Prism Entertainment (US)

Credits

Descriptions by
Logophile, DaBigLogoCollector and others

Captures by
Eric S.

Video captures courtesy of
osdatabase, EnormousRat, MachineryNoise, and ItsBartman

Background

Prism Entertainment was a home entertainment company that was started by Barry Collier in 1984, which would be later renamed to Prism Pictures once it moved into film production in 1992, before closing in 1997. Currently, most, if not all of the Prism library sits with Invincible Pictures.

1st Logo (1984-1997)

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Visuals: On a black background, a blue globe is seen in the bottom right corner, with longitude and latitude lines. An orange laser shoots across twice, oncee in the background diagonally, and then down from the top left corner of which it bursts to form a neon green videotape wireframe. The videotape spins around through out its voyage towards the screen, and the globe moves off-screen as the videotape does the same. Then, multi-colored lasers dive in from all sides of the screen, creating blue dot trails that start to move inwards, forming the shape of a triangle as they do. After 8 lasers have passed to form the dot trails, a white line comes in through the left side and creates a black triangle with a blue aura to it, carving a narrow path through it to create a rainbow of colors, as well as 3 lines as it passes out from the other side. Orange streaks then move up from the bottom to reveal the rainbow-colored text "PRISM", which changes colors throughout, and then a yellow/hot pink laser wipes in "ENTERTAINMENT" below in white.

Trivia:

• This logo was produced and complied by Ed Kramer in 1983 at Editel Video in Hollywood (defunct as of mid-1999), using a System IV video synthesizer from Computer Image Corporation of Denver, Colorado (The same people who created the Scanimate computer).
• The cassette model is by far the most complex 3-D wireframe ever made on System IV. The endpoints were created using a puck on a data tablet to define the wireframe object, and the spools inside the cassette were produced using digital sine and cosine waves fed into horizontal and vertical perimeters. Small interior spools added low frequency square waves to push sections out to make the teeth of the spools.
• The animation of the 3-D wireframe is being drawn by a continuous beam of electrons refreshing the image 60 times per second.
• There is no rendering, so everything coming from the System IV happened in real time, and could be adjusted with a digital knob.

Variants:

• On some laserdisc releases, and later VHS releases from Prism Entertainment, the first part of the logo is cut out, instead going directly to the triangle forming.
• A still logo appears on a blue background, with everything in white, the white streaks are present, and a slogan under that is shown reading "Reflecting a new light in home video."
• A B&W variant exists.

Technique: A mixture of Scanimate, backlit animation, and CGI.

Audio: A synth tune with synthesized sound effects that resemble a zapping noise when the lasers appear. Recorded using an Oberheim OB-X synthesizer, also by Ed Kramer.

Availability: Seen on tapes by Prism Entertainment from 1984 until 1997, including The Forest, My Little Girl, Night Friend, Legal Tender, Last Call, The Pink Chiquitas, The Arrival, Blood Hook, Red Blooded American Girl, The Boneyard, and The Land of Faraway, among others. The short version makes strange appearances on Dark Universe and Virtual Assassin.

2nd Logo (1992-1997)

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Visuals: On a black-white gradient background, six white faces of a cube come in from all sides to form in the center. On the panels themselves, a multicolored brush stroke, with spoke holes to invoke a filmstrip, wipes in from the bottom to top, and "PRISM PICTURES" fades in below. The cube then positions itself towards the front of the screen, and then zooms in to fill it.

Variant: On some tapes, a longer version exists. The cube pieces come in slower and, before coming together, revolve around once before they merge together into one solid cube, and then it revolves to one side of the cube that zooms in slower. The background's gradient is also inverted, and the text is already there on the cube sides.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Either a droning synth theme fading into two gentle music hums, during which are loud, descending hums, thuds, whooshes, and a twinkle (at least in the logo in the second video above), or a glorious calm fanfare with tube sounds and xylophone sounds. On most releases, the logo is silent. Sometimes there will be an announcer saying "Coming soon from Prism Pictures."

Availability: Used in home video releases. Can be found on later tapes from Prism such as Project: Shadowchaser, Monkey Boy, Fleshtone, The Double O Kid, Phantom of the Ritz, There's Nothing Out There, Abraxas, Still Life, and Baby on Board.

3rd Logo (May 15, 1994-February 6, 1996)

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Visuals: On a smoky blue background, a multicolored filmstrip moving around the screen. After about two seconds, a paintbrush appears on screen and follows the filmstrip until it goes off screen. After the filmstrip goes off screen, the paintbrush paints a straight multicolored line with small squares on each side, making the line look like a filmstrip. The paintbrush then zooms across the area below the line, going off screen and creating the text "PRISM PICTURES." The letters of the text spin around a few times, and then stop. Finally, the smoke in the background turns0 purple for a second, and then disappears, leaving the background completely black.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A fancy-sounding fanfare with tube sounds and xylophone sounds.

Availability: Used in film production. Was seen on Sleepstalker, A Million to Juan and Night Eyes Four: Fatal Passion.