Shaftesbury Films

Background
Shaftesbury Films is a Canadian film and television company founded by Christine Jennings in 1987.

1st Logo (Early 2000s-2009)
Nickname: "The Bell"

Logo: Against a black background, we see a large yellow bell swaying inside an invisible box. The bell then suddenly stops moving as the text "SHAFTESBURY" appears below in yellow.

FX/SFX: The bell moving.

Music/Sounds: A calm piano/string fanfare with a bell ringing. Other times it may use the closing theme of the show/movie or silence.

Availability: Seen on Shaftesbury movies and TV series from the era, such as Life with Derek and seasons 1 and part of 2 of Murdoch Mysteries.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (2009-2017)
Logo: We see the dark blue word Shaftesbury moving very close to the camera and placing itself in the blue space, above the moving planet.

Variant: On kid-oriented series from the company from 2009 up to until at least 2017, 4 multicolored cards with the letters of the word "KIDS" in them fly underneath "Shaftesbury".

FX/SFX: The text and planet moving, which looks very corporate.

Music/Sounds: A peaceful string fanfare, the ending theme of the show, or silence. The Shaftesbury Kids variation has a whimsical arrangement of the fanfare.

Availability: Common. Seen on series from the company from the era, such as The Listener and seasons 3 to 8 of Murdoch Mysteries.

Editor's Note: Not terribly animated, but it looks excruciatingly generic, what with its bland typeface and royalty-free-looking background. At least the music's nice.

3rd Logo (2017-)


Nickname(s): "The Ribbon Rollercoaster", "The Rollercoaster-Themed Logo"

Logo: On a white (or white-grey gradient) background, we see the bolded text "SHAFTESBURY" appear letter by letter, in white outlined in black, as a red line draws itself underneath the text. The line curves twice and overlaps itself behind the company name, which colors itself black. A line with three dots at the top (resembling a rollercoaster car with people in it) slides up on the curve and stops midway on the left side.

FX/SFX: The line and text's animation.

Music/Sounds: The ending theme of the TV series, a fantasy-oriented 4-note theme, or none.

Availability: Current. Seen on newest episodes of Murdoch Mysteries starting sometime with the 9th season to onwards, and on other programs from the company, such as Hudson and Rex, Slasher, The Sounds, Dead Still, and Frankie Drake Mysteries.

Editor's Note: A pretty neat logo; despite following the 2010s trend of minimalist logos, it has much more personality and feels less bland than the previous logo.