Uncommon Pictures

Today on this post, I’m going to list some of the most interesting and uncommon logos, and also describe them on a simplified way.

Lightning Video International: It’s the same logo as the Lightning Video, only it had the word “INTERNATIONAL” zooming out very fast, with the lettering chryoned-in. Can be seen on international prints of Lighning Video International, based on the Netherlands.
Spelling Films International: We zoom out the Spelling “S” emblem (the one which looked like to the Screen Gems one), which is slightly modified. Then the emblem moves to the left as it is zooming out, and the words “SPELLING” between two lines, and “FILMS INTERNATIONAL” under it, appears on the right.
KingWorld Presents: It’s the KingWorld logo from the early 80’s, the only difference is that “PRESENTS” appears chryoned under “KINGWORLD”. It’s very difficult to find as some KingWorld shows are likely to be plastered by any CBS logo.
Grand National Pictures: Very art-deco logo, used from 196 to 1938. It’s a clock tower, when the hands of the clock turn, the words “GRAND NATIONAL” wipe out.
Bruce Conn Productions: On a green background, we see the letters “b”, “c”, and “p” pusihed in to the center to form the logo design. Then the words “Bruce Conn Productions inc.” appears.
Quinn Martin Productions: It has became very popular on the net, but it’s pretty rare as it was used for a short period of time, on some shows and TV Movies. Today is more likely to be plastered with the CBS Paramount Television logo on current prints of those shows. The logo consists on a starry background, with see a shining medallion consisting of a rainbow-colored Icarus inside a circle. Then, the object flies up, and at the screen and a blue, stylized, and connected “QM” zooms-out from the bottom of the screen to the centre. Then “PRODUCTIONS” appears, usually with a byline appearing below, then the logo shines.
Taft Entertainment Television: Only the words “TAFT ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION” appearing on a black background, stylized with the company’s corporate font.
Savoy Pictures Television: It was a buffalo running. Then the he camera backs up and the text “Savoy Pictures”, then a line, aund under it “Television”.
Geffen Home Video: It’s the same logo of the Geffen Pictures, only the text is “GEFFEN HOME VIDEO”, and there is no Warner disclaimer.
ABC Films: On a blue background, the words “Distributed by” are on a script font. Then the words “ABC” and “FILMS” appears one by one, then the famous ABC logo is seen at the left. The music was a random-like celesta and percussion composition.
Weintraub Entertainment Group Television: Very rare logo, as it was only seen on a TV Movie. On a black background, we see a “W” made out of copper with lines , which goes dark and bright back and forth (due to a editing mistake). Under it, the words “WEINTRAUB ENTERTAINMENT GROUP TELEVISION” in white is seen.
Elsboy Entertainment: We see a blue square with an “E “made out of lines inside it. Under it, “ENTERTAINMENT” is also seen. Then “Elsboy” is written on a script font. It has a charming tune.
Hollywood Television Service: It’s the same logo as the Studio City Television Productions logo, but Inside it has “HOLLYWOOD TELEVISION SERVICE” in the center that would later zoom-in. Under it is the byline “A DIVISION OF REPUBLIC PICTURES CORPORATION”.
Fries Distribution Company: We see ocher-colored lines wiping one by one. Then, a diamond-like symbol flies from the right to the center. The words “FRIES DISTRIBUTION COMPANY” in red appears under the logo.
Furia/Oringer Presentation: On a cloudy background, we see the letters “F”, “O”, and “/” zooming very fast. Then the words “uria” appears next to the “F”, “ringer” next to the “O”, and the / symbol between those words. Under it “PRESENTATION” is seen.

Eric S.

Copy and Paste

How many logos from B-Movies or Asian movies have you seen? And how many did resemble any logo from Warner, Columbia, Universal, Paramount or Fox? There were many production companies which had a logo parodied from another from a major studio. I’m going to talk about some of them.

Fine Arts Pictures was a little B-Movie production company from the 30’s. Their logo was a ripoff of the 20th Centry Fox logo, without searchlights, and set over a huge pyramid.
Nassour Studios had the same, but the lettering was set over some buildings and did have searchlights, also had a fanfare very similar to the Fox’s one.
IFD Films and Arts was a Hong Kong film producer, which produced movies such as “Golden Ninja Warrior“, which ident on screen was… A TORCH GENTLEMAN! Yes, we started on a black background (everything is real action), and we see a man having weird white clothing and handing on his right hand a big lamp (of course, the lamp was on…) over some rocks. Some smoke was seen at the background. The music was a very recognizable piece of music that appeared on “Star Wars” when Darth Vader was going to do something.
Shaw Brothers Pictures: A production comapny from Hong Kong that had a logo design very (and I mean very) similar to the one from Warner Bros, minus the ring WB’s has, and the lettering isn’t too fancy to fit on the shield…
Producers Releasing Corporation also had their logo on Fox Style, but without searchlights (the similarity might be so obvious if the logo had searchlights).
Eagle 6 was a Dutch video distributor, and had EXACTLY the same logo as American National Enterprises, footage of an eagle flying and so one…Only having “AMERCIAN NATIONAL ENTERPRISES” replaced by a ghostly “EAGLE 6″ zooming banner.
Filmex was a mexican film production company. Their logo was a mix between the Fox logo and the Universal one. They had a globe rotating over the word “FILMEX” (on Fox style), under it the words “presenta” shining. There was also a Hong Kong movie producer whose logo was the searchlights from FOX, and the ring of stars of Paramount combined! So weird…

Thanks for reading,
Eric S.

