Oz Film Company

Credits

Descriptions by
Eric S. and rj4712

Captures by
Eric S. and TrickyMario7654

Editions by
WelcomeToMyChillHome

Video captures courtesy of
MattTheSayian, Century Guy Entertainment and RonaldEmmis

Background

Founded in 1914, this company, also known as The Oz Film Manufacturing Company, produced silent films based off L. Frank Baum's books, most notably the Oz series. Every single one of them bombed commercially. The movies they made had various colors and custom themes playing over it, like silent films traditionally do.

In 1915, this company would be absorbed into Metro Pictures (now Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).

(1914-1915)

• 
  The normal variant
• 
  Orange variant
• 
  Green variant
• 
  The variant seen on title cards.
• 
  Magenta/purple variant
• 
  Close-up blue variant
• 
  Red variant
• 
  Yellow Variant
• 
  Another close-up black and white variant
• 
  And another close-up black and white variant
• 

Nicknames: "Princess Ozma", "Oz Lady of Doom", "V for Vivian" "The OZ Hat"

Logo:

• Opening: On a black background, a woman (silent film actress Vivian Reed, see "Trivia") wearing two flowers and a crown-like object on her forehead with a Z inside a circle (obviously the company name) with a few loose curls hanging down (apparently supposed to be Princess Ozma from the book series) fades in. She looks around the screen and smiles. No obvious indication of the name of the company is shown; it only appears on the title card of the movie.
• Closing: We only see Ozma looking around the screen for about 4 seconds.

Trivia:

• The woman is this logo is silent film actress Vivian Reed (1894-1989), an American actress of the silent era. She appeared in 36 films between 1914 and 1938. For this logo, she only wore black clothes so that only her face was visible.

Variants:

• The logo including the film has been shown in gray, red, yellow, blue, green and purple tones.
• The logo also featured the woman's head in a close-up, to the point where her head almost covers the entire screen. Her loose curls are also missing.
• On The Patchwork Girl of Oz, the close-up variant lasts only 2 seconds, due to skips through the logo, which is a result of the film deterioration.
• The logo may simply cut in, with the fade-in effect being removed.
• A variant exists where Ozma's clothes are shown briefly.
• There is a title card variant where the company name is shown below Ozma's head.

FX/SFX: The woman moving her head and the fade-in effect.

Music/Sounds: None for the close-up variant; the regular variant may use a custom opening/closing theme on some films.

Availability: Ultra rare. Only four films produced by the company are known to survive, the rest having been decomposed or lost.

Editor's Note: The logo is regarded by some as unnerving, due to Ozma's cold, lifeless stare and lack of music (or the accompanying music on some of the films). The close-up variant is considered even worse, due to the "in-your-face" style that will surprise many who were expecting the original variant and the silence. However, those used to both variants will find them to be beautiful examples of early film and makeup. However, the usage of dark clothes on Vivian to make her face only visible predates chroma-key technology which would be created years later.