Film Idents

We are currently looking at film idents- the usually animated version of a production companies logo that comes before the opening credits of a film, and looking in to making our own. To gain more inspiration and understanding of idents and their purpose, we have been looking at specific companies and digging deeper into their meanings.

Dreamworks

Dreamworks are a production company who makes films which are usually computer animation and largely aimed at children/ young people, even though they are often designed for the whole family. The ident shows a man fishing from the cresent moon in the clouded night sky, filled with stars as 'Dreamworks' spells out in moonlike writing.
These are connotaions of a dream land- symbolising that in cinema the sky is the limit, and a form of escape for the audience and filmmakers alike. It draws you in because it is calm, and the music is soft and gentle- the audience is relaxed, and they know what kind of film they are about to view.
Dreamworks often alters its ident to fit with the specific film it comes before. For example: the ident used for the Shreck films is different from the others- the title is in colour, and instead of night time- the sky is shown during the day. This is so that the sudience could possibly know the specific film they are about to watch. They could also slightly alter the ident due to the genre or audience of the film.

Walt Disney

This was the ident used in the Walt Disney films during the 90's, and is probably the most famous one composed by the company. It shows a traditional 'princess' castle (the stereotype somewhat formed by Walt Disney itself) and a rainbow like ray of light forming around it, followed by Walt Disney's signature appearing accross the bottom. This ident is simple, and give the idea of a fantasy world because of the connotations of royalty. I would say that this ident may show signs of its target audience being young girls, who often dream about being a princess living in a magical castle. 
More recently, Walt Disney has joined together with Pixar studios to form 'Disney Pixar' whose main form of film is animation directed at young people.