Lauren Films

Background

Lauren Films was a production, distribution, and film company founded in 1980 and based in Barcelona. It started as the exclusive distributor of Golden Harvest, and later Orion Pictures in Spain, expanding itself and entering the production world (its major feature being Pedro Almodóvar's Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios, nominated for an Academy Award in 1989). They held the theatrical distribution rights of Miramax Films, Summit Entertainment, Good Machine, Artisan Entertainment, and some Hong Kong companies, as well as all Walt Disney films dubbed in the Catalan language. Formerly, they handled United Artists and New Line Cinema rights as well. In its final years, Lauren Films was centered in the theatrical distribution, leaving the home video distribution to Filmax due to a business agreement between the two companies, signed in 2006. The company went bankrupt in the late 2000s.

1st Logo (1984-1980's)

Logo: On a space background, some white "stars" zoom to the screen and fly out. Eventually, the Golden Harvest "Rectangle G" flies in from the left, pulsing in the process. The logo then twirls to the left and morphsinto a stylized eagle with six sprocket holes on the tail. Inside the eagle, ''LAUREN FILMS" fades in, and then "presenta" on the right fades in.

Technique: The background, the balls, the morphing G to eagle.

Music/Sounds: The 1978 Golden Harvest theme.

Availability: Scarce.

Legacy: The logo has really outdated animation, and the dark atmosphere along with the logo design can get someone.

2nd (known) Logo (1980's-1995)

Logo: On a grey background, a shining silver filmstrip shows multiple screens featuring clips of some of the company's films, 26 in total. After showing them, the filmstrip fades out to make place to a logo another filmstrip, forming some kind of incomplete triangle/teardrop shape in yellow,which strongly resembles the top half of Screen Gems' "S From Hell" logo (minus the center dot), accompanied by segmented letters reading "LAUREN VIDEO HOGAR". The whole thing zooms in and shines.

Trivia: The 26 films: Remo Williams, Wheels on Meals, Terminator, and The Woman in Red are among the 26 clips used in this logo. If anyone recognizes more of them, please put them in this section.

Technique: The zoom in.

Music/Sounds: A very catchy '80s pop theme, played with an organ, electric guitar, and beatbox. This is actually a music library piece as it has also been used in an Australian commercial.

Availability: Scarce; only found on old VHS tapes by the company.

Legacy: The logo has some pretty cheesy effects, and moreover, all the clips shown scream '80s. Despite its slight cheesiness and length, both the uplifting music and trying to recognize all the films shown make it an enjoyable logo.

3rd Logo (1995-2006)

Logo: On a space background, a golden comet flies towards the back of the screen, followed by a golden filmstrip with rotating letters on it. The strip turns left and suddenly folds, causing the letters to jump and take their place at the bottom of the strip to form the words "LAUREN FILMS". The filmstrip keeps on folding until it forms the finished logo from before. The letters shine.

Variants:

On DVDs, the official DVD logo in gold fades in under the logo after the whole thing is complete.
There's an early variant used for VHS releases, where the comet is smaller and the word from the filmstrip is just "LAUREN" that shines. The "VIDEO HOGAR" text slides from the sides.

Technique: Very professional CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A whooshing sound when the comet appears, then an excerpt from Johann Strauss II's "Perpetuum Mobile. Ein musikalischer Scherz op. 257", ending with a louder whoosh when the letters shine. The "Video Hogar" version omits the ending whoosh and there's a synth cymbal crash sound for the comet.

Availability: Common.

Legacy: Despite the nice music and good animation, the whooshing sounds could scare most first-time viewers.