Cohen Media Group is a growing producer and distributor of independent film, formed in 2008 by real estate magnate and movie lover Charles S. Cohen. Earlier this year, it got a new corporate identity, created by Paula Scher at Pentagram. At the center is a bold and angular C. The C can also be used in large form as a frame device. A custom typeface is used for the logo-type. Read more »
Back in January, Universal Pictures announced that they were going to introduce a new opening logo. At the same time they released a static image of the new intro, saying that the full animation would first in front of The Lorax. That movie premieres today, March 2, and the the new animation became available on the Internet yesterday.
The new intro was created with Weta Digital, a visual effects studio based in New Zealand. Like previous anniversary intros, it starts with a rundown of previous studio logos. The new animation seems to start around Turkey, panning over the Mediterranean Sea before revealing the entire globe. Rather than appearing letter-by-letter as in previous intros, the new wordmark seems to be a more solid mesh, making it look a bit less impressive as it slowly moves into its position in front of the globe. The original score has been re-arranged by Brian Tyler, who has added a choir and more strings. Read more »
Of the "big 6" movie studios in the United States, five were founded in the 1910s. The two oldest, Paramount and Universal, were founded in 1912, meaning this year is their 100th anniversary. It has become customary to celebrate these anniversaries with altered versions of the animations the studios use to open their films. This time, the 100-year-olds have not only adapted their existing intros, they have introduced completely new animations. Paramount was first to reveal its new intro in December, and yesterday, January 10, it was time for Universal Pictures to reveal its anniversary intro.
Unlike Paramount, Universal has also introduced introduced a new logo-type, finally ditching the Copperplate-like letters for something resembling Gotham.
At the moment we only have a static version of the new intro. Universal are saving the fully animated version for the premiere of The Lorax in February. After this the new intro will be used on all new films, presumably with the phrase "100th anniversary" removed next year. The current Universal intro was introduced in 1997. Read more »
At the beginning of September, the France-based movie studio StudioCanal gave up the local names of its subsidiaries in Germany and the United Kingdom, Kinowelt and Optimum Releasing, instead renaming them both after their parent company. With this came a new visual identity, including a new logo and a brand new intro, both created by the UK agency Devilfish.
The new identity replaced both the identities of Optimum and Kinowelt, as well as the existing StudioCanal identity, including its "dramatic clouds" intro.
Previous logo.
The logo has been known at least since June 30, when the rebrand was announced, and the intro was unveiled in early September. It was first used in the Tomas Alfredson-directed movie Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, which had its UK-wide premiere on September 16.
The new intro is an evocate piece featuring light projected through glass panels, produced with Double G Studios. Harris Zambarloukos acted as director of photography and a mood-setting musical score was composed by Alexandre Desplat.
"In order to create something truly timeless, we began with the concept of the interplay between light and glass. Light is the common denominator of all cinema; a movie is simply the record of light on film. And the glass in the lens of both the camera and the projector is an essential tool in the making of movies. A large installation of 25 glass panels was built (representing STUDIOCANAL’s vast library of films), and abstract light generated from STUDIOCANAL titles was then projected through the glass panels. We crafted as much of the ident in camera as possible, keeping post-production to a minimum – creating a sequence that could conceivably have been shot at any time in the history of film-making." - Devilfish
