Rank Home Video

Credits

Descriptions by
Eric S., Wisp2007, and Thisisanswer

Captures by
Eric S., Wisp2007, and Thisisanswer

Editions by
Michael Kenchington

Video captures courtesy of
LogicSmash, DudeThatLogo and CannonFilms (unofficial fan-base)

Background

Rank Home Video was the home video division of The Rank Organisation.

1st Logo (1980-1982)

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Visuals: On a green background, the gong wipes in with a circular motion, followed by an angled rounded rectangle drawing in while making a bit of a shine mark on the gong. After this, the Gongman is drawn, all while the entire logo zooms in. When it's finished drawing, the rectangle flattens out and the logo fades out, while three pairs of white lines draw in, with a trio of three and a single line below it. "RANK" in a segmented rounded font slides in from the left, while "VIDEO" slides in from the right doing the same thing. "LIBRARY" just fades in on the bottom. The white lines then disappear, leaving the segmented text taking up the entire screen. The logo and text are in black.

Technique: Motion-controlled animation.

Audio: A whoosh that starts out quiet, but gets louder over time, and the familiar gong sound from the Rank logo plays when the Gongman is drawn.

Audio Variant: In some cases, the logo is silent.

Availability: This logo can be seen on the earliest releases from Rank on VHS and Laserdisc.

• Among these are Animal Farm, Brief Encounter, Bugsy Malone, Tarka the Otter, The Bermuda Triangle, City on Fire, Wombling Free, the 1978 remake of The Thirty-Nine Steps, the 1946 version of Great Expectations, A Night To Remember, the 1944 version of Henry V, Charly, the Rank-era Carry On films, Silver Dream Racer, The Sea Wolves, Vampyres, Cabaret, Junior Bonner, The Baltimore Bullet, and the 1948 version of Hamlet.
• The silent version can be found on The Wild Geese (1978).

2nd Logo (1982-1988)

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Visuals: On a black background, the word "RANK" in multiple colors comes in from the top of the screen. "VIDEO" does the same thing as they rest in the middle of the screen, now in a thick white outline. "RANK" then flashes and fills itself with a sky blue color, and "VIDEO" does the same thing. After a bit, the text flips downward out of view, and the Rank Organisation logo flips in (sans the rectangle and some altered shading on the gong, in the same color as the text). The logo flips out a bit later.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: First, howling wind when the text comes in. Thunderstorm sounds are heard when the text turns sky blue, followed by an ominous synth fanfare.

Availability: Seen on Rank released films from Cannon, Orion and Disney in the UK for a certain period.

• Seen on The Terminator, Over The Top, and Return to Oz, as well as the UK pre-cert VHS release of X-ray and the Laserdisc release of Starflight: The Plane that Couldn't Land (aka Starflight One: Perigo no Espaco).
• It can also be found on the 1986 UK VHS release of The Wild Geese (1978) and the 1987 UK VHS release of Genevieve (1953), respectively.

3rd Logo (1988-1993)

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Visuals: On a black background, the screen zooms out from the back of the Gongman, colored black with blue highlights all over him. As the camera zooms out and rotates around to reveal the gong, he swings the mallet and hits the gong, producing a large flash that engulfs the entire screen. When the flash dies down, it reveals the alternate Rank logo, now in black and emerald green, shining along the edges and slowly zooming out. After it finishes shining, "Rank Home Video" is wiped in by lights. The logo continues to zoom out before fading, shining once more as it does.

Variant: On a 1988 trailer tape, the logo animation is extended in a which the logo doesn't flash to white after the first gong strike, and instead zooms onto the gong where it's hit a 2nd time, causing the screen to flash white. The entire thing is now on a blue sketchy background and "Rank Home Video" fades in a larger print size for a few seconds before fading back out. At the end of the tape, however, the logo plays out the same as the regular logo, though it first takes place on the blue background before changing to the standard black background.

Technique: A combination of rotoscoping, traditional animation, and CGI.

Audio: A synthesised fanfare with a gong sound when the man hits the gong.

Availability: Seen on Rank releases of Cannon films from the time-period until 1993. ^[Examples?]

4th Logo (1990) [America only]

Visuals: On a black background, the print Gongman logo fades in. Underneath it is "Rank Video" in green, and below that is "an American company of The Rank Organisation Plc."

Technique: A still graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: This logo was spotted on the U.S. VHS release of The ABC's of Your VCR.