Evaluation

 Evaluation

I started by explaining and identifying what I will intend to start doing in my ident campaign, my objective was to rebrand a known channel's ident. The channels that I was could choose from are those of the channels provided by Freeview. On these I chose originally two channels and done prior research to have a final decision of what channel I was going to choose. The two channels that I chose at first were Great! and Paramount Network channel. Out of the 2 I chose Paramount Network as I felt it would give me more of a good opportunity in terms of filming. I then chose how long the idents were and how many I was going to produce. I decided to go with the 2 x 30 second idents, this is because I felt it would be easier to film the shots and I would not have to stretch out to reach the required time. I began by researching what it's current idents were and have found that it was more modern and digital, containing transitions and animation effects, which are blended with different themed shots of characters. I have decided to stick with this layout where the logo appears in the middle. For my first idea I intended to have a character run into a room with a gun, where others can be seen sitting down with the camera shot from the back of the relaxed characters. As the character with the gun comes running in the relaxed characters jump and run towards the cameras direction. On this part I intended for it be done in slow motion to increase the amount of time coverage. This ident was to portray a theme of action or thriller, since action is a genre that Paramount Network covers. The second ident I intended for had a sports element, in this area I had ideas of implementing visuals of characters playing sports in the background while I would have a voiceover. I started by doing more research, which was finding conventional ideas in popular existing idents such as Universal, Warner Bros and Channel 5. This gave me further insight on how idents work. I then started my treatment, which included a synopsis of my idea, my target audience how I could appeal to them, what medium I aim for and the running time for each ident. My synopsis included the general ideas of both my idents and where they would start from. In this original first ident idea I have stated that "I would use a logo in the visual background with 2 or 3 figures running into a room, jumping over obstacles. Running from a figure with a prop gun. This visual will transition into a slow motion effect and will also contain a blur effect. This will be the visual background as it represents the many shows on this channel. Since they are more related towards an action or thriller theme. I will use music that will link with the slow motion, the genre of this music will be more classical, and played in a subtle volume to make sure the focus is on the narration as well as the center of the visual which is the logo of Paramount." This was the original intended idea that I have written. Compared to how it turned out now it is very different as I had to make many improvisations since some of things that I wanted to happen did not actually meet up to my expectations. This includes the slow motion sound effect, I could not find any slow motion sound effects that fit into my slow motion visual effect as either the sound was not ambient enough or the momentum of both the visual or audio did not match. 

For the second ident my original idea was to start with a close up on a ping pong ball that is about to be hit. It was supposed to appear into the frame of the camera going upwards, eventually being hit. This visual was also intended to be done in slow motion. However compared to the visual now it is different. Since the slow motion did not meet the time I needed it to meet, I had to implement more visuals. I then explained that my target ages were 18 and above since my content contained violence, action and sports that were more for matured or adults. Since Paramount Networks general target range is more of older and adults, I thought it would be best to target this range as well as it would be more convenient. I then identified the medium I aim  for the channel to be working in which is TV film industry and the running time for each idents which area 30 seconds each.

After finishing the treatment I began with the pre production phase. In this phase I wrote up paperwork such as the recce, recce tables, resources, Personnel, Work Plan, Risk Assessment, Contingency Plans, Activities and Launch dates and the shooting script. After finishing the paperwork I had to also create Legal and Ethical issues and frameworks. The legal and ethical issues consisted of definitions of each term, as well as found issue within the product for each term, as well as a mention to the regulatory board that regulates television idents, which was Ofcom. I then created a Legal, Ethical and Moral analysis table which contained 3 codes of practices, with a summary of what they mean, how it could affect my work and how I could deal with it. I also mentioned other terms such as copyright, royalties and misrepresentation and linked it to my work.

I then started my frameworks which comprises of the personnel's that will engage in my production, the various stakeholders and explanations on where and how they could be responsible in a certain phase and statements for honesty, transparency and privacy. This is to show how I have kept the same or similar intentions in these 3 different areas.

I started my voiceover scripts that I would make sure I time correctly to a certain amount of time that I thought to be reasonable. This changed throughout the progression of my production to further make sure it links well with my content.

