Assignment 1- Task 2- Understanding the limitations of the television ident.

There can be many limitations to a TV ident, for example, typography, colour, aspect ratio, adhering to desire tone and duration. All these can be a limitation to a TV ident because if they are not the right type then it can give the ident a bad result.

Typography is the type of font that they use, in idents they need to use big and bold writing so that the channel stands out clearly. If one channel held programmes that were about gardening or the earth and the font of the writing was all fancy, it would not be suitable. The typography needs to be neutral so it does not make a big impact on the channel. Due to an ident identifying a particular channel if the font was to always change then the audience may confuse the channels and think they are different. It is vital to keep the font the same. This is a bad thing to have a limitation on the typography because you can not be as creative with the ident. It is positive that there is this limitation on the font because otherwise people may not be attracted to that channel and may want to change that channel due to the font being too fancy they might think the programme on is not going to be the genre they would want.

The colour takes a main part in an ident. BBC 1, for example, the colour of the ident they use is very neutral and relates to different locations. Recently the ident is hippos swimming around the 'BBC 1' logo. Normally, they may change to another atmosphere, maybe the ocean or land. They use these neutral colours to create a mood for the programmes on that channel. Whereas, E4 use the same colour all the time, purple. This is so that people will remember E4 as being the purple channel. Colour can be a limitation to a TV ident because for a kids channel you would need bright colours, if you were to use a dull black colour for a kids channel then the children will not be interested. The colour takes a big part in setting the mood for the programmes on the channel so they have to be suitable. By using this limitation it is bad because you can not use the colours that you may want to use to express the feeling or mood of the channel. Having this limitation on the colour is good because otherwise people would be getting the colours wrong and may put a bad review on that channel. It also keeps the channels separated from others so it keeps the identification for that channel unique.

When making a TV ident you need to think about the aspect ratio. It is very important that the ident has the right aspect ratio because you do not want to be seeing a small screen with black around the outside. All the high definition programmes must be in 16:9 Widescreen. This means that the moving picture must fill the screen vertically and horizontally 16:9 without geometric distortion.


The Cinemascope ratio, letterbox is delivered to a dedicated movie channel or programmes that may be shown with an active picture in the cinema. The ratios for these channels have to be 2.35:1 (21:9) or 1.85:1 centred vertically between black bars in a 16:9 frame. This will fill the width of the farm with no geometric distortion.



Another ratio that has to be took into consideration is the floating images. Short clips of images that are surrounded by black borders may be used for an artistic effect. We need to take into account that widescreen consumer TV sets operating in Auto Zoom/ Auto mode often make large black borders at the top and bottom of the screen which is known as the letterbox, this is likely that it will enlarge the image. Having the unpredictable zooming can be frustrating for the viewer and make the artistic intent not seem clear. If floating images is used then the black space around the clip must be the same across the sequences of the images.

Pillarboxed, HD material is acceptable at the attention of the broadcaster where it has been captured on a medium size and it has the efficiency to be transferred to a HD decision. The pictures have to be placed in the centre of the frame 16:9 raster with no geometrical distortion.




Finally, the aspect ratio, archive is the last one you need to keep in mind. The archive material should be zoomed in to fill the frame 16:9 raster, hopefully possible without adjusting the image quality. If you do then it may be shown in a pillar-box format. This has to not show any geometrical distortion and they must have clean and very sharp pillar-box edges. Finally it must be black outside the moving picture, unless been told by the broadcaster.

Having these limitations on the aspect ratio is positive because the picture could be distorted on the screen or the image would be too zoomed in and you may not reveal the whole image that you want to be shown. Although it is positive it can also be negative because you may want a certain type of aspect ratio that you can not use because of the limitation.

Adhering to a desired tone is vitally important to have limitations otherwise they may become out of hand. It is important to stick with one tone otherwise people may not realise the difference between each channel if every one has a variety of tones they use. For example, E4 uses one tone which is a low and slow mans voice when mentioning 'E4'. When the commentator is talking he uses as cheery voice.


This is good because then people will remember that channel easier and may relate to the voice and tone when explaining to a friend. Having this limitation on the tone is negatively taken because it can set the mood for the next programme so if there was a comedy programme on next you may not be able to exaggerate that feeling as much as you would want. It is also a good thing to have this limitation on the tone because it can show the type of programmes shown on that channel as well. If the tone is a comedy voice then you would think there are programmes which could be funny. The CBBC ident always uses different funny voices singing 'CBBC'. This is very well put as the children may want to sing with it and make their own funny voice.




In conclusion the duration is very important as you would not want to be watching a 3 minute long ident because you would easily get bored. It is important to have a short ident that will not be too long or too short so the audience takes notice of what channel it is. Also, you need it to be long enough so you can get enough information gathered in one ident, maybe what's up next or what's on later. An example of an ident that has two versions, a short and long version is the dog display. They may use the short version if there is not enough time during breaks or wether they are just identifying the channel. If they are saying what is one next or coming up during the week then they may use the long version to fit the speaking in.




It is a bad thing sometimes because if there were a lot of programmes coming up then they would not be able to show them all at once so it would cost more money to make more to tell whats up next every time there is a break. It's a good idea to have the limitation on the duration because if it is too long people may end up changing the channel to something else. If it is too short then the audience may not get enough information.