Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Media Ident Pitch Final


Above is our pitch, if for some reason the iFrame is not workng, you can check it out here.
Unfortunately, that powerpoint doesn't work correctly when published to Google Docs, so here is a download for the powerpoint version, the idents themselves can be found on the shared drive on either the academy network or the VLE in the following location: W:\media studies\Teachers' Folders\Miss Raison\BTEC NAT 10-11\final animation

Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Ident proposal letter first draft

BTEC National
Park Hall Academy
Water Orton Road
Solihull
B36 9HF

Dear sir or madam,
I am writing to propose that I create a promotional ident for the media department at Park Hall Academy. The Ident will be created using stop motion animation and will represent the work done by the students who are part of the media department community.
The primary target audience for the ident would be students from eleven to eighteen as they are the ones who will have to decide whether or not they wish to take the media subject. The secondary target audience will be parents and teachers because they are the responsible adults in charge of the children and will influence the child’s decision greatly.
The storyline my group intend to use involves a mixture of iconic stop motion animation figures such as Morph and Pingu, this is so people of all ages will recognise the character and give their attention to the ident. We will also use a lot of techniques used by the media to create this ident, such as the use of green screen, editing software, stop motion animation, imposed images, etc. Everyone in the group will take the footage gathered and edit it differently using our own views and opinions to create multiple idents, all of which suit the media industry and in turn the department.
The budget of the project isn’t much as we already have a lot of the stuff we will need available to us such as editing software, video cameras and a green screen. The only thing money will be needed for is the plasticine and aesthetics used in creating the characters and the props.
One issue for us is time restraints, we have discussed a variety of ways to cut down on time such as splitting up to do different parts of the project at the same time and then coming back together afterwards to briefly go over what the others have done. We have most of the equipment we will need nearby so travel will be no issue and won’t make an impact on the time constraint. Although the equipment we need is in high demand so the times it is available to us is limited and may drastically impact the time it takes to get the ident finished.
Other issues we may come across in creating this ident are things such as no being able to get enough shots as every shot is about 0.2 seconds of the film and if we do not get enough shots the footage will look jumpy and badly done. There is also the possibility of the camera shaking or something being in shot and none of us realising, these problems are easily overcome if the creation of the ident is done taking great care, we can also use certain pieces of equipment we have available to help stop minor problems that may occur, such as tripods that should stop the camera from shaking too much.
Yours faithfully,
                    Daniel Gregory

Friday, 24 June 2011

Doctor Who's Child Bollards - Journalism Piece

Child shaped Bollards outside Plymouth's Compton Church of England Primary School  have been rejected by parents who claim that they are too scary and are "like something from dr.who".

The aim of the bollards were to make drivers slow down when entering an area with a school nearby.
Each bollard individually costs £350 each.

The idea was leaked to a local newsletter which made it's way into the hands of the parents and carers of the children that attened the school who then in turn complained in mass to the Plymoth City Council .

The city council came to this decision of Bollards due to the complaints that the roads near the school were dangerous.
One mother commented that she would like to see Zebra crossings and a lollypop man "because the roads are so busy".

The makers of the bollards remain 'proud' of their creations even though the school recieved the largest ammount of comments it had ever recieved for a consultation.

It is still unknown as to wether these bollards would work any differently to slowing down traffic than normal bollards which are cheaper.  It is currently unknown what they are actually going to do to slow down the traffic near the school, One thing is for sure, the Plymoth City Council are deffinetley rethinking the Dr.Who-esc Child Bollards.

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Strengths and weaknesses of idents


This is BBC 1's 2009 Christmas ident, i believe that it is a successful ident as it manages to advertise the channel, give across a christmas feel by using music, reindeer and scenery. It also advertises the programme dr.who which is shown on BBC 1 which will get the hype up for it and in turn make more people watch the programe which gets the channel more views. It also uses the circle to represent BBC 1 like other BBC 1 idents, the circle is a homage to the idents of old.


