LeftCoast create ITV Ident
19 May 2020 by Ed
Blackpool based arts organisation LeftCoast have created a new ident for ITV which aired this week. The colourful ident, part of the ITV Creates project showcases a crew of local volunteers, known as the LeftCoast Makers, taking part in a joyous paint-fueled release of energy.
What takes a 10 hour day of filming, a 3m x 6m canvas, 200 paint filled balloons and 70 litres of watered down paint?
Blackpool based arts organisation LeftCoast have created a new ident for ITV that aired for the first time on Monday 18 May. The colourful ident, part of the ITV Creates project, showcases a crew of local volunteers, known as the LeftCoast Makers, taking part in a joyous paint-fueled release of energy.
Tina Redford, LeftCoast’s Artistic Director said, “We were approached by ITV to develop a concept for the ident way back in November. The Researchers found our website and really liked the playful nature of the art works that we create with local communities. Sarah Harris from the LeftCoast team developed the artistic idea taking her inspiration from working with our volunteers …and what better way to celebrate their loyalty than in a piece of art on national, prime-time TV!
“It has been difficult keeping this secret project under wraps since we filmed the ident at the ITV studios in February. The shoot itself was super messy and fantastic fun so it’s been hard not to share such a great experience with our friends and family. We have had to wait until the broadcast date to talk about it and now it’s here.”
The ident features the throwing of paint-filled balloons, with positive affirmations about volunteering written on them, splattering against a white wall, with the big reveal of an ITV logo at the end. The ident Makers were chosen at random from a group of historic project participants who now volunteer with LeftCoast to help deliver events and festivals across the Fylde Coast.
Sarah Harris, Artist (below), and LeftCoast’s Creative Community Activist said, “This project is a celebration of people coming together and expressing their positive volunteer experiences. So, I chose colours that have a luminous quality, which for me expresses joy. I developed the colour palette over a few months, blending existing colours and experimenting with various schemes to find the right mix and ensure we’d get the right ‘pop’ on screen”.
Sarah continued, “Everyone was really pleased with how the ident turned out. Once ITV had shot all the footage they needed, everyone in the studio had a go at throwing paint, including all the production crew. It turns out they’d been itching to have a go all day!”
Adam McClean, one of LeftCoast’s Makers, reflected on the day, “The experience for me was very exciting, heading to London and filming in a studio with a lovely bunch of people, was an experience I will cherish, it was a long and tiring day but so worth it, every time I see the ITV logo now it makes me smile. It was a blast and filming for ITV was a dream come true. Volunteering for LeftCoast over the years has given me some of the most wonderful memories that I will remember for the rest of my life.”
Along with Super Slow Way in Pennine Lancashire, LeftCoast is known as a Creative People and Places (CPP) organisation funded by Art Council England. All the art works created in these Lancashire CPP projects are chosen, created or produced with local people. The work is deliberately socially-engaged and enables many different communities to engage with unusual and high-quality arts and cultural experiences.
