Ident

What is an 'IDENT'?

ident  (ˈaɪdɛnt)
— n
	a short visual image employed between television programmes  thatworks as a logo to locate the viewer to the channel (source:http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ident)

What is their function?

The purpose of an ident is simply to identify and advertise the company behind the film/television show or radio station. It's there for the audience to see and notice who the companies are.

Here is an example of an ident:

(source: http://youtu.be/xLY2rx5gk5c - Youtube video of Channel 4's October 2012 Pylon ident.)

Our task was to create our own individual idents for our opening sequence brief. I started of by thinking about what my opening sequence would be, what genre it would take. Originally I planned on a drama/comedy and so my first ident idea reflected this.My first original idea was to take my last name, Knight, and use it in the production title and revolve the imagery around my name. I played around with some sketches of knights in armour, shields and swords. I finally came up with something. Below are the two images I originally planned to use for my ident:

(Burn tool from Photoshop)

(Dodge tool from Photoshop)

I chose this sword from Google images as it greatly represented the picture I had in my head of a knight's sword. I opened it up on Photoshop and edited a tiny bit to make it my own. I changed the colour and tone of the handle to black and use the 'dodge' and 'burn' tool to define and highlight the parts of the sword that I felt appropriate to make it seem more realistic.

Above is the shield image I picked, also from Google images, I decided to choose this one because it matched again my visual perfectly. I edited the colour of the shield to a teal blue/green and these are my favourite colours, reflecting back to the use of my last name. Once again i chose to use the tools 'dodge' and 'burn' to define the image.

After a long while of trial and error on Final Cut Pro; I decide to pick another route. The downside to my original ident was the complications it held. My idea was too complicated and didn't fit what i completely pictured it to look like. So I took to Youtube for inspiration. One of my favourite things is the moon, and so I began looking for scenic short clips of such. I ended up finding an very beautiful video which I chose to use for my ident. After viewing this video my genre for the opening sequence had hanged and I knew straight away I wanted to create a thriller.

Below is the original video:

(source: Youtube - http://youtu.be/5kskqFLjeaU-Elcaminoss31316)

After viewing this I was immediately inspired to create my ident with similarities but originality. Using the skills I have on Final Cut Pro I managed to take from the video the selected amount of time and crop the moon to use for my advantage - As you will see in my final video. Here is a screen shot of my work on FCP (Final Cut Pro) when I was complete:

As you can see from the screen shot I decided to change my production company name. I wanted to keep my name involved but not have the actual spelling. In the end I came up with 'Nightfall Entertainment'. I felt this suited my ident very well as it's related to the moon, it also captures my second name too. The font style I found particularly easy to find and pick. I had an image in my head of something defined yet simple. I choose the font Palatino. To me it symbolises the traditional cinema look, as my ident is some what of a 'thriller' one it gives the final video a classic yet sharp horror look. The white on black text/font I chose also because of it's 'crispness'. I didn't want anything to look tacky or to have too much going on. I think the white on the black background gives it the perfect balance for what I wanted to achieve. 

Below is my own ident

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtDHnBh3ikE by Youtuber IUseTwoKeyboards)

The music I used was from Youtube. I chose this because it was the right tempo for the animated moon and I felt it gave it a little edge. I think it fits with my ident perfectly in the aspect of horror thriller. I changed the colour tone of the moon to a more 'blue' hue. It gives it this cold feeling and sets the tone for what to expect. I particularly love the passing clouds slowly sweeping across the moon, it gives it that little more detail and feels more professional.