Gaming Idents

Mototstorm: Apocalypse

This ident is an introduction to movies on FIVE being sponsored by Playstation 3's "Mototstom Apocalypse". The animation in the ident is short and sweet but packed with features. It opens by showing a customized "Motorstorm Apocalypse" movie clip board, the board has yellow and black stripes but also is on fire. This would show the audience the game is dangerous and the fire could also communicate that the game features a lot of action, to back up this point there are a lot of sparks flying around the screen. In the background we can see red shipping container in the background, red also representing danger along with a metal fence giving the audience a sense of breaking out. The camera effect is quite shaky which is what you would expect from a racing game. The clipboard effect is a constant theme throughout PS3's campaign on FIVE and is also used for "Little big planet 2" and "Killzone 3".




Killzone 3


Like the ident above "killzone" is sponsoring movies on FIVE. It continues the theme set by the "Motorstrom: Apocalypse" ident. With the same set up as before with the clipboard, the "Killzone 3" modle features a chainsaw on the board which could relate to an in game feature. This would give the viewer an idea of an element in the game before they have seen any gameplay. The clipboard it's self is very run down and made of rusty metal, this would reflect the world the game is based in. plus the board has some bullet holes in it indercating it is an action game, most likley a first person shooter. The background is very dark and doesn't reveal much but it does fit in with the grudge type clipboard and helps set the overall tine of the game.




LittleBig planet 2


Carrying on with the movies theme, this is "Playstation 3's LittleBig planet 2" The game's name isn't mentioned until the very end but showing the iconic "Sack boy" character right at the start the audience will instantly recognise game this ident is about. In the background you can see a director's chair, stage lights and wires running across the ground interacting that this is set in a film studio. Again carrying over the movies theme. The ident is also humorous due to the "nobody puts sack boy in the corner" joke and Sack boy sticking his tongue out as the camera zooms in. The narrator for the ident is Stephan Fry who has a very recognisable voice and is also featured as a voice in the game. Overall I think this is a good ident as it's short, simple, has a fitting famous narrator and is comical.



BBC2's future Zoetrope (2007)


Aired in 2007 this is an animation of a classic Zoetrope with the slit as the two from BBC2's logo. I led this ident for a few reasons. Firstly there's a slight twist to it, it would appear that you were flying through an interesting future city with huge buildings, elevated trains and flying cars but once the camera pulls back you can see it's simply a series of pictures on the Zoetrope. The ident is interesting due to the visual element of the future city but also if you've never seen a Zoetrope before you now have a rough idea of how they work. The music that accompanies it sound quite sci-fi as it includes lots of digital sounds like the swoosh of the spaceships but there is also a layer of drums for a bigger impact. i feel this is a good ident because it includes the channel's logo, it's clever, it has a twist and the music is fitting.






Channel 4 (1982) 

Channel 4's 1982 ident is using 3D animation, this would have been something new back in the 80's and you can tell they were making a big deal out of it. This ident was also followed by many of the same type, but with a different animation. You can see that Channel 4 wanted to ,push the 3D idea. The ident starts off as a still image and then a drum roll comes in to build suspense, the logo then explodes to the sound of trumpets and rotates in 3D space swinging by very close to the screen so the logo is in your face. (Showing off the 3D). Another way the logo is in your face is by being very colourful with a black background making the colours stand out more. Overall I think this is a good ident because the music lines up well with the animation and it uses the 3D well.




Tron: Legacy, Walt Disney Pictures (2010)

In this ident the classic Disney castle has been given a Tron makeover. The twilight, calmly lit castle, background fireworks and prestige landscape have all gone. They have been replaced with sterile black metallic flooring, a cloudy stormy sky and the castle is now lit with blue holographic lights. The once warm look of the Disney logo is now cold and harsh which fits perfectly into the digital world that is Tron: legacy. Since the last Tron was released in the 80's and this is being played before the Tron: legacy movie this is giving the indirection that this is more serious and grown up, that the Tron world has moved on since the 80's. Overall I feel this is a very good ident as it has taken an iconic logo and giving it a very modern ominous look.





MTV (80's)


For this ident MTV took one of (if not the most) defining moment in mankind's history and  turned in into their own my having Niel Armstrong plant an animated MTV flag on the moon. From a technical point this is a good ident. The moon landing footage has already been made so all MTV needed to do was to edit the original footage. Another point, you can hear the iconic words "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" and then you see the MTV logo, implying that MTV is a giant leap forward for mankind. Personally I don't like the ident, it seems half done like no much effort when into it, but then again that could just be because of the limitations of editing I the 80's.






DMC closing 2D ident


The DMC closing ident appears infront of films at the cinema. The advert includes lots of colours and vibrent pictures to create a very eye catching look, the ident will be shown on the big screen so having a very colourful and busy ident makes sense. The silhouettes there are famous faces from the film industry such as Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, Daniel Craig and a James Bond movie poster. Another feature is the background pictures of people in the cinema this relates to it's audience as after all it's being shown in a cinema. At the end the layers of vibrent pictures the logo comes onto the screen in a flash of light and shows the official DCM, what DCM stands for (Digital Cinema Media) and the DCM logo but only for 3 seconds. I find that this is more for companies rather than the general public. Overall I find this a good ident because it's eye catching due to the good use of colour, it contains small easter eggs such as the famous actors and the music works well with it.






NBC "Living colour" ident


For this ident NBC put a big emphasis on colour as this was aired in the 1960s when colour TV was new NBC obviously wanted to make a big deal about it. The coloured feathers and white peacock stand out a lot on the black background, this was intentional. The ident includes all the colours of the rainbow not just a select few and what NBC wants to say is that their channel has all the colours and all the channels meaning they are the best Tv channel in America. A noticeable feature would be that there is no text in the ident, this is because the logo is already very recognised throughout America and the world so text is not required to explain the logo. In conclusion I think this is a good ident, it's visually good due to all the colours (Especially back in the 60s) and what I find to be the most important is that it's very simple. One logo and one voice over, simplicity at it's best.