Film Ident Research

Film distribution studios focus on the marketing of a film, like public screenings, trailers, advertisements, and the release date for films. Film production studios make films. They supply actors, manage props, scripts, filming schedules and location. All film production studios and film distribution studios have idents, which help the audience to clearly identify them. Film idents are at the start of all films you will see, even small budget films will have the ident of the film production and distribution studio that worked on that film at the start. Film idents can also set the tone for the film, and show what the genre of the film will be (horror/fantasy) etc.
There are 6 major film production companies, whose idents are popular and well known. They are Universal, Columbia, Disney, Fox, Paramount and DreamWorks. Popular idents (like the ones listed) also have the power to change their ident slightly to fit the film (for example 20th Century Fox changed the iconic ident to be blue tinted and snowing, and with different music for the start of Edward Scissorhands, and for The Wedding Planner the iconic lady holding the torch was dressed in a white wedding dress holding up a bouquet of flowers).

Universal - popular film studio




The Universal ident (shown above) lasts 21 seconds. It is effective in many ways as the name 'Universal' is large and the world being shown in the ident suggests that the film shown will appeal to a wide audience range, all around the world. As the word 'Universal' travels across the Earth, the different countries light up, possibly signifying that watching films by Universal will make people happier and 'light up the world'. The music is dramatic, but uplifting, and is obviously recognisable, so makes the audience want to carry on watching. As it fades out and shows the world lit up with space around it and 'Universal' across it, there is the Universal website address below it, which would appeal to an internet-savvy audience who would perhaps want to find out more about Universal and its future projects. This shows that Universal is in touch with a more technology advanced audience, and it shows the audience that the film is relatively new and modern. The colours used in the ident are bright, as the lit-up, inviting Earth stands out across against the black space, making it noticeable and appealing. Some of the films Universal have produced/distributed are Jurassic Park, E.T, and Jaws, hence why it is so popular around the world - like the ident suggests!

Icon - independent studio ident






The Icon film ident (shown above) lasts for 15 seconds before fading out. Even though it's shorter than the Universal ident, which could have been a positive, this ident doesn't give much of an impact. No music is used over the ident, instead it's the sound of thunder rumbling, which does create a dramatic effect, but you don't exactly signify the sound of thunder with Icon studios, and it also sets a moody tone for the film, which doesn't exactly go with some of the films Icon has produced (example being Kevin and Perry Go Large). If they had of used their own music, they might be slightly more recognisable and therefore a little bit more popular. The icon of the mans eye is shown all the way through, and the use of some sort of animation might have made the icon more appealing to all audience, instead of being quite plain. However, the icon of the man's eye stands out across the black background, and is fairly recognisable as being the Icon logo.

Things to consider with my ident:
  • Time- too long can bore an audience, and being as it's only two minutes of film we have, the shorter the better.
  • Colour- eye-catching colour like in the Universal ident helps to make an audience remember the company and have the ident will have more of an impact. However, as it's the opening of a thriller that we're creating, the tone set should really be more like the tone from the Icon ident, with muted colours.
  • Sound- the music should really be dramatic and tense to set the tone, as happy music at the start could make the audience confused about what they expect to see from the tone.

    I have finished my research into film idents, so the next logical step is choose a genre for my film opening.