the ident engaging.

Channel 4

This channel 4 ident is what I usually found synonymous with channel 4 as The Simpsons was the only show I’d really watch on there at the time. We can see the channel logo being cleverly implemented into the ident which links in with what we expect from Homer Simpson. This is the most memorable ident for me; it was first shown in 2007.

 

I thought it was appropriate to include the most recent Idents that have been made. All of these Idents are beautifully shot, however, what most viewers didn’t approve of is that channel 4 didn’t implement their logo in this Ident. In later Idents, they used the logo however the lack of a logo in this Ident makes it unique. A commenter on the video of the initial release explained that each Ident is representative of the colour prism in the logo.

All 4 BG logo_A2

Disney Channel

I wanted to include these Disney channel Idents as I think when they were a good representation of TV channels utilising their TV show characters to make the ident more interesting. They also have the stars of the Disney channel drawing out their logo and ending their Ident with “You’re watching Disney channel” this further helps the channel show off that they value the actors to be the poster girls and boys of their channel.

Sky 1

This is ident was made a year ago when Sky 1 decided it was time to rebrand themselves. We can see this Ident is quite modern and animated figuratively and literally. It’s also very colourful which is a contrast from the old ident which wasn’t as eye-catching or interesting.

Here is an old ident we can see that there’s a whole look and feel to the ident and feels less exciting and more homely I’d say.

BBC One

I thought this ident would be a good concluding point as this ident is quite engaging and was made specifically for 2009 when David Tennant (The 10th Doctor) would be leaving. The Christmas theme makes the experience exciting and enjoyable to watch for younger children.