Breakdown on Professional Idents

In this blog, I will choose 3 different Idents that will be compared for their visual composition, pacing, use of time and the information being given.

Warner Brothers, Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows (Part 2) (2011)

This is the ident specially made for the finale of the long running Harry Potter Saga. The ident within itself has a duration of 26 seconds. The overall tone of the ident has clearly been based of Harry Potter, which would the be logical assumption given thats what the ident is for. The pacing is slow, to match the films bleak and sad beginning before the finale really starts. The use of time is rather unconventional. 26 seconds, although doesn't sound like a lot, is. If you watch the ident, not much happens. It starts with the Warner Brothers logo slowly moving from the back to foreground and then you get a camera angle into the lettering giving a nice parallax finishing with a cross-dissolve to blend the next section in. The information given is designed so that you can look at that warner brothers logo and given you have seen any of the later Harry Potter films, you should be able to tell that this ident was based around it. For comparison purposes, heres a screenshot of Voldemort from the film.

As you can see, there is a lot of Greys and Blacks, with slight whites to give contrast in the image. The film was visually corrected and graded in post to give this image along with set and costume design to give the same colour palette that ultimately tells you that the end is near. All this visual information has been incorporated into the ident, giving it the same feel as the final film is. Further more, unlike the Universal or Fox ident, this ident is always centred with movement. Also, there isn't much information either, the back ground consists of clouds. This is all designed so that your attention, the viewers, is always drawn towards the ident and never comes off.

Underneath is the original warner brothers logo. As you can see form first glance, its somewhat similar to the logo but the main attraction is the shape and typography. These two haven't changed much, although have evolved due to the limits of technology further itself from 2D design. This logo was from 1925, 90 years ago and 86 years before the logo displayed above first reached the screen. Despite the fact the logo has obviously changed, its still similar enough to make an educated guess to which production company it was. Even though the shape and the typography has stayed the same, the composition of the image the same. Its still 100% based in the middle of the image, which is safe to say because the image has no movement in it unlike the new zoom. 

Paramount Pictures, 100th Anniversary

Paramount is the same age as Universal Studios (both established in 1912). So in 2012 both companies celebrated their big 100th anniversary and by doing so, every film they released that year had a very special ident made for them. Paramount has always been known for its mountain with the stars. The image below, compared to the Warner Brother image above, is very bright and visually disgraces Warner Brothers. Again, the composition is made so that the logo is made in the centre of the screen to gain attention and express its priority to there rest of the image. But, Warner Brothers structured theirs to not have much detail but still be visually dramatic. The idea Paramount was to give a breathtaking image that you could ideally look at for a long period of time so that its got a larger chance of sticking in your mind. In terms of pacing, the ident is much faster paced then any other ident i've seen, even arguably faster then Universal. This is because we constantly jump framing, we start of with a close-up, follow the stars through and then end with a small zoom outwards to give a larger perspective. Warner Brothers is just a zoom, and even though Universal is indeed similar and to me, more visually complex, the Paramount ident has much more information thrown at you with all the camera movement thrown across. In certain ways, this indent more simplistic designed compared to that of Warner Brothers. The above Warner Brothers ident was specifically designed to conclude one of its highest grossing film series ever. Whereas the Paramount is an anniversary, so both would have their differences and purposes.
To the left is the paramount ident. At first glance you can see that then ident has not changed much at all. The overall look is the same, except for slight design differences in the background. Just like Warner Brothers, the original ident doesn't have any motion and is practically a picture. But, back then the technology was much lesser and peoples expectations were also less. This plays a massive part in the visual composition and the information conveyed; the current demographic group, which is why the ident changes to keep in trend with its audience. The hardest part would be keeping the iconography of your Ident for the face of the brand whilst balancing that connection with your audience.

Columbia Pictures
Back in 1924, Columbia Pictures was founded. Currently, it acts a division of Sony, releasing all of the Sony films. In terms of Ident, the Columbia Picture Ident (as seen to the left) is very similar to that of the Paramount ident. The beginning opens with the Sony logo (because its "a sony company") which then zooms into the lettering, and you seen a big flare of light. This flare of light is the torch seen in the ident. As you can see, the woman is actually Lady liberty that you would see in Paris and but most famously New York. The ident from here gets slower until eventually its comes to a halt and the typography of Columbia appears behind. This entire ident is made up of 2 shots, and spans a total of 33 seconds opposed to the Warner Brother's 26 seconds. Despite being longer, the ident for Columbia Pictures feels faster, this is because of the information conveyed is much greater. Theres always something new to look at. So where as Warner Brothers have the quicker, more boring (opinion based) ident, Columbia Picture has the longer, more cinematic and interesting ident. This has been done for a reason though, as discussed above, the Warner Brothers ident was specifically made for Harry Potter and the Columbia Pictures Ident is their 2014 updated version. The main attract for the ident though isn't the wording unlike Universal, its actually Lady Liberty. When you look into the meaning of the statue, and why the french made on for the americans, you can see why. The Americans, and somewhat, the rest of the world sees this statue as a monument for hope, and people aboard will fly over to america just to see it. So, having such a famous, and positively seen monument for the production company's iconography will make the viewers see the Statue and link the company with everything the statue is famous for and what it means.
On the right is the original ident for Columbia Pictures back in 1924. As you can see, the overall composition of the image is the same. Its got a woman that looks like Lady Liberty but in a different pose as the centre point of the image and around her you have clouds surrounding. The lighting in the image is fully on the woman, this shows importance, and directs the eyeline of the viewer as the eye is trained to always go to the bright part of anything. Strangely, the ident doesn't have any wording in it. Unlike Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures, which do. The overall ident doesn't move either, which is actually expected for the 1920s as camera movements weren't as commonly used (back then it was limited to zoom, pans and tilts anyway). Just like the other idents back in the early 20th century, the ident is surprisingly short compared to what they are today. The Columbia Ident in 1924 was only 6 seconds, but this is because the Ident is basically an image, and didn't have anything visually intriguing for the audience to last more then 15 seconds without being taken out of the immersion thats been set.