Comedy Central is an American cable and satellite television
channel and was created in 1989. It was created with the sole purpose of being
the first channel that was devoted to comedy-based shows. 26 years later and it
is still one of the biggest comedy channels around. It carries all kinds of
comedy, such as sitcoms and stand-up comedy, as well as many feature films. I
chose Comedy Central as I really like their current idents as they tie in with
the sleek design I am looking for.
This ident begins with a shot most likely taken from a
helicopter, and is looking down on the city of London. It is moving at a
moderate speed and is not too fast yet too slow, and is just at the right speed
to be a smooth shot. You can see the Gherkin, the skyscraper, and a few other
skyscrapers from this shot. You can slightly hear a helicopter, and after a
second or two you see a helicopter come into view. The helicopter is a Boeing
Chinook, and is mostly used for cargo. You can instantly see it is carrying something,
and after a split second you can see the Comedy Central logo at a huge scale.
It is unrealistic and movie-like for a cargo helicopter to be carrying
something of that size. At 7 seconds in,
you then realise that this ident was never supposed to be realistic, as the
Chinook flies over the Gherkin and the huge logo hits the Gherkin, forcing it
to bend backwards. At first I thought the logo was closer to the camera, but
when it hits the Gherkin you realise just how big it is. After the Gherkin gets
hit, it bends backwards and wobbles back into place, almost cartoon-like. The
Chinook then continues to fly with the logo and the ident ends. I really like
how they get really large buildings and sculptures and present them in a
comedic way. The audio in this ident is very concise and to the point. The
voiceover talks about what’s coming next and says it within 5 seconds, leaving
the perfect amount of time for the logo to hit the building. I thought this was
a good and unique ident, as not many channel idents combine the use of 3D CGI
and real footage like this.
Instantly in this ident you can see the redesign of the logo
and the atmosphere of how things work now. It is a very simple and clever
design, as the main logo consists of two ‘C’s, one normal one and the other is
inverted and is on the outside of the smaller c. On the sides is the channel
name, which is a good addition and doesn’t leave too much negative space. It
begins with a very high pitched arcade game-like noise which is bound to catch
your attention. A red line comes into frame from the left to right, and is
bringing a huge red square behind it. The red line snaps off and turns into a
square, while the huge red square bounces back and covers the left half of the
screen. As the small red square falls onto the logo, the entire shape and the
red half of the screen tilt in a counteractive way. The small red square
bounces on the logo in the same position twice more, creating the same tilt
action, then jumps to the red half of the screen, where it changes to black as
it crosses the line and creates the tilt again on the other side, then jumps
back to its original place on the black half of the screen. This also has a
tilt, but is a considerable larger tilt. The red square then jumps back onto
the red half of the screen and instantly the screen flips around and goes into
a spiral of chaos. The black square then disappears along with the black half
of the screen, leaving the background red. The word ‘central’ has now been
turned upside down as a result of the spiral, which is the way it is supposed
to be. I really like the way they implemented physics into such a simple ident
and pulled it off remarkably. This is a great effect and a perfect example of
how simple motion graphics can be suitable and professional for prime-time
television. The audio, however, is not as good. Unfortunately, whenever the
announcer speaks over the ident on HD, the background music is lost and the
voice has a slight echo to it. This doesn't happen on the standard definition
channel and is only one of the few idents that has this problem. The voiceover
has an echo to it, but is still relaxed and adds humour to the ident. The voice
says where the next program will take place, and then asks “Why? Because that’s
what it says in the schedule, okay?” I like the fourth wall break and the announcer
knowing it’s a TV channel and mentioning a schedule rather than a lot of TV
channels that just tell you what’s going to be on next. This makes the
atmosphere less tense and makes the voice-over a little less boring.
This program ident I chose to talk about because it is very
quick and snappy, and makes use of simple motion design. The screen in the
first frame is simply the word ‘now’, in a very elegant cursive font. It then
switches to a black screen where a red square is in the centre of the frame. It
then rotes diagonally and bounces in the air, revealing different-coloured
circles each time. At the end of the 6th circle, the red square
turns into a red line and swipes to the left, presenting the word ‘Friends’, a
classic sitcom, in its own font. It’s not so much the motion graphics but the
audio that makes this ident so good and beautifully random. At the beginning of
the ident you can hear some sort of rattling or shaking, which sounds like a
box of many small things. You can then hear a heavy zip, which then goes to the
black screen. As the red square jumps in the air all you can hear is the “buck”
of a chicken, in sync with the bounces. At the end, when the line is showing
the word Friends, there is the sound of a chicken doing a very loud buck or squeal.
