Warner Bros. Cinemas

Credits

Descriptions by
zman1997, imacomputergeek, DannyTheMuppetMan and SBF2004

Captures by
RedheadXilamGuy and DannyTheMuppetMan

Editions by
zman1997, AlmightyKingPrawn and DannyTheMuppetMan

Video captures courtesy of
Phil Brown and tony359

Background

Warner Bros. Cinemas was a British multiplex cinema chain operated by Warner Bros. It was created in the late 1980s and served as a rival to Paramount and Universal's UCI Cinemas chain. The chain was considered a continuation of the former UK cinema chain Warner Cinemas, which had operated for many decades prior to the formation. In November 1996, a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Village Cinemas was established where the locations would start to share the prospective company names, leading to the title "Warner Village".

1st Logo (Early 1990s-1995)

Visuals: On a black background, the WB shield banner with the text "Warner Bros. Cinemas" on it appears from the bottom of the screen and turns to face the camera. The main part of the shield comes down from the top of the screen, and as it does so, a white light shines onto the shield. The banner goes into its proper place around the shield as the camera moves away to make room for the stacked words "FEATURE PRESENTATION" in gold, which flips into view from behind the shield and settles underneath it. The camera then zooms toward "FEATURE PRESENTATION", and moves in between the two words and past them.

• Policy Visuals: The film opens on a space background with the UK floating in the center. The names of various prominent British cities in blue slide from left to right, mostly obscuring each other. (though a few, namely "York", "Cambridge" and "London" can be made out) The camera zooms in on the UK until reaching a marked area dotted with bright spotlights. The image fades out as it closes in on the target area, replaced by a model of the earth which rotates onto the center of the screen as the pink letters "WELCOME" revolve around its top-left axis. A film reel appears behind the Earth as two filmstrips emerge to surround the globe and a WB shield fades in to fill the Earth's center. The Earth fades out and the filmstrip circle zooms away as the shield flips down and a series of star sparkles reveal various available concessions, followed by a rubbish bin. The shield flips up and back down as three movie tickets fly into position atop the shield. The tickets change into gift vouchers and reposition themselves so that the values are visible. As the vouchers fade out, the shield flips and centers itself inside a gold rectangle with the green words "Offers DISCOUNTS" written on the bottom half. The marquee slides back out and the shield flips once more and then disappears. It is replaced by a "No Smoking" symbol as the letters "SHHHHH" slide across the center. The no smoking sign flips in place and then fades out as a film camera slides out toward the center, followed by a clapperboard which slides in front of the camera. The clapperboard snaps itself closed, turns on its side, and slides out as a gold filmreel slides in and begins rotating as it reaches the center. The filmreel fades out and the letters "WB" reappear and center themselves before sliding out and placing themselves on a re-emerged shield, which slides back in as the banner flies out and places itself on the center of the shield. The words "Warner Bros. Cinemas" flash into place as spotlights appear behind the shield and begin shining across the shield. This holds for a brief moment before the trailer fades out.
  • Policy Variant #1: A later version adds additional text, such as "Book Tickets In Advance" (in pink) over the tickets, "Dynamic Digital Sound" (in blue) on the camera lens, and "State of The Art Projection" (in pink) written across the clapperboard. In addition, the rubbish bin is moved to after the No Smoking sign.
  • Policy Variant #2: A short Looney Tunes cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny explaining Warner Bros' cinema policies, as demonstrated visually by fellow Looney Tunes characters (Sylvester, Tweety Bird, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam). At Mycal co-branded theaters, this is followed by a short snipe where an outlined WB shield slides down onto a blue background and flashes, followed by the words "Warner Mycal Cinemas" sliding into place directly underneath (with "MY" in separate text font from the rest of the letters). A series of lights shine across the shield and text once the logo is complete.

Technique: CGI by Cinema Concepts and Flying Foto Factory.

Audio: "Fanfare for the Commoner (a)" from the album "Reveals/Logos/Fanfares", from the Chappell AV music library.

• Policy Audio: A triumphant synth-brass fanfare accompanied by an announcer (male for the original, female for the variant) explaining Warner Bros. Cinemas' theatre policies. The Looney Tunes trailer features standard cartoon music and sound effects.

Audio Variant: For Warner-Mycal Cinemas, the music from the SyuFy Luxury Theatres/Century Theatres trailers are used.

2nd Logo (January 3-November 1996)

• 
• 
  Demo reel variant (with different coloring)

Visuals: The camera moves through a mechanical door into a futuristic hallway with several doors and screens with gold/bronze outlines that display clips from the Warner Bros. Pictures library. One of the doorways on the right enters into a room with a filmstrip on the bottom, several small filmstrips showing more clips from the Warner Bros. Pictures library, and a distorted blue background. Soon after entering the room, there are three phrases formed one-by-one: "Celebrating 100 years of", "MOTION PICTURE ENTERTAINMENT Excellence", and "NOBODY DOES IT BETTER". The text is in different fonts and colors, and shines after one phrase has appeared. The screen then zooms out another mechanical door onto a mechanical roof against a dark cloudy sky, where a robotic arm grabs a plate that comes out of the door; on top of the plate are refreshments that have Looney Tunes characters on them. The screen zooms past the arm and refreshments to see a bucket carrying a red-orange chemical and dropping it into a container. The container's lid is twisted slightly and opens up to reveal the WB shield with the banner saying "WARNER BROS. CINEMAS". The camera zooms up to the shield as the mechanical roof disappears, leaving the shield, the cloudy sky, and several spotlights behind the shield. After a few seconds, the logo fades out. The entire logo lasts for approximately 1 minute.

Technique: CGI by Cinema Concepts and animated by Flying Foto Factory with TDI Explore on Silicon Graphics workstations.

Audio: A synth orchestra piece that gets bigger and more bombastic as the logo progresses. An electronic drumbeat is heard at the beginning and end of the logo. Several sound effects are heard like chimes, whooshes, and robotic/mechanical sounds.

References

Warner Bros. Cinemas

Warner Village Cinemas ►