Culturebox

Credits

Descriptions by
Oranim

Video captures courtesy of
Retrogamer28 & MRT TV

Background

Culturebox (spelled culturebox in lowercase) is a french website dedicated to cultural events created by France Télévisions in 2008, along with a show of the same name on France 3 then France Info. Since 2021, it is also the name of a television channel created during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the closure of all theaters and cinemas. Originally a temporary channel, the success of both it and France 4 during the pandemic allowed both channels to keep airing. As such, Culturebox moved from France Ô's vacant slot on channel 19 to France 4's night-time hours on channel 14, with the daytime hours handled by the Okoo programming block.

Just like its website counterpart, Culturebox showcases cultural events in addition to inviting artists of various backgrounds and practicing different forms of art on its main show, Culturebox l'émission. During the Cannes Festival in 2022, Culturebox also broadcasted the temporary channel TV Festival de Cannes late at night.

(2021-)

Logo: We see the culturebox text on a black background. The right half of the X gains momentum as the rest of the text fades before it hits the left half, inverting the x into a diamond, leading to a trailer.

Variants:

• While the branding of the channel is handled by Gedeon, young artists and art students have also done idents for the channel. Their names and the name of their school would be displayed on the bottom right during each ident.
• Depending on the program that's about to begin, one of the idents can be used to lead into it. The diamond then cuts the sequence, showing the culturebox text above the type of programming, the latter flashing in different colors before both fade out.
• For Christmas 2022, the sequence takes place on a red background with white abstract snowflakes. The two sides of the X close to form the eyes of a laughing face before morphing into a happy face with Santa-esque beard. The X opens again before showing the full logo, then it segues into the regular sequence.

Trivia: The colors taken on by the right side of the X are the colors of each of France Télévisions's channels (red, blue, purple, green, yellow). The only color that doesn't represent any of France Télévisions's channels is cyan.

Technique: CGI, both 2D and 3D depending on the variant.

Music/Sounds: A jazzy tune through the use of bass, trumpets, drums and claps.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• While the main theme itself remains the same, it is often cut in various ways depending on the variant.
• The Christmas 2022 theme also uses a jazzy tune, with saxophones and dings.
• An 8-bit remix of the main theme is also used for the Gaming special of Culturebox l'émission.