I really like this ident simply because it is so random and makes no sense, yet
is good and does what it is made for.
The first shot of this of this ident gives you the colour
scheme for the ident, which is bright orange on dark blue. I think it works
well and makes the orange stand out very well. The ident begins with the Comedy
central logo coming closer to the screen and getting much blurrier, which is
then followed by two shapes from the top and bottom of the screen to make the
camera feel like an eye, or two eyes. It reopens and you can still see the
Comedy Central logo, which is still blurry. It has a few echoes when it moves and
moves further away from the camera. As it does this it becomes clearer to see.
Once it gets to a certain point, it gets blurry again, followed by the same eye
animation for consistency. I like this effect, as it makes the viewer feel and
know that the ident is supposed to make you know that the camera is drunk and
cannot concentrate on the logo and is having a hard time understanding and
seeing what is going on, hence the opening and closing eyes. The logo moves
backwards and forwards in very subtle variations and has an echo very close to
its trail. It stays very close to the centre of the frame and this makes the
ident look professional. It gets very clear for a few seconds, and then gets
blurrier once again. Once this happens, the logo becomes very clear and stops
moving around, staying in the centre of the frame. This is when the ident ends.
The audio for this was very helpful in aiding the ident, as it had the same
flow as the motion graphic. At the beginning the music starts, but you can hear
the slight sound of bottles clinking, indicating beer bottles. The announcer then
begins talking, and he also sounds drunk, to give the ident the full effect.
This ident was probably created for ‘Drunk History’ which is what the voiceover
mentions in the ident. He then says what will be on next, the logo becomes
clearer and the ident ends. I think this was a very simple yet effective ident
and it worked in what it was trying to achieve. I also like how it had contrast
yet wasn’t too bright on the eyes, which must have taken some thought.
The common element in all these idents is that all of them
have some sort of computer imagery in them, such as the 3D logo in the air
hitting the Gherkin, or the other three idents I analysed which were all
probably made in Adobe After Effects. The last three were very simple yet were
very good on TV, as audio was used and everything was in sync. However, the
first one did use real footage, which could be seen as more interesting in some
viewer’s eyes. Personally, my favourite ident out of the four was the inverting
colours ident, where the bouncing square went from one half of the screen to
the other. I liked the trippy effect that took place when the screen was
spinning, and thought it was quite remarkable that it could be replicated in
After Effects, where it was most likely created. The last one I analysed, the
Blurred Vision ident, was a different colour scheme to the first two motion
design colour schemes. This was to suit the scene, and worked well. The target
audience for the first ident was for all ages, as it was just some splendid 3D
software that made the Gherkin wobble like it was just out of a cartoon. The next two were also for all ages, as they
had no specific theme. The last one was leaning more towards the older
audience, as the theme was drunkenness and not being able to see straight. All
of themes were positive and cheerful, as it is a comedy-based channel and they
want to spread this comedy even in their idents. I watch comedy central for
only one show but even then I love seeing the variety of idents they feature
along with it. Their colour in the first ident was a bit bleak for the original
footage but this makes the focus on the logo stronger as its colour scheme is
red, white and black, and also the fact that it is huge. They use this same
colour scheme in the next ident, and I liked seeing this colour scheme in
motion, as it had a good contrast and didn’t leave anything unseen. The movement
in all of the idents is a bit sudden at times, and this helps regain focus on
the important parts of the ident. This can be seen in all of the idents I evaluated.
In the first one, the logo hitting the building was quite sudden, and the
building bouncing back was much more sudden and was very fast. If it was any
slower the effect would not have looked so good. The second ident speaks for
itself, as it spins around very fast and keeps the viewer occupied and
wondering what’s coming next. The program ident was just as impressive, as the
entire ident was very fast and kept you on your toes the entire time. The last
ident was also at a high speed, as the blurriness and the depth of field effect
were changing constantly. The first ident did not have too much going on in the
rest of the ident, leaving your eyes to concentrate on the building and the
logo. The rest of the idents are all in the centre, which makes it much easier
for your eyes to follow a centred object. I really like Comedy Central’s
approach to idents and is one of the few channels that create motion graphics
like this.
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