New YEAR, New BRIEF. IDENT

Ah, the start to a new year, a further step into my career.

The new brief title is "IDENT" a 20 second trailer for a programme on a TV channel.
The stand out programme, or in this case season is "FEAR" an ident for a series of horror/thriller films on channel 4.
My first step of research is to view other idents form previous horror seasons.


This is bbc's 2 ident.

My firsts thoughts are the eerie location, which is a graveyard. I think this is a bit cheesy, however you instantly know it is a advert for something scary. Then there are the clips of classic horrors, which confirm it is an advert for a horror programme. The music is also key, loud and dark, creating an atmosphere. And, finally the deep voice over. A film trailer classic. I believe BBC 2 have gone for the B-Movie look, with the mummified "2" at the end. This isn't really my thing, looks a bit "Buffy the vampire" really tacky

This is ITV's

This, personally, is poop. It's just a montage of horror clips with a cheesy song about the boogyman. Not good what-so-ever, the guys at ITV obviously couldn't be bothered that day. This is an example of what not to do.


This is TV3's

I'm not totally sure what TV3 is, but this is a good attempt at something original. If i'm honest i'm not sure if it is for a horror series. But, I like how its unexpected, it seems like a advert for a music programme and then BAM! there is blood everywhere.



This would be the trailer for the american re-make of The Grudge, sorry for the Sarah M. Gellar intro.

What i like about this is the invert hair, for the titles/credits. It's a nice colour scheme, not one you would label with horror, but it as a soft uneasy feel. The font also flows with the hair and there is something unsettling about the distorted/larger letters in the font. The music helps with this though.

This is 2 trailers from The Blair Witch Project.

The second trailer is better than the first one, but neither of them are that great. What i do like about them is that in parts your not quite sure what you are looking at, and that unsurity is scary. The bit with the hand prints on the wall. When you think about it they could be any old hand prints, but with the right music your head automatically goes to blood. Also, the bit with the girl running, again she could be running away from anything, but we think it is something terrible.
I also like how the short text at the beginning sets the tone for the whole trailer.

What i have learn't from these few idents and trailers is that you have to identify your audience quickly. I wasn't a fan of the BBC2 ident, but it captured the horror feel instantly. However, i feel they did it in the wrong way, i previously said that i think they went for a B-Movie look, but it was too polished, they could have added film grain. It also mixed gernres, It was set in a graveyard, which we normally associate with zombies, but a mummy jumped out of the grave.
The TV3 ident did not indentify the horror audience at first, and if i'd have seen that when surfing through the channels looking for something about horror then i would have gone straight past it.
The horror trailers are good examples, because they get to the point. The music is right, the visuals fit and you know exactly what your watching.

I think with this ident being only 20 seconds long you have indentify the genre within 3 seconds and keep the pace going.