Unused Idents Celebration

[CPPAUTTP938]

From The TV Room's Old Site: "The visuals were considered 'too obscure' to connect this ident with the programme. It was never used."

[JAS84]

Here's another one. Its ITV again, and its another Hearts ident...For Carlton. This one looks a lot closer to the final Hearts idents that were used on ITV, but with some major differences. The music is ambient, there's diegetic noise, and the endboard is different. And its a Carlton ident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIxY7NdVqak

Thank the lord they scrapped that idea. Say what you will about Carlton, but their heart/star idents were stunning.

They were the best idents that Carlton ever had, and probably the best used by an ITV company from that era (though LWT's 2002 ident is similarly good). If there's one thing I dislike most about the hearts idents, its the box around the logo. It looks silly.

Not just that, the colour is too similar to the background. Wasn't there an earlier unused version of the hearts with a lighter blue backdrop? Also, the logos were originally going to be stripped of all colours except blue and yellow, weren't they? I remember seeing a yellow LWT logo on an unused hearts ident once?

[Rob]

From The TV Room's Old Site: "The visuals were considered 'too obscure' to connect this ident with the programme. It was never used."

It would help me, and others in future, if you posted information as to why it wasn't used instead of just posting an image...

[Mike]

Here's another one. Its ITV again, and its another Hearts ident...For Carlton. This one looks a lot closer to the final Hearts idents that were used on ITV, but with some major differences. The music is ambient, there's diegetic noise, and the endboard is different. And its a Carlton ident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIxY7NdVqak

I've always called shenanigans on that ident for a couple of reasons, but happy to be proven wrong. Not only does it simply not look right (the logo form up) - it doesn't really correlate with the other unused hearts idents in terms of the background etc.

[W. Knight]

I remember seeing a yellow LWT logo on an unused hearts ident once?

You're probably thinking about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N54ZdIpC3g

and despite the yellow logo, I think this ident has nicer music than the actual version, and the endboard extends the opening sting, rather than cutting into a generic slide.

There's a similar prototype on Andrew Wiseman's site, featuring Anglia instead:
[img][/img]

Sadly, there's only a still picture...

If there's one thing I dislike most about the hearts idents, its the box around the logo. It looks silly.

I agree the boxes aren't that useful - they blend in with the blue backdrop, and not every station emphasizes wordmarks that much, eg Meridian, Granada etc.

[LukeHarrison]

I remember seeing a yellow LWT logo on an unused hearts ident once?

You're probably thinking about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N54ZdIpC3g

and despite the yellow logo, I think this ident has nicer music than the actual version, and the endboard extends the opening sting, rather than cutting into a generic slide.

There's a similar prototype on Andrew Wiseman's site, featuring Anglia instead:
[img][/img]

Sadly, there's only a still picture...

Are the hearts idents unique in the sheer amount of prototypes and early drafts that have made it out to the public? I don't remember seeing so much 'work in progress' of any other package.

[Blubatt]

I remember seeing a yellow LWT logo on an unused hearts ident once?

You're probably thinking about this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N54ZdIpC3g

and despite the yellow logo, I think this ident has nicer music than the actual version, and the endboard extends the opening sting, rather than cutting into a generic slide.

There's a similar prototype on Andrew Wiseman's site, featuring Anglia instead:
[img][/img]

Sadly, there's only a still picture...

Are the hearts idents unique in the sheer amount of prototypes and early drafts that have made it out to the public? I don't remember seeing so much 'work in progress' of any other package.

Admittedly, I don't know all the details, but the Hearts idents had a very lengthy and protracted development, due to disagreements between the designers (English and Pockett) and the ITV companies (The owners of the companies, Granada, UNM, Carlton, SMG, etc.). Considering that the ITV logo was introduced in 1998, and these idents weren't on screen until September 1999, I can only speculate that there was a big delay, that meant the branding wasn't unveiled all at once. And with so many of the companies eventually changing the Hearts Idents (Carlton, LWT, Channel) and those who never used it (Grampian, Scottish, and UTV), there must have been a lot of behind the scenes stuff

[Spencer]

I understand from friends who worked at YTV at the time that this package…

https://youtu.be/GWoWz1qniLo

…was sent out to all regions and was all set to launch at the same time as the new blue and yellow ITV logo, but was pulled at the very last minute. The fact it was sent out to everyone is probably the reason it’s ended up online - so many people had it. In fact, my friend had a copy on VHS which he showed me long before it surfaced on the internet. I can only guess that the other test versions had also been sent out to the regions for feedback, and a few people made crafty copies of them which have now leaked online.

This supposed test version of the 1989 ITV generic ident also appeared a few years ago…

https://youtu.be/u5KBENZ1EAQ

It’s debatable whether this is genuine or not. I’m inclined to believe it is, given the different mix of the music, which I don’t think is in the public domain. I may be wrong though.

[Mike]

This supposed test version of the 1989 ITV generic ident also appeared a few years ago…

https://youtu.be/u5KBENZ1EAQ

It’s debatable whether this is genuine or not. I’m inclined to believe it is, given the different mix of the music, which I don’t think is in the public domain. I may be wrong though.

The music to me sounds like it's just cut apart from the track that's circulated.

I'm again dubious of that, because the lines seem too straight (I know it's clearly a compressed and tiny RealVideo stretched), and the ITV logo seems almost too flat and perfect. The images appear to fade in but towards the end they just cut away. I would imagine any test in the late 1980s wouldn't be rendered out in colour, but would be sketched by hand or maybe wireframed or BW rendered.

