Channel 4 Movies Ending

I'm not sure how long they've been doing this, but they may have discovered the way to end the squashing of Movie credits.

Of course the problem that broadcasters have is that the credits last for a while, so without cutting them the only thing they can do is plug more shows or services (or in Disney Channel's case show a filler cartoon)which usually (especially in ITV's case) involces squashing (and in ITV's case, squashing the 16:9 credits into their strip on their ECP).

Though at the end of American Pie on Channel 4 tonight they promoted Film Four, but instead of squashing horrizontally or vertically, they added the promotion into the top 3rd of the screen (not a problem as they scroll), but as not to block too much of the credits, the background to the promotion (which was red) had a gradient on it, so that it faded to make the text readable under the bottom part of the promotion.

And if you can understand that, does anyone know if this is new or old procedure?

They've been doing that for ages - and I'm talking years, not months!

Really? Even the gradient fade? Wow! I've noticed them doing the add on to the top, and I've seen it at the bottom before, but I've never seen a gradient fade used.

Without seeing a capture or watching a C4 film, I'm not quite sure what you mean by the gradient fade, so perhaps it has changed slightly lately.

This is a much better ECP layout IMO. The credits get their space, either scrolling up the screen or across the bottom - and the promo grabs your attention much more than it does in a box on the side of the screen.

I agree it's a much better way of doing ECPs

Plus you can kindof watch the trail and read credits at the same time too which is an advantage

Yeah, I agree with that. Especially if you are watching 16:9 on a 4:3 TV, so it appears under the black bars and gets your attention.

As I haven't got a capture card I could not capture it, though I've tried to mock it up.
It looked something like this...

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/filmfourcreditad.jpg

What I meant by Gradient Fade was that it was a fade which worked like a gradient on the background, so that it faded bit by bit, rather than everything fading.

That's a completly new design now - makes sense of your original post!

Prefer the old layout though!

Notice that some of the American and Australian networks are now using this type of layout, rather than credits on the RHS.

Sorry for being so confusing at first!
It is a better design.
If only ITV could do this on films rather than squash a 16:9 picture into their general ECP.

The good thing about Channel 4 is that they ask all producers to produce with the credits on the left of the screen, so it's easy to place their ECP onto. Plus they have their 1/3 of the screen version and so don't ruin none left hand credited programmes by squashing them slightly.
ITV aren't the worst, CiTV are much worse, though the Disney Channel is disgraceful. They started to use a 3 Channel next screen straight after programme (most common at Christmas), though recently they've started to use them whilst the credits are running, though they're squahsing the credits off most screen, and squashing them to be around half an inch on my TV (and I can only see half of them.

yep but with american networks movie credits get reformatted in a network look (as with all their shows). They reduce 7 minute movie credits into 1minute as the fly by page-by-page.

Seven, as a network, dont have the man power to have movie credits retyped so what they do is speed them up to 2 minutes (some credits go for 7 minutes) in time to the promo. No gradient fade but the credits scroll in its original form.

http://img188.exs.cx/img188/6593/sevenmovieecp7ti.jpg
The promo space is much much bigger than C4 with thw top 75% for the promo in 16:9 (4:3 safe)