Missing Presentation thread

The unused ITV hearts off the old Continuity Booth website. I'm not talking about the well-known ones that you get on youtube but ones that looked like prototype versions of the ones finally used. They were a much darker purple and had pretty sinister music to them, plus all the station logos were yellow only, no full colour ones. I'm surprised these never resurfaced like the other ones.

For Granada, I don't think every variant of the 1995-99 idents has been found. Although I don't think I remember it, I've been told there's a candle one. There's a short version of the soap ident recently uploaded onto youtube and the first time I've seen it for many years, however, the full version included a woman's leg. Granada Reports titles in 1987 - I've seen a clip on TV Ark from a short bulletin but not the full main edition titles. Pretty much any Granada Reports titles from before 1980 or shows like Scene At Six Thirty, I don't think I've ever seen either.

That's right, it did... IIRC a sort of multi window / split-screen intro with shots of the bath.


These sound interesting... Anyone?

Are these the ones you're after? I'm pretty sure I got them from the Continuity Booth site:

http://youtu.be/gVp5vUKz_SM
http://youtu.be/A2jyLoX9k2o
http://youtu.be/1JjlRXwtc5Y
http://youtu.be/K39tHLZOGdM
http://youtu.be/OdMxvT0RQC4
http://youtu.be/NlJsPRBnvfI

Also its seem the FULL LENGTH of the Stv idents have appeared on line

http://www.youtube.com/user/RageMusicLtd/videos?shelf_index=0&sort=dd&tag_id=&view=0

Which includes the full version ( not edited) of Architecture ident

Hopeful the Scotland tonight Promo for its creation will also appear soon.

Bingo! That's them. It's been a few years since I last saw them. These were clearly created after the ones that were due to launch in October 1998 were abandoned. These will be from 1999 and you can see the evolution into what finally materialized in November of that year. I've always found these ones to be rather dark and sinister and clearly the final versions where lightened up somewhat, however, there's some interesting observations. For a start, the basic design has been settled on i.e. live action leading to a heart shape and then logo with hearts spinning in the background. Carlton was still on board, which means these will be from early 1999. The proposed use of a heard in the logo box for Carlton instead of nothing at all is also interesting. Carlton, Yorkshire and Anglia represent the three main power blocks of ITV at the time (Carlton Communications, GMG, UNM) and Anglia already has the over-sized station name box that UNM insisted upon for both Anglia and Meridian. Whilst Carlton clearly didn't think they were good enough and so broke ranks; their own excellent Lambie-Nairn ones were clearly based these, including the atmospheric, almost surreal music that continuously plays once the logo has formed. Again, thanks for uploading them.

Is this BBC2 ident (1.01 in) on any pres website? I can't seem to find it.

'Time' Season? It's buried way back in the PP's archives from 1999 but still works - file 5519. I have a separate example or two of the symbol as well. Vaguely recall another major site featuring it previously... Possibly TV Home.

Yep, it was on TV Home.

I have to ask what was planned for October 1998? why was it ditched?

Also http://web.archive.org/web/20030401211435/http://www.tvhome.co.uk/bbc_two.shtml in connection to that BBC two ident

Can't say I remember that ident. Good to see Silk still in use (still the BBC Two ident of the 90s to me) for what would've been its last year. Boo to Mersey Blues and the other various shows depicting Liverpool as a craphole, that the BBC was showing around that time.

I'm led to believe by others (i.e. no actual hard evidence) that these idents were planned to be launched with the new itv logo, the heart emblem and NPU trailers on the 5th October 1998...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62q_yCrGZcs&list=PL589CFCFE06E560BB

Interestingly, it seems this was at a rather advanced stage before the plug was pulled; merely weeks if not days before implementation. Why, we can only speculate. My guess is that Carlton would've been the chief culprit in terms of dissent. I doubt SMG or UTV had any input seen as they had no intention of even adopting the NPU trailers or heart motif in any way, shape or form. It didn't happen and the individual styles of the different ITV companies' logos remained in each region, despite the new slogan and standardized network promotion trailers in a completely new style.

Although it is often said that with the consolidation of ITV into three main blocs (Carlton, GMG and UNM ) made the 1999 generic look more likely to succeed than the 1989 one, it should be noted also that the approach was different. In 1989, the newly created ITV Network Centre took a unilateral approach with little consultation with the constituent companies. This led to a large rate of dissatisfaction to the designs, particularly with some regional logos being obscure and Granada's even being incorrect. In 1999, the companies that were minded to accept a generic look were allowed input on the designs. I'm guessing the network centre wanted at least all three majors on board and so when one vetoed these idents (like I said, probably Carlton) then the whole thing was called off. The next 12 months saw more wrangling over the replacement designs. UNM wanted the 'Anglia' and 'Meridian' legends larger than proposed and also wanted colour logos rather than just yellow ones. For whatever reason, Border wanted to do away with their chopsticks logo and Channel wanted theirs to animate. Carlton eventually broke ranks entirely and commissioned their own independently, although these were clearly based on those moody spinning hearts prototypes. What is interesting is that the final designs arrived mid-season and not in a blaze of glory as had been planned in 1998. Even the GMG North presentation department, now having to contend with three stations having their own different idents of different lengths, appeared to have given up waiting for the generic idents to arrive and began making their own, suggesting they didn't know about the final versions until they more or less arrived. Their own new look was largely abandoned but lived on in special idents for Yorkshire's own local programming and the Christmas idents for 1999.

My impression, and perhaps an alternative theory is that Carlton were always unwilling to go with it, and it was hoped they'd go along with it.

They'd only recently (as in, within the last 6 months) completely overhauled Central's presentation to tie-in with London. Seems a daft effort if they were on-board for a network-wide redesign.