3M Video (France)

This article is about the French home video company. For the British home video company, see 3M Video (UK).

Logo (1978-1984)

Visuals: On a black background, a weirdly-textured tunnel is seen, coming at full speed (a la the Star Gate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey). At a certain point in time, the tunnel reaches its end point, which is in space. After the tunnel clears up, an outlined 3D Model of the 3M logo comes toward the screen, flashing in many different colors. It fixates at the center of the screen, and the words "3M VIDEO", outlined in blue, zooms in via a chyron trail effect.

Technique: Scanimation. The tunnel was stolen from a slit-scan demo animation used by Robert Abel & Associates in 1973 that can be seen here.

Audio: A catchy disco sounder when we fly through the circular tunnel, which is actually a song called "This Time Is Running Down" by Cerrone, then it segues into an outer-spacey tune which is another song called "The Fun Cry", also by Cerrone. The music fades out, leaving the silence for a few seconds.

Availability: Seen on many early releases from the company in France (possibly in other countries like Switzerland and Belgium).