Producers Sales Organization

Credits

Descriptions by
Eric S., Matthew Mayfield, Shadeed A. Kelly, and thisisanswer

Background

Producers Sales Organization (PSO) was the first production company of Mark Damon, an actor-turned-producer who later formed MDP Worldwide and Foresight Unlimited and co-founded Vision P.D.G. International with Peter Guber and Jon Peters. It was formed in 1977 and mostly handled foreign sales of independent films. It started out as a partnership between Damon, producer Sandy Howard, and Richard St. Jones, who worked for Arthur Guinness Son & Co. At one point in its existence, PSO was a subsidiary of Guinness.

On March 27, 1985, PSO became a full-fledged production company. On April 10, a major shake-up happened in PSO's sales and acquisition department, with executive Eleanor Powell becoming the company's deputy managing director. That November, PSO merged with film financing firm The Delphi Companies; the resulting company, PSO-Delphi, forged a domestic theatrical distribution deal with Tri-Star Pictures and a home video distribution deal with CBS/Fox Video. Movies produced under these deals include Prizzi's Honor and Short Circuit.

Throughout 1984 and 1985, PSO would make several more deals with other production and distribution companies. Frank Yablans, Roadshow Film Distributors, UGC and Taft Entertainment Pictures, the last of which was working with Keith Barish at the time, were among the companies PSO made deals with.

Despite releasing many successful films, PSO ran into financial problems. In a lead-up to a bankruptcy plan, the company decided to drop in-house production and restructure its output deals with foreign distributors into picture-by-picture agreements; this included a deal with RKO Pictures.

PSO cut its relationship with Delphi on April 23, 1986, effectively forcing the company out of film production and into bankruptcy. It agreed to a new line of credit with Chemical Bank of New York and The First National Bank of Boston on the condition that PSO had to concentrate on what it did originally: acquiring foreign sales rights to movies and sell those films abroad. As the company had gone into bankruptcy protection, rumors suggested that Vestron Inc. was planning to buy PSO; however, the company would ultimately shut down outright. Many of PSO's employees were soon hired by Vestron to run a new foreign sales unit dubbed Producers Distribution Organization, later renamed Interaccess Film Distribution, Inc. and then Vestron International Group. Damon himself co-founded Vision P.D.G. International the following year.

A majority of the library would end up with Lionsgate, and later Icon Entertainment International (originally founded by Mel Gibson).

1st Logo (August 1, 1980-1984)

Visuals: Over a white background, pieces of a blue rectangle appear one by one. Then pieces of a "P", a "S", and an "O" appear one by one. The blue rectangle with "PSO" in it zooms out. Then the words "PRODUCERS SALES ORGANIZATION" appear one by one. Then "Presents" appears at the bottom of the logo.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: Silent.

Availability: It was seen on international prints of films such as The Final Countdown, Dead and Buried, and the English dubbed theatrical cut of The Boat (aka Das Boot), but most current releases use domestic prints or remove this logo. It makes an appearance on the Shout! Factory Blu-ray and Fandango at Home's print of Class of 1984.

2nd Logo (1983-1986?)

Visuals: On a black background, the word "THROUGH" in yellow fades in. After a few seconds, the stacked words "PRODUCERS SALES ORGANIZATION", one on each line in school bus yellow, appear near a curved school bus yellow square with the letters "PSO" in black on it via sloped blinds. The logo fades out with a sloped blinds effect after a few seconds.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: Silent, though it is said it had a jingle where there is a 8-note synthesizer theme followed by a two uplifting notes and a whoosh sound when the PSO text fades in.

Availability: It was seen on foreign releases of Fire and Ice, The Day After, and Prizzi's Honor, among others. It can be seen on La Traviata and the international trailer for Once Upon a Time in America. It can also be seen on the U.S. VHS of 8 Million Ways to Die instead of the 4th logo.

3rd Logo (August 26, 1983-April 25, 1986)

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Visuals: Essentially just an in-credit variant of the previous logo.

Technique: A still graphic, usually using scrolling effects.

Audio: None or the opening/end credits music.

Availability: It can be seen at the end of films such as Fire and Ice, 8 Million Ways to Die, 9½ Weeks, and foreign releases of Flight of the Navigator. It might not appear on the UK Second Sight Blu-Rays of the latter film as they appear to have used the Walt Disney Pictures-distributed U.S. print that starts with the 2nd Walt Disney Pictures logo.

4th Logo (May 19, 1986)

Visuals: On a black background, two horizontal lines move towards each other. As this happens, the inside turns blue while the outside turns gray. It zooms back to reveal a blue slanted rectangle with white borders. The white letters "P", "S" and "O" appear one by one, then next to "PSO", the stacked words "PRODUCERS SALES ORGANIZATION" wipe themselves inside. Then below "THROUGH TRI-STAR PICTURES" in orange wipes itself in.

Technique: Early computer animation.

Audio: A humming sound begins throughout the theme of the preceding TriStar Pictures logo. The TriStar theme ends before the last three notes while the humming continues. When "PSO" appears, chimes are heard when each letter appears. Then as the rest of the logo wipes itself in, two twinkling noises are heard. On Netflix and Tubi prints of the movie said below, it is silent, though TriStar's theme is not.

Availability: This can be seen on some prints of 8 Million Ways to Die, including those on Netflix and Tubi. It is unknown if it appeared on foreign prints of other films (and if it did, it probably wouldn't have included the Tri-Star byline).