NextBigThing's posts, page 2

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Having just watched the Points West interview, I am a little more reassured about the whole thing. It seems that the expectation is that the 'oneness' campaign will only run for 2017 and that, apart from 2 other idents that have been filmed in Wales (which I assume will be the wheelchair rugby team and Brecon Beacons rescuers to be shown in February), no others have yet been filmed.

Not only does this mean that we will likely only have to put up with them for a year, but that any future unfilmed idents might be improved upon as the creative team adjust their approach following audience reaction to the disappointing first set.

Imagine if they had spent huge sums on filming all of them already and we then had to be stuck with them for 4 or 5 years like the Rhythm & Movement set?!! At least they are likely to make way for something new next January, by which time there may be a BBC-wide rebrand underway, or key personnel might have moved on and the whole approach could very well change again.

As I said in a previous post, perhaps this year-long campaign is an experiment by the BBC to move to cheaper but more frequently changing ident packages (after the last 10 years of one package), or it might just be timed as a stop-gap to fill 12 months until a much larger cross channel revamp. Don't forget that, after the expense of the Olympics last year, the BBC might not have had as much money to spend on rolling out a new permanent package with the production standards we've come to expect. Hopefully this is a ''lull" year and something much better is not too far around the corner.

Incidentally, Campaign Live website has also picked-up on the story and confirmed the collaboration with Martin Parr is only for 1 year. Also, very interestingly, apart from the involvement of Martin Parr, the creative people involved in the current campaign are the same as those for the Christmas Day idents.

How can BBC1 create a decent presentation?

At its core the concept of taking snapshots of modern Britain is quite a good one - it has just never been fully thought through. Instead of what we have, the BBC could have commissioned a whole range of different (i.e. diverse) photographers, artists, sculptors etc - the idents themselves would then be about these people creating their compositions with a final form-up showing their results, probably with the actual subject in the background as a kind of comparison & contextualisation. You could have several different versions of the same ident, in each case the same subject matter but with the different artist's view of it (i.e. 10 subject matters x 5 different artists = 50 different ident combinations). The same sonic logo would be used across all of them, but each artist would have their version of it to characterise their unique signature style. This would demonstrate how everyone views things in different ways, and yet how BBC One can bring everyone together in 'oneness'.

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

In my opinion, the only way this would have worked is if the BBC had done some kind of Imagine profile on him and his work (perhaps a documentary on how he filmed the new idents) and shown this in prime time before launching the ident set, so the average viewer would then know & appreciate what they're looking at. At the very least they should put his name or animated signature on each ident, so people can look him up and see other examples of his work.

At its core the concept of taking snapshots of modern Britain is quite a good one - it has just never been fully thought through. Instead of what we have, the BBC could have commissioned a whole range of different (i.e. diverse) photographers, artists, sculptors etc - the idents themselves would then be about these people creating their compositions with a final form-up showing their results, probably with the actual subject in the background as a kind of comparison & contextualisation. You could have several different versions of the same ident, in each case the same subject matter but with the different artist's view of it (i.e. 10 subject matters x 5 different artists = 50 different ident combinations). The same sonic logo would be used across all of them, but each artist would have their version of it to characterise their unique signature style. This would demonstrate how everyone views things in different ways, and yet how BBC One can bring everyone together in 'oneness'.

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Any professional rebrand worth its salt should: a) not 'forget' to change a prominent element of pres during prime time; and b) not have been given the go-ahead in the first place if the concept and its execution is so poor that there is no suitable way of linking into news output, let alone a major incident or national crisis.

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

My point is this... Martin Parr "is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in particular documenting the social classes of England, and more broadly the wealth of the Western world." (Wikipedia). Unless the majority of the audience have heard of him and are familiar with his work, then most people will be unable to place these idents in the correct context, and therefore will not appreciate what the BBC have tried to do here. As a result most people just won't 'get it' and it simply comes across as a load of old rubbish.

Interesting that he lives near Bristol. I wondered why both idents are from the West Country... Looks like he popped out for a walk one afternoon and filmed these on his camcorder. Either that or the BBC is so cash strapped that they can't afford his train fare to other parts of the UK.

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

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

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

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...

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

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.

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)

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Sadly, I imagine they're here to stay for at least the rest of the year, as the BBC is keen to show us all the wonderful things that bring us together as a nation. Let me predict others in the series...

March - a group of Eurocrats stare blankly at the camera as they are handed a signed copy of Article 50.

April - a group of kids, their faces covered in melted chocolate, stare blankly at empty Easter egg boxes. One of them throws up.

May - a group of families sit in their cars eating egg sandwiches and staring blankly out to sea whilst the windscreen wipers go full pelt as they celebrate the traditional May Day trip to the seaside.

June - a group of people on Henman Hill, staring blankly.

July - a group of people at a crowded airport stare blankly waiting for the baggage handlers to call off their strike so they can go on their holidays.

August - same group of people (this time sunburnt and in shorts & sombreros) stare blankly at suitcases on the baggage reclaim as they arrive back home.

September - a group of mothers stare blankly as they hand battered sausages, chips and burgers to their kids through the school fence.

October - a group of sinister gay clowns (several minority boxes ticked here) stare blankly out from behind some bushes.

November - a family group comes together to watch a backyard firework display, staring blankly as the catherine wheel nailed to the fence fails to go round.

December - Charlotte Moore and a group of her colleagues from BBC Creative stare blankly at their P45's out the front of Broadcasting House whilst snow falls.

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

[quote="Robert Williams" pid="1040904]If, as I read somewhere, there are 24 idents or scenarios, then maybe the idea is to have two of them per month, culminating in the Christmas idents in December?[/quote]

Yes, there's probably 2 per month, timed to perfectly reflect the national pastimes of the season. I suspect ident 3 - the (not-at-all-patronising) wheelchair rugby team one - will debut in Feb just before the 6 Nations kicks-off, along with ident 4 - rescuers in the Brecon Beacons - because large numbers of the population traditionally come together to get lost in these during February...

BBC Oneness - idents and presentation

Well, at least the fancy dress element would have made them more engaging to look at!