New BBC Two ident/trailer?

Just saw this on Digital Spy...



Looks like one of those weird trailers from a few years back. Apologies if this has already been mentioned elsewhere. Just thought I'd start a new thread instead of adding to the megathread.

That's a new one. The original four "2Dimensions" were last seen in late 2008 and were in turn based on a series of 6(?) Heroes promos (but they had a Hayden Panettiere one, so that was something).

Here's two of them:





Apparently they almost became idents when someone had the idea of chopping them up and reassembling the bits. I'd love to know how they created a suitable hold. Actually, no I wouldn't.

Yep, *whistles*, when does this look go away again?

So I assume that Dara one was created back with the rest of them but deemed too strange/scary for broadcast?

Ah, I've found the source of the video on Red Bee's website.

As they were produced both internally and externally, videos are scattered all over sites like Vimeo and YouTube. From what I can amass, there were actually six "2Dimensions" made (not four as I posted) in 2008. Three can be seen here, then there's the O'Briain and Parry ones posted, which leaves a mystery sixth.

I think I'm correct in assuming the Dara O'Briain version hasn't actually aired recently, it's just cropped up on YouTube? I can only remember seeing three on screen (Parry, Warner and Laverne) and they didn't stick around long. I don't think they knew what to do with them, they reek of a creativity panic and the integration of the '2' borders on comical.

And what's going on with the audio at the end of the Dara clip is anyone's guess.

Ah, the Mime sequence... I didn't know this had cropped up online, but I can see why it never made it to air - it's as I imagined; I don't like it much at all... 'Weird' - and not in a good way - is definitely the key word for these.

True that they were to be re-edited into idents, but ISTR without the shots of the personalities - so in this case it would have just been the mimes' faces.

It begs the question: what would it have been suitable for, if it is even appropriate? Don't know how they could possibly designate something like this, which at the very least has the potential to mildly unsettle, as a generic ident when it is anything but?

There may have been others as yet unseen (which is definitely true of the sting versions of Tagging, perhaps bar one odd instance on YT):



...But I've no idea of the number, or whether the Heroes versions actually factored into the ident versions or not. It's been a while since I saw anything of 2 Dimensions - I think I practically blanked them from my consciousness prior to now... I was never a huge fan.

Those tagging idents were one of the worst things ever to have made it to television. In fact, this whole BBC Two package has been a bit of a nightmare.

The cut-out 2 end board on the trails is a nice idea that is close to impossible to implement without editing as well...

From what I've gleaned on the agency's website, the idea was sound but the intended implementation was ambitious to say the least and it's little wonder the least creative, compromise solution was settled on as the only style going.

Add to that the damned awful colour choices and horrible use of the idents for the next pointers...

"Mock the Wk"? "The Buzzcocks"? The second one in particular, you could mistake it for a live performance of the actual band or any other type of show, instead of, presumably, Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

One thing I don't understand about the current next pointers - the '2' only ever seems to have a loop of the Seascape ident in it, and never a picture or video of the actual show coming up next. It always seems like they just got lazy and couldn't be bothered having different pictures and so just stuck that one ident on there.

They've never used them with programme-related imagery with but there is a second version, with Zoetrope. Yeah... You may remember they initially had a tonne of designs specifically made for use with next pointers, such as this red sky version of Seascape:

http://www.tv-live.org.uk/wp/media/bbc2/2007/p3.jpg

Now we have this:

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/2007TopGearDog/nntoxic.jpg

I jus... I still can't, eve... *eugh*

The current Seascape pointer doesn't even look like it's cut out properly on-screen - at least whenever I see it there appears to be an uneven black 'stroke' in between.

That's because the bouncy 2 animation it's based on doesn't lie completely flat (to give an impression of depth) and thus the outline/shadow seen below is still visible when the body of the 2 is removed.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w191/2007TopGearDog/bbc2tstingbase.jpg

Not well designed, not well strung together, still hyperbolically derided by everyon... this foru... me 3 years on.