True Logo Rarities

Every true logo fan know what’s a logo rarity. If I mention “PolyGram Television (1982)”; “Rick Reinert Pictures”, or “CBS Films” all of you will know the concept of what a logo rarity is: something really unseen on TV and hard to find on Home Video Markets… IIn this post I’m going to talk about 3 rare logos: Republic Pictures Distribution, Screen Gems Film Production, and CBS Theatrical Films logos.

First of all, I would like to talk of the Republic Pictures Distribution logo of the 80’s. This is really a thought one. It’s only the 80’s Republic Eagle, with the text “REPUBLIC PICTURES” in a Times New Roman Font, also at the left of the logo is (obviously) the Trademark Symbol. Above the letters, “Distributed by”, in the same Times New Roman-like font is seen. This logo appeared on the now extinct-from-TV syndicated prints of episodes of Press Your Luck. If you’re lucky to have taped this logo from an episode of Press Your Luck when this program was on the air, you’ll have the opportunity to have this logo.

Another rarity is the Screen Gems TV Tube logo. The logo is pretty simple, just a TV Tube with the words “A Screen Gems Film Production (Presentation), and some “stars” or gems shining on the screen. It is seen at the end of Classic Shows from Screen Gems at tapes, as you may know. New DVDs of those shows have either another Screen Gems logo (The Torch Lady or the S From Hell), the Columbia Pictures Television Distribution logo (in B&W), and most of them, the Sony Pictures Television logo (tinted in B&W, also). The best source for this logo are VHS episodes of Jungle Jim (Some of them would have the Coca-Cola Torch Lady, the Colex or the LBS logo), or Ford Theatre. Father Knows Best is more likely to have this logo plastered. The last example of logo rarity today I’m talking is the CBS Theatrical Films. This logo is awesome, actually. Two lines crashes and generates a big-bang of stars, then we see tree stars, and “CBS” zooms out. The logo shines. CBS Theatrical Films only produced four films, and this logo is still preserved on those films, but the films seems today hard to find, but if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find a DVD copy of this logo.

Eric S.

Chillin Gems

I recently came across a logo that seems to be very rare. The logo was ID as “Intercontinental Releasing Corporation (IRC)”, which seems to be a theatrical distributor from the early 70’s from the early 80’s of dubbed foreign and chillin B-movies, but also a production company, which produced (as far I know) three movies (Terror on Tour, To All A Goodnight, and Alice Goodbody). I got my copy of that logo from a 1983 VHS relase of To All a Goodnight from Media Home Entertainment.

The version I got starts on a blue background, with a simple design consisting of three letters (IRC) under a globe.. Then, the phrase “INTERCONTINENTAL RELEASING CORPORATION” in Arial font and yellow colour simply fades in. Few seconds later, “PRESENTS” fades under the logo. The logo is silent, has limited animation, It’s simple, but a nice logo for a very (and I mean VERY) stange film.

Eric S.

Scare Factor

Hello, I’m Eric, and I’m introducing now as a FTVLM blogger. You’ll maybe don’t know who I am until I tell you that I am also know as CPvGc80 or LogicalSmash, you know me then? Right, so now I’ll be writing Blogs for the FTVLM. Hope you’ll enjoy reading them

There are logos that makes the viewer feel pleased and relax, those logos that doesn’t have very bright colours, have a peaceful tune or a quiet animation. It seems that viewers sometimes tends to forget that logo, (well if they’ve watched it, because nowdays, more TV Stations are starting to delete logos at the end of broadcasts) they’ll remember most the moments of the show or the movie.

But what do you think about a logo that has a eerie piece of music, terrible in-your-face animation, or only because its set on a black background. People sometimes don’t bother on closing logos, but a logo that “scares” you, is more effective, as the viewer would remember that logo more than a peaceful logo. But are those logos we know as “scary logos” really annoying? For example, the Lorimar “Line of Doom” logo, don’t know why people are scared by this logo. The music is peaceful and elegant, it hasn’t got that in-your-face animations that other logos have, and the concept is fine. It’s all in people’s mind. If you see that logo on TV (not some of the dreadful copies that are on YouTube with awful quality and high volume), you’ll think it’s a clever logo, pretty nice actually.  Another example, the Universal’s infamous “Globe of Doom”, why,  and tell me WHY is some people annoyed by this? The Revue theme is in my opionion one of the best themes composed for a logo, it really represents Universal, and the fonts used are really nice for its time. So, maybe it’s because the logo is dark? I don’t know. Another example I like to talk about is the “V of Doom”. Ok, the desing is a bit disappointing and the music is terrible, but it’s not that bad. I saw it recently on TV at TCM, at the end of “I Love Lucy”, and didn’t scare me at all. So in my opinion, scary logos aren’t not that bad. It’s true that are some logos that the desing is terrible, it has annoying jingles and terrible and choppy animations, but if you want to classify the scare factor of a logo on “High” or “Nightmare”, make sure you have or you’ve seen a high quality copy of that logo.

That’s it. Thanks for reading.
Eric S.