My ident is known as “Outstanding Entertainment” which is a nod to the OFSTED Outstanding rating which the college has received. I wanted to create an ident which showcased how outstanding Strode College is and I did not only want to reference this in the ident, but also showcase the imagination, talent and capability of the students of Strode College while putting focused emphasis on the media students due to the fact that as a media student, I wanted to show what I can do and also create something eye-catching and unorthodox. In doing this, I had the idea that someone would watch the ident and think, “That was intriguing, I wonder what else Strode TV has made…” or maybe draw in a young person considering attending the college who would appreciate the strange nature of my ident and want to be part of a college which would support the creativity of a student whatever their style and let them express themselves, with self-expression mirroring the new wave of inclusivity within our community as more diverse than ever and with more diversity, there is always room for more ideas, styles and creative attitudes and so I see my ident as a good example of the evolving film and TV industry, as well as something that well represents the capability of Strode College’s students but as stated before, particularly in the media department.
A Breakdown of my Original Idea
My idea was to create an ident which would be as unconventional as it was entertaining, I wanted to complete avoid making anything bland or predictable in the slightest. In my opinion, idents of the modern day, just like most aspects of modern media have lost their edge and are no longer as entertaining and authentic as they used to be. Whether this is because the broadcasters are trying to be more neutral in a world which fears creative extremism more and more with every coming week, or simply because they have run out of ideas, I was determined to make a point and to prove that there are still great ideas ready to be put onto the big, or in this case, the small screen. I was very passionate and am still extremely passionate about the project as a whole.
The idea of being lead on a small quest around the college was amusing and entertaining to me and was something that I felt fellow students of the college would also enjoy with obscurity and irony being large players in so-called “Generation Z Humour”. Having mentioned that, there is also a comedic aspect to this ident which uses extreme visual effects and plainly surreal situations to create a less-serious but strangely enough more intense feel to the ident, one that I feel appeals to the sense of humour of people from my generation. Most of these effects and scenes have been cut from the ident, with the last two shots remaining, but the shot of the man standing ominously in the corridor remains, conveying that we weren’t afraid to have some fun with the ident and make something that would leave people hopefully, laughing and scratching their heads in confusion.
I hoped that the ident would turn out a surreal and comedic as well as practically convincing piece of work, and hoped that my audience would be confused, humoured and intrigued as the best way to grab someones attention is to do something unexpected. If the ident is meant to convince people to show interest in our college, then I believe a strange ident is a great route to take and as the brains behind the operation, it was a pleasure due to my profound interest in surrealist art and obscure cinema which I tried hard to translate into the ident as well as the brief 14 seconds that we were eventually left with.
The Development Process
The whole process of pre-production was quite briskly dealt with as a lot of the work regarding this ident was done quite spontaneously. The concept was too complicated to have everything planned and so the structure would have to be flexible so that what I wanted to be done was accomplished in good time. There were no meetings prior to filming as this was an individual ident project, and so I asked some of my peers on the day if they would like to help after briefing them a day or two prior about the idea. They agreed, and so that is how my peers came to feature and assist in this ident. The structure laid out was very simple, a trip around the college to learn the meaning of what it means to be a student at Strode College. This concept was later put aside after the run-time was cut and instead the focus became an ident involving a student calling the college outstanding, and then a shot of the front of the college with the Outstanding crest there for all to see, as students walk past in a group to convey togetherness in an outstanding environment. There is a short moment in the ident where you can see someone lurking behind me after I walk out of C Block. This is the unusual moment in the ident I wanted to use to grab people’s attention and confuse them, thus adding to intrigue. I believe it to also make us appear as fun-loving students who have a sense of humour, as well as hard-working positive individuals.
The structure was briefly conceived and most of the ident was improvised, this is as mentioned before, due to the fact that I understood I had to be adaptable in this situation so that whatever happened with regards to production obstacles, there was always a back up plan and eventually one was needed when one of the rooms I wanted to film in was not available and so I improvised and suddenly changed the filming location. This was no problem and we got the shots that we needed.
The idea developed throughout the day of filming and new shots were suddenly decided upon by myself to deepen and further characterise the ident and even though the ident ended up having only two shots, they would not have been conceived had I not improvised on the day. Technically speaking, no strict plan was followed but the idea was retained throughout the day off filming and in the final edit.
When it came to research, my main inspirations were BBC Two idents of the 1990’s and cinematography similar to that of a thriller film. I wanted surprises and unexpected twists which we ended up with with the ominous figure scene, and I also achieved the obscure and aloof nature of BBC Two idents of the 1990’s, but instead of using practical effects, the obscurity is created solely by the uncanny nature of the ident, which gives off the impression that something is just a bit off which is what I wanted to do. I wanted to show people that we think outside of the box and do not conform to the conventional standards of media and film and feel free to express ourselves even if our art style is not understood by everyone. This is something that the college encourages and if people can make the connection from denotation and connotation, I believe that this ident could strike a chord for those with more vivid imaginations.
Communication
I had essentially taken on the role of director, producer and lead actor in my ident and while this was demanding, I felt it improved my communicational skills especially when working in a team. People listened to my demands when it came to what I wanted from the ident and there was a clear passage of communication. My ideas got across, and I of course gave and received feedback, which helped everyone contribute more and further develop the ident. When it comes to communication, I feel that things went very well and most of the time, my instructions were followed to the letter without having to be harsh or overly-persuasive, due to the fact that everyone was enthusiastic about the ident and I feel that we all had fun making it.