A mock maybe? It's also interesting that it's a recorded screen, rather than a straight convert to a modern format (as Private Parts and TVArk have done) - there are free tools to convert real media, maybe the uploader wants it to appear ultra rare and if converted would show the imperfections more.

[Lynetwork]

https://vimeo.com/315678729

As far as unused idents go, this video shows a unused Christmas ident from the Curve series - starts at 0:23 - that I actually think was better off unused. The visual style is very different to the others and has quite a juvenile feel to it - I get what they were doing with the more light-hearted tone (I love the Offbeat and Silly idents) but I'm not sure if using (trying to keep it as SFW as I can) the crevice of a buttock as the curve has the same gravitas as scenic fir trees or the Aurora Borealis :roll: it almost feels beneath them, so I'm glad they stuck with the three others and then added Festive the following year.

I also don't love the fact that the curve doesn't really animate like the others; it just appears at different points without much rhyme or reason.
(apologies if this one has been brought up before and I'm just digging up the corpse of topics past )

[Spencer]

https://vimeo.com/315678729

As far as unused idents go, this video shows a unused Christmas ident from the Curve series - starts at 0:23 - that I actually think was better off unused. The visual style is very different to the others and has quite a juvenile feel to it - I get what they were doing with the more light-hearted tone (I love the Offbeat and Silly idents) but I'm not sure if using (trying to keep it as SFW as I can) the crevice of a buttock as the curve has the same gravitas as scenic fir trees or the Aurora Borealis :roll: it almost feels beneath them, so I'm glad they stuck with the three others and then added Festive the following year.

I also don't love the fact that the curve doesn't really animate like the others; it just appears at different points without much rhyme or reason.
(apologies if this one has been brought up before and I'm just digging up the corpse of topics past )

I’ve never seen that before. And agreed, it looks quite cheap and wouldn’t have sat well alongside the rest of the set.

[VMPhil]

A mock maybe? It's also interesting that it's a recorded screen, rather than a straight convert to a modern format (as Private Parts and TVArk have done) - there are free tools to convert real media, maybe the uploader wants it to appear ultra rare and if converted would show the imperfections more.

Worth noting that the uploader is @nwtv2003 of these parts, so I don't believe it is his intention to fool people, but genuinely something that was uploaded what looks to be at the turn of the millennium.

The biggest giveaway for me IMO is the 3D effect on the blue, white and red ribbons in the 'V'. That just screams early 2000s mock design to me.

[Mike]

A mock maybe? It's also interesting that it's a recorded screen, rather than a straight convert to a modern format (as Private Parts and TVArk have done) - there are free tools to convert real media, maybe the uploader wants it to appear ultra rare and if converted would show the imperfections more.

Worth noting that the uploader is @nwtv2003 of these parts, so I don't believe it is his intention to fool people, but genuinely something that was uploaded what looks to be at the turn of the millennium.

The biggest giveaway for me IMO is the 3D effect on the blue, white and red ribbons in the 'V'. That just screams early 2000s mock design to me.

Oh definitely, and the font before it all starts. I'll retract what I said about an uploader trying to fool people then, but it certainly doesn't look period correct for 1989.

[LukeHarrison]

A mock maybe? It's also interesting that it's a recorded screen, rather than a straight convert to a modern format (as Private Parts and TVArk have done) - there are free tools to convert real media, maybe the uploader wants it to appear ultra rare and if converted would show the imperfections more.

Worth noting that the uploader is @nwtv2003 of these parts, so I don't believe it is his intention to fool people, but genuinely something that was uploaded what looks to be at the turn of the millennium.

The biggest giveaway for me IMO is the 3D effect on the blue, white and red ribbons in the 'V'. That just screams early 2000s mock design to me.

Oh definitely, and the font before it all starts. I'll retract what I said about an uploader trying to fool people then, but it certainly doesn't look period correct for 1989.

Honestly, to me it does just look very much like an early render, before the transparancies and other visual effects had been added. Maybe a way to check timings of things appearing for example?

[Mike]

Worth noting that the uploader is @nwtv2003 of these parts, so I don't believe it is his intention to fool people, but genuinely something that was uploaded what looks to be at the turn of the millennium.

The biggest giveaway for me IMO is the 3D effect on the blue, white and red ribbons in the 'V'. That just screams early 2000s mock design to me.

Oh definitely, and the font before it all starts. I'll retract what I said about an uploader trying to fool people then, but it certainly doesn't look period correct for 1989.

Honestly, to me it does just look very much like an early render, before the transparancies and other visual effects had been added. Maybe a way to check timings of things appearing for example?

But with 1989 hardware (which was probably some form of Quantel device) you simply wouldn't do a colour render to check timings, it would be a case of nailing down the network ident first and then adding effects to that first render to produce the regional variations. We've all seen the YTV tape of the idents and kit of parts they had, I can imagine they rendered the ITV logo with a solid white 'V' and matted over the regional logo.

The shots are also not the same (the angle of the bird, the clocktower, colour of the dress worn by the woman) - surely you'd have X amount of reference footage already directed and shot once you knew what you were trying to achieve (I'm pretty certain in the final product the man and woman embracing is shot to revolve around them as it pans through the ident for instance).

I'm not sure you'd bother to put an announcement on it either. From my understanding of it the ITV Generic ident was originally just that - it turned into involving the regions towards the latter days of the project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8N-eDXUaug

EDIT: Also having compared the two regional logo motifs, why is it the supposed unaired/unused one the angle of the stripes isn't parallel with the shape of the 'V', the red stripe gets thicker towards the bottom - even as a test you'd have made sure that was right.