This is the 1993 children's channel's ident, i personally think that it isn't a very good isnt as i believe children wouldn't find it very interesting. It tries to be interesting for children by using effects, bright colours and music, which at the time of it's release probably would have worked but i think that in current times there isn't enough going on for it to grab someones attention and it could easily be ignored.They have updated their ident since this and It has incorporated some of the things i mentioned.


This is a MTV ident from 2007, i think it is succesful but also has it's faults. The good points about it is it expresses the 'feel' of the channel by the use of key words and its also colourful and eye catching, but on the flipside of that there are negative points too, such as the length, in itself it is too long but as a solution to that (which im unsure if they've done or not) they could edit it into a few smaller idents saying one word that represents the station then showing the logo, instead of showing multiple words.


This is the Channel 4 ident from 1982. I think this is a succesful ident as it has become iconic and it is so simple. It is also advanced for the time it was created and it's bright colours grab the eyes attention.


This is ITV 2's 2009 nail polish ident. I think it is succesful but has it's faults. Such as the audience targeted. It is clearly targetted at females which means most  potential male viewers will simply switch over because of the femanin vibe. Apart from that it is succesful at grabbing attention, is creative and is easy on the eyes.


This is Thames Television's 1970's ident, i think it is succesful because it is short, simple, shows the station and is goo rather advanced for the time it was created compared to some other idents from around the time.


This is Film 4's Car Chase Ident i think it is Successful because it grabs the eye of the watcher, displays what the channel is for and also uses a creative way of showing the '4' part of the Channel name by seperating the screen into different shots.


This is the Nicktoons Gear Ident which i think is both Succesful and Unsucessful because it attracts the attention of the viewer which is important for a childrens television programme but the gears part of the ident seems irelivant and doesnt really link to anything the channel has to offer.


This is Fiver's Station Ident that was created in 2010 i think that this is an Unsuccesful ident as i dont think it gives any kind of view into what the station is actually like.


This is Ant1's Sports Ident I think this is a Succesfull ident as it is eye grabbing, interesting, displays all the sports that will be shown on the channel in a creative way.

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Televisioin questionnaire results

Do you own a television?
13 Yes
How much tv on average do you watch in a day?
1 >1 Hour | 9 2-3 Hours | 3 3-4 hours
When are you most likely to watch television? (allowed to pick multiple answers)
1 Afternoon | 11 Evening | 10 Night
Are you a..
13 Teenagers
What is your favourite tv channel?
3 BBC1 | 2 E4 | 2 Channel 4 | 2 ITV | 1 BBC3 | 1 MTV | 2 Sky Sports
What is your favourite genre of programme?
4 Soap/Drama | 6 Comedy | 2 Sport | 1 Music

The sample had the following demographic features:
-British white ethnicity
-Teenagers
-Upper working class/lower middle class
-Students

In quantative terms i found that

Friday, 10 June 2011

BBC1's Current Ident

A circle symbol was decided upon as the theme for the idents of BBC 1 since it was described as a 'symbol of togetherness', and also a 'nod' towards the channel's past, in particular the use of a globe logo for much of its history. All idents involve the basis of the action to be shown, be that footballers kicking a ball or children playing with flowers before the circle is shown to form and the BBC One logo animates onto the screen. The channel currently uses 15 idents that all use this theme they also have a vast variety of speical idents that user the theme but were made for a specific event, such as christmas or red nose day, or it coulf just simply be promoting the programme that comes on afterwards. The idents play once in every advertisment break and within 3 hours can be seen a total of 7 times, according to my calculations.

Thursday, 9 June 2011

History of BBC1's idents.

With the advances in technology BBC 1 has updated their ident multiple times, one notable change is the move from black and white to colour. Another is when they got rid of the iconic globe in 1969 which returned again in 1985 and then in 2002 it disapeared again only to return in spirit in 2006. The first time the idents became coloured the channel established blue as their colour scheme, this changed to yellow then green and eventually settled on red which is the current established colour of BBC 1.

According to the bbc website "BBC One's remit is to be the BBC's most popular mixed-genre television service across the UK, offering a wide range of high-quality programmes.
It should be the BBC's primary outlet for major UK and international events and it should reflect the whole of the UK in its output. A very high proportion of its programmes should be original productions."