This is the point where I started my production phase, I started by collecting the shots that Intended for in the shooting script. After filming I created a rushes log with a rushes video, which is the first draft I make. After completing this I started editing my films. Through the editing phase is where I found some issues and errors. After producing the first actual drafts of my idents my teacher reviewed it and saw that more shots were needed as well as the storyline of my first ident was not really clear. I was told to have a reshoot so that I could collect more shots as well as use this opportunity to implement more scenes and angles to make my first ident look more interesting. Before my reshoot I remade a second reshoot script which was more detailed , clear and had a theme. After making the notes and script I started my reshoot. This was an event that I gained experience from so I recorded it down and posted it as a Filming Log Summary. After finishing the reshoot I resumed on the editing part of the production phase and finished a rough draft of both idents. The changes I made was that in the original idea for the fast I had a character run into a room of characters with a prop gun. The room was filled with other characters seen relaxing on a couch. After running in with the gun the other characters would scream and run towards the camera, this point would play in slow motion to extend its duration. However there were a lot of issues, one of the main issues was that the slow motion originally intended was not as long as I wanted it to be and it turned out shorter than 30 seconds. Another issue was that since the room was filmed at a bad time, there were instances where others would come into the shots unaware. Having these issues the first shooting felt unfinished and I had to improvise which still did not turn out well. After the reshoot I added more scenes and changed some of the scenes. Instead of having a character run into a room I had 2 characters being filmed one chased the other. With the use of suspenseful music this created an atmosphere that kept the audience engaged. After changing these shots and scenes, the theme was more clear and it was more easier for audiences to understand that the theme was more thriller or action based. I also made improvisations to my second ident originally which did not also turn out well. The issue was that the ident did not have a good starting point. I could not find a shot or a scene that started off the ident and linked with the rest of the shots, because of this I thought it would be best to use some of the shots filmed for the ident. This did not turn out well either as it made it unclear what the theme of the overall ident was, which was sports. After being review at the same time as my first draft ident, my teacher suggested that a reshoot with this ident will also help. I then reshot both idents on the same day, and it turned out one of the newly made shots linked as a starting point. After making drafts of the new reshoot idents, I requested for audience feedback from different individuals including my teacher. I have summarised with different students that for my second ident draft that one specific scene did not link well, and suggested that I could possibly change to a more fitting scene. I agreed upon this suggestion and began editing and finishing off my second ident. My teacher suggested that I now implement music to make the scene feel more themed and contain an atmosphere. After receiving these suggestions and possible changes I made my response post, which is where I responded to their suggestions mentioning whether I would use them and if I agree on what has been said. I then started finishing my second ident by implementing both old and new shots. At the end both of my idents comprised of different areas of implementations of features. My first ident contained suspenseful music, varieties of angles, shots as well as the use of blurs and good fade out transitions. My second ident consisted of good close up shots that angled well as well as more visual and sound effects, such as heart beats, blinks, swirls and a blur fade transition. After finishing off the production phase I started my post production phase. In this phase I created  3 reports that talked and provided evidence of different areas of my production, which are the sounds, edits/transitions and shots. I talked about what I did, and provided pictures and screen grabs of either myself or the work itself.

From creating this evaluation I can see that my final idents are very different to the original ideas that intended. My first ident ideas were to invert the logo colours, and have a blurred background having 2 or 3 characters with prop guns running into a room and jumping over obstacles. The visual effects were meant to have a main focus on slow motion features and blur. The music used would be classical or ambient to link with the slow motion. Comparing this to the final first ident, within this only 2 characters are seen not running into a room but one chasing after another on a street at night. Multiple shots of characters running inwards, towards a building and entering one after another. The music that was used instead was more suspenseful and tense which made the content more engaging. This shows a lot of changes made to the original idea however some intentions still remained such as the blur effects and the slow motion. Although it did not slow to the intended momentum, it still added time which was useful for the voice over script. Prop guns were not used in the final first ident.

For the second ident my original idea was to first have close up of a ping pong ball that was about to be hit. It would go into the frame upwards, eventually being hit. This visual will be done in slow motion. It will use music that will link with the slow motion, the genre of this music will be known hit and recognisable. It will be played in a subtle volume to make sure the focus is on the narration as well as the center of the visual which is the logo of Paramount. The purpose of this ident is to show that it also covers sports. Comparing this to the final second ident, it is different. The ping pong ball being hit was not the starting scene. The visual does not contain slow motion as originally intended but it does contain a blur effect. Although I mentioned that it would contain music, I ended up not implementing any music as it linked well with its natural audio. However there were some similarities such as the logo of paramount appearing in the center of the visual and the ball being on camera and thrown upwards. It also contained blur which is a common link in both idents that could make them easily recognisable as Paramount Network Idents.

In conclusion, the idents are very different from their original motives and intention but they still held some conventions mentioned in the original idea. Some of these ideas cross over well and links both of the idents, making it potentially more recognisable and unique to the audience