BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Probably because adding an identifiable soundtrack would "compromise the visceral urgency of the images" and rob them of the "raw integrity and authenticity that's fundamental to the post-mordernist zeitgeist they are aiming to convey"... (Or some such artistic BS speak)

OK, first of all, long time reader, first time poster here. As an American, for whatever reason, the way presentation works on your end of the Atlantic fascinates me so much more than the crap we get saddled with here. That said...



This is why I don't see this look lasting long. Never mind that it's total crap visually, these remind me of the problem HTV's first post-aerial ident had, namely that there's no decent cue for the announcer to start talking over the audio. It makes it a guessing game for them, which makes it a complete mess on the other end of the television screen. My impression is if there are any other announcers that feel like the BBC Wales one did at the start, they're gonna lobby for a change, and fast.

If I was one of those people asked to stand in the sea, stare gormlessly into infinity, and then turn around...waiting for a "it's in the can, it's a wrap!" - I would have said something along the lines of "Hey, what sort of idea is this for an ident???". Others would join....in an example of showing oneness!!

Maybe an idea for an ident is an ident being filmed, with everyone in the ident complaining how **** it is - followed by that 3 note sting you hear in comedies or films when something goes wrong, or you hit a nail into your finger.

It is something like C, B, B Flat. Play those notes on any keyboard or piano and you will know what I am referring to.

That would provide the jingle grabbing grabbing part of the ident!!

The other thing about this whole concept that is so obviously up it's own liberal metropolitan London a*se is the use of 'renowned portrait photographer' Martin Parr. Those clever folk at the BBC (who vaguely remember seeing a couple of his portraits at an exhibition in Battersea once) smugly think they've pulled off a major coup in getting Martin to capture his slices of real life for them. I bet it hasn't even crossed their minds that your average Bob & Doris from Pontefract have never heard of him and wouldn't know his work if you slapped them round the chops with it.

I must admit to being surprised by the uniform negativity towards these new idents by virtually everyone on the forum. Usually when a rebrand like this happens, we have the knee-jerk reaction of several posters saying how bad it is with colourfully OTT language, followed as that dies down by a calmer reaction and people saying that they quite like it actually, and within a few days everyone's used to it.

Meanwhile it's been two days since this new look began and I'm still seeing constant comments added here and on social media, and not just by regular anoraks like me but by those who actually have something to do with the industry.

The thing that strikes me the most about these, and presumably the following idents to come, is how similar they are to what's on ITV. I would have thought that BBC One would want a unique look that sets it apart from its main competition, if only so viewers subconsciously associate the channel with something other than 'one-shot scenes of everyday life'.

Indeed, both channel's idents make the channel name/logo itself very much secondary to the footage. ITV's logo literally blends into the background, and BBC One's logo has been demoted to a small space at the bottom of the screen.

For example, if they were shown with no logos at all, would the average viewer be able to tell you which channel's ident was which from these two?


(Screenshots from The Ident Gallery)

It just seems strange to me that the BBC are willingly going with a concept that is so strikingly similar to what is on ITV.

Good point. The only reason I know the top one is BBC is because of the subtitles caption.

Are you able to give some example? It would be interesting to see what those in the Indrusty are saying.

I also find its rather crud that there also people complaining about OUR right to complain about these awful things, apart from the fact TV is one of the only things which many people can see because there house bound or in poverty etc its the that TV etc is surpose to take us away from all the nasty thing in the world just for a little while, because if we didnt have that or even this place I think alot of people would die young from all the problems going on in the real world, you need time to enjoy stuff.

Other fact is since were paying for this, its bad enough the license fee is being gobbed up by the free for over 75's and paying for the world service at nearly 20% that even bigger cut.

If anyone from the BBC is reading this, pass on a message please. You can improve the presentation by:

1) Adding a jingle when the logo forms.
2) Making the credit endboards at the end of shows the same style as the main trailer endboard.
3) Using a different jingle and endboard, that goes with the new look for the 8pm News.
4) Adding two or three more idents to provide a bit of variety.
5) Creating a generic news ident: Just the red endboard with BBC One logo would suffice.

That would, in the short term at least, alleviate some of the non-stop criticism.

At least, in the case of the swimmers, ITV have bothered to capture them actually doing what they're meant to be doing (i.e. swimming). In the BBC version all they are doing is standing in the water looking confused and gormless. I've no idea whether they actually are a local swimming club or just a bunch of random old dears on a day out that the BBC paid to stand on a beach until the tide came in...

'Clever' is a bit too generous. They're thick as s**t with regards to their 'creativity'.

Even a 12 year old who's on Instagram or playing Call of Duty, or even the guy that got -£15,000 on the Chase can think of better ideas.

1) Bringing back the Hippos.
2) Bringing back the Balloon.
3) Bringing back Rhythm and Movement.

Or, better still, a totally new ident set featuring a dancing hippo in a hot air balloon...