IM Pictures

Credits

Descriptions by
Yuuko2K

Captures by
Yuuko2K

Video captures courtesy of
PFS2021Channel - AUS-NZ-SG-IE and ifrequire

Background

IM Pictures Co., Ltd. was founded in April 2000 by members of the Samsung Film Industry Group (who worked on films such as Shiri and The Promise). Mostly active during the early and mid 2000s, the company ceased operations by 2008.

1st Logo (January 11, 2002-July 14, 2005)

Visuals: The screen fades to a CGI-generated spherical environment, which consists of a green grassy terrain with plants, rivers, and small hills seen around it, with multiple buildings such as an orange-tinted castle, a bridge, a carousel, a hilly road, a semaphore, some green hut houses on the right and a white/black checkerboard floor being shown. The environment is shown rotating left-to-right like a planet, and it begins to zoom back. A train can be seen passing from the right to the left, and as the environment rotates, a tunnel is revealed with the train navigating into it. Soon after, it is revealed that a blue ferris wheel is shown at the left, and another train tunnel is shown at the right. A tall hill is then revealed behind at the top of the environment, and a sea with an orange boat and submarine moving is shown at the bottom. Shortly after, multiple blue clouds are seen at the top with a yellow blimp moving around them. The spherical environment keeps shrinking as a light dimly glows in front of it. The screen then fades to black, as a red dot appears at the place where the silver "im" is shown drawing in. Two lights appear once it is formed, moving to the sides and wiping in the text "아이엠픽져스" at the top and "IM PICTURES CORP" in serif at the bottom. The logo stays for a while before fading out.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A soothing music box theme with the sounds of a train passing by. During the second half, the music fades to a dreamy ambient synth note, with whooshes when the "im" draws in.

Availability: It appears on their early films, including Afrika, A Perfect Match, Please Teach Me English, A Bold Family, and Heaven's Soldiers.

2nd Logo (July 7-November 9, 2006)

Visuals: On a blue sky, two rounded glass rectangles with holes on one of the sides drop down from above and fly near the camera as clouds are revealed. One of the rectangles remains floating on-screen and moves away, and the other rectangle appears rotating from near the camera to the top of the screen, placing itself vertically. The same rectangle then begins rotating clockwise quickly as a mechanical arm comes out of it, which folds to the left towards the top. As the mechanical arm begins touching the rectangle, a flash occurs at the meeting point and a red sphere appears. The rectangle with the mechanical arm then disappears, and the camera rapidly travels towards the sphere as the clouds become blurry, while the sphere turns to a shiny material with a vertical ring seen around it. There is a closeup of the sphere as glowing copies of the text "IM PICTURES" in white are shown spinning around the material. The sphere then moves back as the background is changed to a blue/light blue gradient background. It begins bouncing near the center as the mechanical arm, now in silver and taking the form of an "im" (without the dot) quickly slides in from the right to the center, and a light flare comes out of the sphere as it bounces to the right revealing the text "imp¡ctures corp." (with the i upside down). Once the text appears, the flare moves away to the left, and a ripple appears below the logo.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A soft, somewhat dramatic theme with piano, bells, strings and a flute at the beginning, which ends with an uplifting note, with the piano playing more notes during the formation of the logo.

Availability: The logo appears on Tazza: The High Rollers, Love Me Not, Apt and Fly, Daddy, Fly.

3rd Logo (July 26, 2007-January 30, 2008)

Visuals: A custom keyboard instrument is shown, consisting of a metallic silver material and keys made up of rounded rectangles with a red button at the top of them (similar to the design of the previous logo), with the flat notes placed above them as black rounded rectangles with each group of flat notes separated by a blank space with two screws. Multiple red spheres begin falling into the notes of the keyboard, and some begin to bounce around it. A few seconds after, three of these spheres line up in a group as a blue glow appears around the keys, and the camera tilts back to a top-facing perspective. The spheres and the keys then fly away to the sides, with some of them forming the "im" design from the previous logo white a red button appears and takes place as the dot of the "i". Blue rays of light appear around the logo as the rest of the spheres begin to move towards the button. The logo places to the center, and the background changes to white, with the Hangul text "(주)아이엠픽져스" appearing below the logo. It then moves downwards to make place for the "imp¡ctures corp." text, which zooms in. At the same time, the logo is seen shining.

Variant: An in-credit version exists.

Technique: CGI; none for the variant.

Audio: An arpeggiating piano sequence, with notes of a synth bell being heard when the spheres fall to the notes of the keyboard. At the second half, the theme turns into an ascending orchestral fanfare with windchimes, ending with two orchestral hits.

Availability: The logo first made its appearance as an in-credit version in Muoi: The Legend of a Portrait, and was later featured on The Mafia, The Salesman, Our Town, and Once Upon a Time.