Production logo
As the studios grew, more effort was put into their identities, and motion and sound began to be used. Warner Bros., one of the first studios to switch to a cel-animated abstract logo, brought back their WB shield logo as a matte painting in 1984.Logos for smaller companies are sometimes (with tongue-in-cheek) called vanity logos or vogos . Unlike logos for most other media, production logos can take advantage of motion and synchronized sound, and almost always do. In the early days of Hollywood, production logos and brands were simple and very much like their print counterparts, usually appearing on title cards and in the opening credits. RKO Radio Pictures used their rotating globe and radio transmission tower with a Morse code beeping soundtrack as early as 1929.
There are some exceptions; the Mutant Enemy grr, argh ID was shot using a camcorder and paper models, and the producers of South Park even recycled footage from an old Braniff Airlines ad for their vanity logo. The Paramount Pictures mountain hails from this era, and originally featured no special effects.
Even video games have taken on production logos as their capabilities have increased, and most modern game consoles (notably Sega s models and the PlayStation series) have startup logos in their firmware. . Most studios had used cels for their animation department s logos for some time by this point, but the demand for animation on TV, both as programming and for advertising, made more effects available for less money.
In the 1930s, 20th Century Pictures introduced their futuristic tower logo, which had moving searchlights; it was carried over when they merged with Fox Film Corporation and became 20th Century Fox. Production logos are usually seen at the beginning of a theatrical movie (an opening logo ), or at the end of a television program or TV movie (a closing logo ).
TV itself started using logos on its programming: Desilu, Mark VII Productions and Revue Studios all had distinctive logotypes by the end of the decade, and Desilu s and Revue s were animated. Producer Chuck Lorre uses his production card to post a long and unrestricted essay or observation in small type which changes each week and requires pausing with a recording device to read.
A production logo is a logo used by movie studios and television production companies to brand what they produce. MGM and Universal were the first studios to take advantage of the new medium s possibilities, MGM first using Leo the Lion in 1924 and Universal debuting their globe around the same time.
Columbia s first version of the Torch Lady used a sparkler to represent her torch, and Universal s globes could rotate. The advent of television in the 1950s also opened the door to cel animation in production logos. For its 75th anniversary in 1990, Universal introduced a new logo that was completely digitally rendered, the first of the major studios to make the move; Paramount had a digital-looking logo earlier, in 1987, but only the foreground animation in their logo was computerised (the mountain backdrop is a model). As of 2007, almost all production logos are produced (or at least edited) on computers, and have reached a level of sophistication equivalent to that of the best special effects.
By 1976, all of the major studios except Universal had switched their logos over to cel animation, and logos for smaller concerns and broadcasters were beginning to enter the computer age, using machines like Scanimate. With the 1980s came a return to the older style of logos. Several production logos have become famous over the years, such as the 20th Century Fox s searchlights, Anchor Bay s sailboat, Universal Studios globe, Paramount Pictures s mountain, The Weinstein Company s flashlights, Warner Bros. shield, Lionsgate Entertainment s gate/lion, MGM s Leo the Lion, Columbia s Torch Lady, Nordisk Film s polar bear, the castle from Sleeping Beauty for Walt Disney Pictures, TriStar s Pegasus, MTM s Mimsie the Cat, United Artists UA letters (and the Transamerica T in the 1970s), and Orion Pictures constellation.
TV logos began switching from cels and 2D computer graphics to 3D computer graphics around the same time, and by the end of the decade, the quality of 3D animation had improved to the point that cinema quality was possible.
