Films Incorporated

Background
Films Incorporated was a 16mm film supplier and home video company based in New York City that distributed various educational films for showing in school classrooms. They could have been founded as early as 1927. Later they were folded under Public Media Incorporated (PMI), being a subsidiary. The company shut down in the early 1990s.

1st Logo (194?-1956?)


Logo: The logo starts at a screen saying "Distributed by" then fading into a screen with text saying: "Films Incorporated" at the top left of the screen with the logo glittering everywhere on the screen, at the bottom left "New York", "Los Angeles", "Chicago", There is then a star that appears between "New York "Dallas and Atlanta" appear at the same time which forms a star between the two, finally "Portland" appears forming a star between that and "Los Angeles".

FX/SFX: The logo glittering.

Music/Sounds: A triumphant trumpet fanfare.

Availability: Extinct. Was found on a 1940s re-release of the cartoon "Flip's Lunchroom".

2nd Logo (1956-1967)
Nicknames: "FI In A Box," "The Other FI"

Logo: On a gray background, we see an outline of a white box. A comet shoots a filled-in gray box on to it, which is tilted at an angle. Another comet shoots the letter "F" on to it, and another shoots the letter "I" on to it. The text "FILMS INCORPORATED" wipes in from left to right below the box, and "Presents" in the Brush Script font fades in below.

Variant: A sepia toned version exists.

FX/SFX: The comets shooting the letters onto the box, the text.

Music/Sounds: A whimsical tune.

Availability: Ultra rare, seen on earlier releases distributed by the company. Three such examples are "Kennedy vs. Khrushchev: Missile Showdown", "The Rocket Man" and "50 Years Before Your Eyes".

3rd Logo (1967-1970)
Note: The Logo appears at the beginning of the video.

Nicknames: "Classic fi", "The Tame fi"

Logo: An abstract, bold, dark blue "f" next to a white "i" on a tan background that looks like it is cross-stitched. A line also appears below to form "films incorporated" and "presents" wiping in, both with an indigo colored font.

Variants:
 * There is a variant where the background is not cross-stitched.
 * A B&W variant was spotted on Lenin Prepares for Revolution.

FX/SFX: The zoom out, the line that forms films incorporated, and presents wiping in.

Music/Sounds: An excerpt of “Small Parts Suite: Opening” by Wilfred Burns. Sometimes, it's silent.

Availability: Very rare, seen on The Philosophy of the Obvious, River People of Chad, and other films with Dr. Frederick Perls, as well as other releases from the era.

4th Logo (1968-1989)
Nicknames: "fi of Doom", "Electronic Sounds Logo"

Logo: On a blue, burgundy, or black background (depending on the film deterioration), we see a white square zooming in. Then it spins around with a residue-trailing effect. The squares stop in the middle of the screen, changing into two squares, colors changing throughout. The two squares become outlined in white and transform into "fi", with part of the "f" red, while the rest of the lettering is white. The "f" extends as the dot of the "i". The text "A FILMS INCORPORATED PRESENTATION" in white with "FILMS INCORPORATED" bigger than the others, wipes in from the left under it.

Variants:
 * A B&W variant exists.
 * A blue variant of the BBC version exists.
 * An in-credit variant was spotted at the end of The Okies: Uprooted Farmers.
 * A sepia variant with green background is used on This Child Is Rated "X"
 * A cyan variant was spotted on Victory at Sea.

FX/SFX: The Scanimate effects used for the trailing.

Music/Sounds: A loud, electronic warbling tune. You can also hear some chord notes while the "fi" forms.

Availability: Rare. Several other companies now distribute the movie library of this now-defunct company. Last seen on Ten Seconds That Shook the World on AT&T U-verse Screen Pack, but it is no longer available. Also seen on The Red Balloon and Sad Song of Yellow Skin. You can find this fairly easily on old PBS programs on the Internet Archive, mainly those originally presented by WNET. The B&W variant was found in the Argentinian film Piel de Verano. Do not expect to see this on Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment's releases of films in their library, including Breaker Morant. The entire jingle can be heard in the podcast Blowback (Season 3, Episode 1) about 24 minutes into the episode.

Legacy: One of the most memorable -- yet polarizing -- logos within the closing logo community, mostly due to the Scanimate effects, color palette, and Moog jingle.

5th Logo (1971?-1984?)
Logo: On a different-colored background, we see "Distributed in the USA by FILMS Incorporated, a subsidiary of" with the PMI logo and "Distributed in Canada by BBC Television Distributors".

Variants: The background colors can range from black to different shades of blue/green. The text can be white, yellow, or orange.

FX/SFX: None. This is a still logo.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Very rare. Seen on FI's later releases, in collaboration with BBC Enterprises. Check websites like the Internet Archive for their films.