Students benefit from exciting new link with CITV

More than 20 students pitched ideas for idents, which are the logos and animations broadcast between programmes, to Creative Director for the channel, Dave Hickman.

The idents that meet the high creative and technical standards required will have the chance to be selected to be broadcast on the CITV Channel.

The exciting opportunity is the result of a new partnership between the University’s Institute of Media Arts and CITV, which aims to give students real experience of working to a brief from a UK major broadcaster, pitching their ideas to industry experts and then developing their concepts into animations and videos that fulfil the brief.

The 24 BA (Hons) Animation students from the School of Art & Design were tasked with incorporating CITV’s new logo into an on-air ident. The designs needed to be 10-12 seconds long, funny, and appropriate for children aged seven to ten years.

Sam Hope, Director of the Institute of Media Arts, said: “Creatively our students were given a blank canvas on which to work, so the new design could be executed as live action or animated, 2D or 3D and use any relevant production techniques. Their ideas needed to reflect CITV’s personality, so have a cheeky twist of imagination, and our students rose to the challenge magnificently.

“Gaining experience of working on live briefs is vital for students wanting to pursue a career within the media sector, so we’re delighted to have built this exciting relationship with the UK’s number one commercial children’s channel CITV and thank Creative Director Dave Hickman for his commitment and invaluable feedback for our students.”

Dave Hickman said: “This is the first time the CITV Creative team have worked alongside the Institute of Media Arts and having seen the work already produced by the 24 students I’m very impressed. Every student had embraced the professional brief and had clearly understood CITV’s brand of fun and humour.

“The plan is to select three top animations to air on the CITV channel in the New Year; after viewing all the pitches we may have to extend that to half a dozen as the standard of ideas was especially high.”

Dave will return to the University in December and students will have the opportunity to showcase their finished items to the panel, which also included Sam Hope and course leaders Steve Arnott, Emily Mantell and Sam Moore. The idents that meet the requirements will be considered for broadcast at a later date.

It is planned that students on film & video and media courses will also have the opportunity to take part in a similar project in the future.

CITV is the UK’s number one commercial children’s channel in its airtime.

ENDS

Pictures: CITV idents designed by University of Wolverhampton students Thomas Massey and Frank Wang.

For more information please contact Vickie Warren in the Media Relations Office on 01902 322736