Kintek Stereo

Credits

Descriptions by
Matthew Mayfield

Captures by
Matthew Mayfield

Video captures courtesy of
FT Depot

Background

Kintek Stereo was a sound technology company from United States.

1st Logo (1979-1980s)

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Visuals: On a black background, a male announcer begins talking, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, the sound in the motion picture you are about to see would ordinarily come from one speaker behind the screen." As the music begins, a white rectangle with two stylized "K"s (the left one is backwards) begins easing towards the screen. As this happens, the announcer continues his spiel: "Now, join us in the next dimension of theater sound as Kintek Cinesonics creates the sounds of life for every motion picture in this theater." The rectangle keeps zooming in until the space between the "K"s almost completely fills the screen before it disappears. Reappearing is the same rectangle which is connected to a box with the words "KINTEK CINESONICS" inside it. It zooms in until it fills up the screen.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation.

Audio: After the announcer finishes the first part of his spiel, a high-pitched, electronic synth theme is played throughout the duration of the logo and continues on for a bit after the logo cuts to black.

Availability: Appeared in theaters that had Kintek sound technology. The trailers would be long gone outside of film collectors.

Legacy: Pretty simple animation which pales in comparison compared to the next logo...

2nd Logo (1980s-1990s)

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Visuals: On a black background, the 3D grid letters K, I, N, T, E and K all fly in and rest in the middle one at a time, each of them flashing into solid white letters spelling "KINTEK". Then a blue animated grid wave appears under the company name, with its reflection seen underneath the wave. After a moment, the wave disappears and the "KINTEK" name turns outlined, and flies towards the screen, rotating and flying off and trailing. Then several versions of the letters which formed the company name appear, starting with the "K"s flying forward. Then the orange "I"s shoot towards the screen, then the green spinning "N"s appear followed by the "T"s swooping in and out, the "E"s trailing forward and ends with the "K"s flying forward. After this, the outlined "KINTEK" scrolls past the screen towards the middle, with the reflection of the word appearing underneath, also scrolling towards the middle. Then they're both followed by two more copies of each word before they all quickly merge and flash into the solid white "KINTEK". Then below the letters in the word "STEREO" appear and flash in one by one underneath "KINTEK". After a moment, the words "THE MOTION PICTURE SOUND SYSTEM" fades in underneath.

Technique: Impressively done early wireframed CGI.

Audio: It starts off with a droning sound which has a flute tune, with hits as each of the letters appear and a gong sound as the company name forms. The flute plays as the wave appears. As the "KINTEK" flies off, a streaking sound is heard as it goes into an electronic synth theme with drumbeats with the first "K"s, metallic tapping sounds for the "I"s, swishing sounds for the "N"s, an electronic beating sound for the "T"s, an electronic droning sound for the "E"s and electronic tapping sounds for the last "K"s. Then a calm, angelic choir theme is heard as the "KINTEK" text and reflection scroll towards each other before it goes into a ping when the words quickly merge together with electronic hits that appear for each letter in the word "STEREO" that flashes in and ending with an electronic warbling sound.

Availability: Appeared in theaters that were equipped with Kintek sound technology and would only be found upon film collectors nowadays.

Legacy: A visually-pleasing trip combining with early wireframed CGI and electronic synth music makes this a very memorable sound trailer.