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ITV Programming Thread

The latest Matthew Hall series (April 2013)

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TO
tomo359
The last episode of Victoria tonight had special end credits rather than the white on black we normally get.
It was the same font and style, but the end shot was a beautiful long pull away single shot of Victoria and Albert on the bed, it worked so well and showed how much better this style is compared to ITV's usual style.

Unfortunately the announcer had to speak over 95% of the credits ruining the beautiful music, but at least they didn't squash the credits.
JA
james-2001
The last episode of Victoria tonight had special end credits rather than the white on black we normally get.
It was the same font and style, but the end shot was a beautiful long pull away single shot of Victoria and Albert on the bed, it worked so well and showed how much better this style is compared to ITV's usual style.


The fact that ITV are the only channel in the UK that does this (and I think T4 are the only others to ever use a generic style, and even they dropped it after a few years), and it looks so bland, really makes you wonder why they insist on sticking with it.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
The last episode of Victoria tonight had special end credits rather than the white on black we normally get.
It was the same font and style, but the end shot was a beautiful long pull away single shot of Victoria and Albert on the bed, it worked so well and showed how much better this style is compared to ITV's usual style.


The fact that ITV are the only channel in the UK that does this (and I think T4 are the only others to ever use a generic style, and even they dropped it after a few years), and it looks so bland, really makes you wonder why they insist on sticking with it.


Other channels do have guidelines to their credits, just not as forced as ITV and often not as obvious.

Channel 4 for example - credit rules pretty much boil down to left-aligned and not use the right third, which has been the case since at least the early 2000's, but no specifics on what font to use, how to do it or what colour it should be.

The BBC's basically boil down to center aligned text, for their main networks anyway. Will always remember the strange set up EastEnders (and it was only EastEnders IIRC) credits had for a while back at some point in the Rhythm and Movement era I think it was when the credits appeared to be floating off centre for no apparent reason. Of course it was to accommodate the ECP but just looked incredibly weird when it didn't turn up.

Many of the smaller channels of course don't bother with any of this and just do a random sort of squeeze on everything which may result in legibility of credits ranging from good to "wtf?".
VM
VMPhil
I never used to mind ITV's credits because they blended in well with the ECP style of the time.

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But in the 2010 revamp they for some reason decided to move the credits all the way over to the left and even shrink them for no reason, which looked awful.

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With the 2013 revamp, the credit guidelines are now mostly pointless as they're shrinked to a small box in the corner of the screen. Might as well do any credit style you like as you won't be able to see them anyway.

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Images from The Ident Gallery
CR
Critique
Every now and then an ITV show doesn't follow the end credit guidelines and it looks so much better, so I do wonder why they haven't changed it. For the last ever episode of Dancing on Ice I seem to remember that the credits were over a jib shot of celebrations in the studio, with the credits appearing as normal but with a different background. Likewise, I think an episode of Broadchurch might have ended with a shot of the cliffs zooming out once rather than black (although might have made this one up) - either way, there are much better alternatives.
JO
Joe
I no longer mind the forced credit style; there's something quite classy about the simply white on black, smallish font and so on.

It's a lot better than the blue striped background and its predecessors.
PA
pad
Be nice if they allowed an image background (significantly darkened) rather than just black.

For example, Corrie could have some cobbles, Emmerdale some countryside.

Infuriates me when they force shows to use "Previously" and "Next Time" graphics using the ITV font as well (and the writer/director credits on Corrie) - those should be in the programme's font, not ITV's.

I get why they don't want different styles, and agree there should be a level of standardisation, but a little bit of variety within a strict structure wouldn't go amiss. Certainly with regard to backgrounds and possibly even typefaces.
LL
Larry the Loafer
I remember a few occasions where the background pulled out of focus and let the credits roll on top of them. I guess that'd be a faff for a guideline but it was a nice touch.
TO
tomo359
Broadchurch did use special end credits as Critique said, but very few other shows ever get them. I think A&D's Saturday Night Takeaway has had a few different credit styles, usually a live shot of the studio with the credits overlayed which looks much better for that sort of big entertainment show.

I also agree about the 'Previously' and 'Next Time' tags, some shows do get these in unique styles/fonts, so I was surprised Victoria got the bland generic ITV style which looked so jarring. Don't know how some shows seem to get unique when others don't? Is it down to the programme makers or down to ITV? (if both are separate of course)

I guess ITV keep the black and white as its just easy and simple and reduces the chance of any errors, text cut off etc
JA
james-2001
Other channels do have guidelines to their credits, just not as forced as ITV and often not as obvious..


Theough the guidelines there usually just boil down to text size & alignment, they still can usually use their own font & background, and seem to have a choice of scrolling or not, so still keep individulaity with the programmes. It's only ever been ITV that have had a set style. Though they have allowed backgrounds in the past, we're now stuck with a black background and the ITV font on everything.
BR
Brekkie
They probably see little point in doing anything more when they've one eye on the international market where channels would nowadays often tweak them to their own in house style anyway, if indeed they show them at all.
PA
pad
Broadchurch did use special end credits as Critique said, but very few other shows ever get them. I think A&D's Saturday Night Takeaway has had a few different credit styles, usually a live shot of the studio with the credits overlayed which looks much better for that sort of big entertainment show.

I also agree about the 'Previously' and 'Next Time' tags, some shows do get these in unique styles/fonts, so I was surprised Victoria got the bland generic ITV style which looked so jarring. Don't know how some shows seem to get unique when others don't? Is it down to the programme makers or down to ITV? (if both are separate of course)

I guess ITV keep the black and white as its just easy and simple and reduces the chance of any errors, text cut off etc


Agree. Victoria using the fugly ITV font for Previously/Next Time captions was bizarre. Emmerdale uses its own font for writer/director credits, yet Corrie switched to ITV's a couple of years ago having used Trajan since 2010. Why one but not the other?

Cold Feet gets its own font for its Previously caption... So it's not clear who decides this or why it's not enforced universally.

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