Film Australia

Credits

Descriptions by
mr3urious and edunk5

Captures by
AustralianRoadshow and edunk5Video

Video captures courtesy of
Péter Gábor Sasvári

Background

Film Australia was a company established by the Government of Australia to produce content about Australia. Its mission was to create an audio-visual record of Australian culture, through the commissioning, distribution, and management of programs that deal with matters of national interest or illustrate and interpret aspects of Australian life. The agency consolidated operations into Screen Australia in 2008. Administration of the Film Australia Collection was transferred from Screen Australia to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia on July 1, 2011.

1st (known) Logo (1980s-1995)

Logo: On a black and puce gradient background with a reflective floor and thick lines, one of which contains pale rainbow colors, we see a stylized glass A with sprocket holes on one side zooming out and rotating into place, along with three trapezoids sliding in colored red, green, and blue. The trapezoids arrange themselves under the prism as "FILM AUSTRALIA" in a serif font slide in toward the left of the screen on the rainbow line.

Variants:

• On Johnson and Friends, the logo would fold away into a cube shape and bounce off the screen, segueing into the show's intro.
• A short version exists where the only animation present is the A moving a bit.
• On VHS releases of their content, "VIDEO" would be placed on the red trapezoid.

Technique: The prism and lines moving into place, the company name sliding in; nice CGI for the time.

Music/Sounds: A patriotic synthesized oboe tune ending with a synthesized orchestra sounder. The short version just has an twinkling sound effect.

Availability: Rare. Seen at the beginning of old Australian prints for films and TV shows produced by the company such as Johnson and Friends. The short version can be seen on The Fox Clubhouse, which contained a dubbed version of Johnson and Friends.

Legacy: This logo has really good CGI, especially for the 1980s!

2nd Logo (1994-2008)

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Logo: We see the same A as before in multiple copies and different sizes being camouflaged on a moving sea background. It then changes to a background showing a pile of gum leaves with the As zooming out and disappearing in quick succession. Then it fades to a red rock background where the A pushes out of it. "FILM AUSTRALIA" fades in below in a white TW Cen MT Condensed font.

Trivia: If you look closely, the A shapes make the shape of Australia as it fades to the gum leaves before sliding backwards into the background.

Variant: At the end of shows produced in the 2000s, "A NATIONAL INTEREST PROGRAM" appears in the middle where the A is on the background where it ended while "FILM AUSTRALIA LTD" appears below with the copyright stamp and year in Roman numerals aside. The URL is shown at the bottom of the screen.

Technique: The multiple "A"s, especially when they vanish and the rock "A" pushing out.

Music/Sounds: An ensemble of calm and peaceful wind instruments along with a chime sound before finishing with a clarinet solo accompanied with a metallic whoosh the A makes when it comes out.

Availability: Seen at the beginning of all its programs at the time such as Bush Mechanics.