Palace Films

Background

Palace Films started out as a VHS distributor that released videos from a wide range of genres which were handled (until recently) sent up as a join venture between Village Roadshow, Blake Films and private investor Antony Veccola. In 1985 Veccola bought out the other company's stock and it ventured out into the film distribution business and opened a small number of art-house cinemas around Australia's main cities and became an independent company. Its VHS releases were still handled by Village Roadshow until the late '90s.

1st Logo (1980s-1990s)

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Logo: Against a starfield with trailing stars zooming in, the word "P A L A C E" in between two lines fades in, followed by "FILMS" in a large purple arch-shaped font with a light blue "shadow" behind it. The top of the S shines with a 5-pointed star.

FX/SFX: The text fading in, and the shining.

Music/Sounds: An upbeat horn fanfare with kettledrums, followed by an announcer saying "Palace Films".

Availability: Seen on Australian PAL tapes from the period.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1990s)

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Logo: We see a red background moving like sand in a windstorm. We also see a silhouette of a centurion slowly standing up. The flag fades out to reveal a stormy sky and the centurion in a pose where he is seen blowing a long horn. The word "PALACE" in a grey, stone font fades below.

Closing Variant: After the credits of the film, we see the silhouette of the centurion blowing his horn, with "PALACE" underneath. "Distributed in Australia and New Zealand" is atop the centurion.

FX/SFX: The red background flying like sand, the action of the centurion and the stormy sky.

Music/Sounds: A low synth note followed by some whooshes and then a synth choir followed by a 5-note horn tune.

Availability: Ultra rare. The closing variant was spotted on Chopper, while animated version is seen on Umbrella Entertainment DVD trailer of Head On (1998). Otherwise, it was only used for a short time before they broke away from Roadshow, but all releases from then use the logo below.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (late 1990s- )

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Logo: We see the same red background as before again being blown about by a windstorm. The silhouette from the last logo appears again and moves in the same way. When the background changes, however, it is of a view just about the clouds with the centurion as before in his pose and the words "PALACE FILMS" appearing in the same font as before.

FX/SFX: Same as the last logo, however there is a shining light from behind and we move forward through the clouds a little bit.

Music/Sounds: A string and electronic stinger followed a 7-note trumpet sounder.

Availability: No longer current. Most of Palace releases are few and far between, but you can find this on the Australian film Ten Canoes and other local releases. This is no longer seen on many Australian releases of foreign films, but was used as a small print logo on foreign films instead.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (Late 2000s?- )

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Logo: We see a silhouette of the centurion blowing his horn, with the "PALACE FILMS" in the same font as previous two logos, now colored soild white, seen below.

Closing Variant: After the credits of the film, a revised version of the silhouette of the centurion blowing his horn is seen, with "PALACE FILMS" below, and "Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by" is stacked into 2 lines atop the centurion. Also, the website URL "PalaceFilms.com.au" fades in below the logo.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Current. Seen on some Australian releases of foreign films, examples are Beloved, Leviathan and For Your Love, and is intact on official trailers of the Australian releases on its YouTube channel.

Editor's Note: None.