A Film Ident is a symbol - like a logo - which is used to represent a company or studio, which usually pops up during the beginning credits of a film. For example, below I have used the New Line Cinema ident as seen at the start of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:
The idents at the beginning of films are shown as animations, like the stars around the mountain for Paramount's ident, and the jumping lamp for Disney Pixar.
There are many famous idents out there, if you look. Examples of these are Paramount, Warner Brothers and the Disney Pixar ident, shown in a short clip below. I think the Disney Pixar animated ident is effective because it is unique - nobody else uses a jumping lamp so now they have a signature ident which will be only used by them, meaning every time it is seen, the viewer will link it directly back to this with no problems.
The Pixar Studios ident is effective because it is childish, and so reflects the films that the company produces. A more adult-based ident would be more interesting or loud, like that of Universal or 20th Century Fox, which have more 'grown up' music and are not really interesting like the childish ones, like Walt Disney Pictures.
It is vital that the ident reflects the company's productions because then that way they can be related easily. This is better because then the film and its production company will be recognised together, like New Line Cinema and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
