Download the whole H264 bunch in one swoop here (129mb *.zip).
> Quicktime H.264
(11.4mb)
> iPod Compatible
(5.8mb)
> Watch in Flash
(3.1mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(12.5mb)
> iPod Compatible
(6.3mb)
> Watch in Flash
(3.4mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(11.3mb)
> iPod Compatible
(5.9mb)
> Watch in Flash
(3.1mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(8.8mb)
> iPod Compatible
(4.2mb)
> Watch in Flash
(2.5mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(7.1mb)
> iPod Compatible
(3.6mb)
> Watch in Flash
(2mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(14mb)
> iPod Compatible
(7.4mb)
> Watch in Flash
(4.3mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(6.2mb)
> iPod Compatible
(3.1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(1.8mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(17.7mb)
> iPod Compatible
(9mb)
> Watch in Flash
(1.1mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(6.9mb)
> iPod Compatible
(3.5mb)
> Watch in Flash
(1.9mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(8.7mb)
> iPod Compatible
(4.5mb)
> Watch in Flash
(3.6mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(8.2mb)
> iPod Compatible
(4.1mb)
> Watch in Flash
(4mb progressive)
> Quicktime H.264
(17.3mb)
> iPod Compatible
(8.9mb)
> Watch in Flash
(5.4mb progressive)
I was desperate for the ABC to do something exciting when they relaunched their on-air brand today, but as yet I’m not sure if they’ve done it. While its a no-brainer that the national broadcaster needed to bring its channels into line with each other through a name change, the actual substance of the new look is where I am slightly less convinced.
From a technical and production standpoint the idents for ABC1 are on par or better than the rest of free to air to Australia, and while conceptually anything is deeper and more meaningful than ‘We Heart TV’, I guess I was expecting something grander and more profound than what I saw when I turned on the television at noon.
Visually the idents share a couple of characteristics with a series Channel Five in the UK ran early last year to celebrate its ten years of existence. In a similar style to what ABC1 has done they mixed live action with animation and in the case of Five contrasted the realities of life working in television against an evolving backdrop of child like imagination. And while the Five series cleverly aligned a networks tenth birthday to that of a child’s birthday through the animation, I’m unclear as to what the ABC is trying to achieve with a similar concept.
With all that said however, any criticism of the collection so far is from a perspective of international comparison, a comparison the average viewer will not be making, and when compared solely to local competition these idents and the new look in general is simply stunning, and will strike a chord as uniquely ABC.
I couldn’t agree more with Kim Dalton’s assertion that the national broadcaster is “embracing true multi-channelling”, and by taking an alternative path to that of other Australian networks is truly building a future and extending the longevity and purpose of the ABC in a landscape where other media organisations are looking downhill towards their own demise and irrelevance.
(The idents were produced by zspace, who have previously worked with the ABC to produce this earlier set of idents as well.)
The full ident is also on abc.net.au as well….
Just letting you know…
reply
The ABC Television website has been nicely upgraded to encompass the new ABC1 and ABC2 stations. http://www.abc.net.au/tv
I am liking the look of the new ABC1 idents, but not quite so keen on the “Coming Up” list.
reply
Warning: Cheese factor is high. Repeat: Cheese factor is high.
reply
I have to agree with steve. I think the graphics on these idents but, I don’t look at them and go “wow” it would be good if what the people said was actually interesting, not annoying
reply
I must say, I’m surprised with everyone’s comments. I think these new idents are fantastic. They’re original, fresh and really stylish. Most importantly of all, there appears to be enough of them for the ABC to run them continuously without supplementing them with other clearly more haphazardly-produced idents like that which occurred with the ‘There’s more to television’ series of idents. And perhaps more importantly still, they effectively diffuse any potential outrage at the naming of ABC TV into ABC1, no doubt a very real fear for the ABC.
reply
I’m also surprised that no one has noticed yet that the voice-over changes slightly each time. I’ve seen 3 different versions of the ‘Gamer’ ident now, and the different versions of the ‘Writer’ ident are really clever. The version on idents.tv and the ABC website differ significantly.
reply
ok well the obvious point here is that they are better than the look the ABC has had for some time now. that said…. they;re not AT ALL original. they’ve completely ripped off a variety of (much better) UK idents… The concepts behind them are fine, and visually i do genuinely love them.. but the voice-overs often kill them (though i must admmit, some versions are better). they’re cheesy, forced and earnest. and the bigger problem is that its kinda unsustainable – they’re still going to run poorly produced style-less in-house program promos that use too many fonts and video-effects circa the Pet Shop Boys era. the key art and the use of the red, white blue are too intrusive with the program/timeslot promos and the advert for the sorry-day coverage has about 5 too many fonts in it. ok rant over. when all’s said and done, i still love the ABC.
reply
I would love to see a Chaser spoof of these idents!
reply
An interesting selection of people to advertise ABC 1 i must say, I’m not a fan of bogan voice overs but i am a fan of gaming…so if i was to draw a graph of my like for these idents relating to each one…it would we going ‘up’ and ‘down’ consistently…for those of you who found that a bit too confusing….i like some of the idents…but others i don’t…
but all in all the whole idea of proper multi-channeling..bbc style..really excites me
reply
One year on, I have to say that I’m hating these idents a little bit more every day. Initially I thought there may have been some greater purpose behind them, but now they just seem pretentious and silly. It must be time for some new ones soon!
reply