American Zoetrope

Credits

Descriptions by
mr3urious

Captures by
Prodigy012 and PM pinter

Video captures courtesy of
Sagan Blob's Logos, LogicSmash, The MovieLogos Database and Logo Archive

Background

Founded in 1969 by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, American Zoetrope is an American film production company based in San Francisco, California. It was formerly known as Omni Zoetrope and Zoetrope Studios from 1980 until 1990. The company has produced notable films by Coppola, such as Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Tetro, as well as George Lucas's pre-Star Wars films, including THX 1138 and American Graffiti. Additionally, American Zoetrope has distributed works by avant-garde directors like Jean-Luc Godard, Akira Kurosawa, Wim Wenders, and Godfrey Reggio. Being an early adopter of digital filmmaking, the company has been credited with some of the earliest uses of HDTV.

American Zoetrope (first era)

1st Logo (March 11, 1971-2021)

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Logo: Against a black background, we see the text "AN" in a Futura font. and "american zoetrope" in a thin abstract font. Below that is a lowercase "a" colored red, white, and blue. To the right of it is a zoetrope (a cylinder with images displayed inside that, when the outside is spun, gives the pictures the appearance that they are being animated when viewed through the slits at the top) colored in the same way. "PRODUCTION" is below that in the same font as "AN".

Variants:

• On a few films, the "a" and zoetrope slide away from each other, while copies of them sliding across at different sizes can be seen off the sides. After the logo finishes, the words appear one by one.
• Sometimes, "PRODUCTION" is replaced with "PRESENTATION".

Technique: None, aside from the variant.

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening of the movie.

Availability: Although used for a great 50 years, this is rare since it is only seen on few films, like for an example, THX 1138. The variant makes surprise appearances on Pumpkin, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III, and Paris Can Wait. This also plasters the Paramount Pictures logo on current prints of Tucker: The Man and His Dream. A version that says "PRESENTATION" instead of "PRODUCTION" is used on the 2021 director's cut of Dementia 13.

2nd Logo (1974)

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Logo: On a black background, we see a spinning zoetrope in the bottom right, "from" and "american zoetrope" in Clarendon font on the top, and "san francisco" also in Clarendon in the bottom left.

Technique: The zoetrope spinning.

Music/Sounds: The closing of the featurette.

Availability: Only seen on the 1974 featurette Close-Up on The Conversation.

Zoetrope Studios

(February 12, 1982-July 22, 1990)

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Logo: On a red background, we see a red spotlight powering up. Then the words "ZOETROPE STUDIOS", with the second "S" as a backwards "Z" and the "Z" and "S" connected by a line, fade in. There is a rainbow line underneath the text. The text and the spotlight's base then fade out, leaving only the light and the background to fade out afterwards.

Trivia: The logo was designed by Saul Bass.

Variants:

• Most often, this logo just uses the text. This is occasionally seen as part of the end credits.
• A version with a plain white line, as well as a "IAW" mention, can be seen on The Outsides TV series.

Technique: Live-action.

Music/Sounds: None, or the opening of the movie.

Availability: Seen on some American Zoetrope films from the time, such as One from the Heart, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Peggy Sue Got Married and Tucker: The Man and His Dream.

American Zoetrope (second era)

1st Logo (November 13, 1992-)

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Logo: We see a print image of a radio tower emitting four lightning sparks. The name (aligned left) says "AMERICAN ZOETROPE" in two lines, with "FROM" above and "SAN FRANCISCO" below the text.

Trivia: The building depicted here is Columbus Tower/Sentinel Building in San Francisco, where the headquarters of American Zoetrope are located. Its usage in this logo was repurposed from the print logo of Commercial Pictures, a production company owned by Francis Ford Coppola's children, Roman and Sofia.

Variants:

• A later version has the text on the right side, separated by three lines. A web address is seen on the bottom right corner.
• A red-colored version appears on Bram Stoker's Dracula.
• There is a greenish version seen on The Odyssey.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Common. It debuted at the end of Bram Stoker's Dracula and has appeared on such films as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, Don Juan DeMarco, Jack, The Rainmaker, Buddy, and The Virgin Suicides. The closing version was used on The 4400 and The Odyssey episodes. Many films such as Lost in Translation, Kinsey, Marie Antoinette, The Good Shepherd, Youth Without Youth, and Tetro have no logo.

2nd Logo (1999-2003)

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Logo: We see a white silhouette of a performer with a top hat and cane doing a soft-shoe dance. After a while, the image duplicates on opposite sides. We zoom out, revealing the footage to be inside a spinning zoetrope. The words "AMERICAN ZOETROPE" with "PICTURES" below spins in from the right.

Variant: On Jeepers Creepers and its sequel, the logo is in sepia tone.

Technique: CGI.

Music/Sounds: The opening theme of the movie or none. On Assassination Tango, a jazz tune with piano and drums plays which culminates into a triumphant brass/string fanfare (repurposed from the Commercial Pictures fanfare).

Availability: Rare. Only appeared on CQ (after the credits), Jeepers Creepers, Assassination Tango, and Jeepers Creepers II.

3rd Logo (February 6, 2014-February 16, 2018)

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Logo: Basically the same radio-tower concept as in the 4th logo, moved into a vertical box. The name is written in two lines inside the lower white part of the box.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on Mozart in the Jungle.

External Links

• Official website
• American Zoetrope article on Wikipedia