There were no virtual meetings or conversations, everything was handled in person on the day with no real meetings prior to the day of filming. There was good communication for most of the day of filming especially when I was directing my other actors, and I can only think of one instance of bad communication, which is when I did not know where one of my actors had got to and needed to find him for the shot. Eventually however, this issue was rectified. Good communication made people enthusiastic and motivated because the goals were clear and the idea was visible to all. Bad communication did influence us too and make us feel less professional an d therefore less optimistic about the ident, but my whole team stayed focused and positive through the whole day due to morale being held-high by comradely and fraternity among creative minds.
Technical Skills
I have certainly improved when it comes to my technical skills after working on this project. I learnt much more about camera angles, as well as their effects and how to implement them, I learnt more about making a shot interesting and captivating as well as using subtle imagery to add effect and as a whole I feel that making this ident improved me as a creator on the whole as it was very good experience especially considering it was one of the first times that I had ever co-ordinated an operation such as this. Camerawork, although not carried out by me, was something I really learnt a lot about, I decided on specific shots like ultra-close ups to add effect to a characters emotional state and convey confusion at one point in the 2-minute version. I have since learnt much more about how to effectively use different types of camera angles and shots to further flesh out a media production.
Effectiveness of my Outcomes
I believe my finished piece to be slightly underwhelming in contrast to my thorough and engaging 2-minute ident, but I understand that the run time had to be cut down and I feel that I am left with only the most significant shots of the ident. I think that I will still manage to convey what I initially tried to with the new shorter version, but probably not to as great an extent as the build-up is not as powerful anymore and everything has been blunted by the lack of build-up and storyline. But being realistic, idents cannot be too long. I am still happy with my ident and can see it working, but when compared to the amount of work that went into the 2-minute version, it is simply difficult to feel that the ident reached its true potential. The ident became safer which is absolutely fine, however I wanted to take risks with this ident, risks that I am not sure will co through as much in the new final edit.
On the bright side, problems like blandness, inconsistent pacing and run-time issues were all fixed in the edit, simply by cutting the run time. It is not so that I believe cutting the ident down ruined the concept, as cutting the ident down to less than 15 seconds solved plenty of issues including the ones listed above. I simply believe that there was a lot of potential for something much bigger and more show-stopping to come from those two minutes. Though I understand it is not common for idents to be 2 minutes because the idea of such an ident is of course, impractical. I was simply very ambitious. Cutting the ident down did of course make it comply more with the assignment brief and so this is a positive.
Audience
My audience was intended to be students of strode college, but also potential students and parents of potential students who would be interested in enrolling their child into our place of education. I was hoping that the audience that this ident would find would be on the more conventional side when it came to the sort of media that they consume, largely due to the fact that I wanted to bewilder people and this would only be possible if the audience were more used to conventional and simple idents which you could even consider forgettable considering the typical British audience does not care much for TV Idents. I did my research through surveys and purposely tried to make something engaging as this is what most of my responses from college students, indicated what was desired.
I aimed for no particular gender because I wanted to keep the ident universal and there are boys and girls in the group of people walking off into the distance in the last shot of the ident. Age was also not something I largely considered because I was hoping for parents to also be interested in the ident. When it comes to class however, I was aiming for B and below, as I believe this to be the all-encompassing demographic of students of strode college and their families and backgrounds.
In the edit I added an effect using InShot to make the video appear more cinematic which I felt the more youthful audience would appreciate due to the exaggerated nature of pronounced colours. I also included the ominous figure scene to appeal to the obscure sense of humour of the modern day young generation as obscurity tends to be humorous to such a demographic, something which I myself agree with. This does of course not include everyone, but tends to represent the majority which is where the potential viewers are. I used obscure humour to appeal to the young generation and represent an undertstanding between the creator and the viewer, as if to say, “I am aware of what you find entertaining”. This creates a neutrality between the two and reduces the chance that they would consider the creator a pompous character who believes their work to be too cultured for everyone to understand. I relied heavily on the imagination and obscure sense of humour of my generation and I should hope that I would taste the fruits of these labours as I am aware that the decision was risky.
Learning
I kept track of what I learnt from this creative experience from trial and error, realising what did not work and what did and what I was good at and what I could improve on. Having gotten more experience with directing, I was very particular with camera angles and I feel that eventually they turned out to be very good at capturing the scene and thus, representing the college. I applied my strengths by using my directorial skills attained from my time as a performer when I was younger, and harnessing the skill learnt from that young age of improvisation and of tenacity to get a shot right and to get everyone on the same page so that we were a well-oiled machine. I would build on my weaknesses by focusing on a problem and considering what could be done differently to for example, make this bad shot look better to capture the intensity of the scene. In future I will absolutely attempt to further plan my work because while improvisation and flexibly is good, I do believe that a good, solid and structured plan with a low-maintenance schedule would be the way to go.
Conclusion
I am happy with my ident, and while I believe I am capable of more than I can display from what I have to show, I do feel my idea is unique and set itself apart from the others with a strange and obscure atmosphere which I think would be refreshing in world of media and indents too conventional for those with a more acquired taste for the strange and the bizarre. I hope that my ident can make people imagine and consider what the boundaries are for an ident, or whether there should even be any at all in are ever-evolving colourful and creatively-diverse world of entertainment.
Romano G Media 