Video Classics

Background
Video Classics distributed material from such companies as Media Home Entertainment, The Nostalgia Merchant, Electric Blue, Wizard Video, and VCL. It was one of the Magnificent Seven home video distributors.

1st Logo (Early 1980s)
Logo: We see a wide variety of clips from the Video Classics range including an eagle, surfing, a woman's nude butt in a shower and a science fiction film. The clip fades out and a purple box with the words "VIDEO CLASSICS" comes in via a trail effect.

FX/SFX: The clips. The trail effect left by the logo.

Music/Sounds: An excerpt of the electronic disco song "Chase" by Giorgio Moroder with a male announcer saying "Video Classics presents the finest range of home video movies available in Australia. Video Classics are all top quality movies duplicated to the highest standards available in the world. For further details on the other video movies available, please contact your local dealer, or ring Sydney 926400 for these details."

Availability: Ultra rare. Found on early releases by the company. Might have been used in tandem with the logos below.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (Early 1980s, Alternate A)
Nicknames: "The Pink Spotlight", "TV Static", "Video Classics Meets Kraftwerk"

Logo: Against a black background, we see a pink line being drawn from right to left. It stays on screen for a few seconds, then it shrinks, and "VIDEO CLASSICS", in a rather blocky font, and viewed from an angle, appears via a "TV static" effect, then transforms into a pink outline logo. A purplish-pink spotlight shines through the logo, and we fade out.

FX/SFX: The line drawing and shrinking, "Video Classics" fading in...

Music/Sounds: A low electronic piano glissando ("Kometenmelodie 1" by Kraftwerk) as the line draws in, then a sweeping synthesized noise when "Video Classics" fades in, followed by an excerpt of"Kometenmelodie 2" by Kraftwerk.

Availability: Seen on old Aussie PAL tapes. This is one of four logos from that era.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (Early 1980s, Alternate B)
Nickname: "Wireframe Parallelogram"

Logo: On a black background, several lines wipe in from left-to-right, colored red, yellow, green, and white on the top and bottom, forming a sideways parallelogram. "VIDEO", in a typewriter font and also in a sideways parallelogram, zooms out, and when it settles, "CLASSICS" is written in a blue cursive font below.

FX/SFX: The lines wiping in, "Video" zooming out.

Music/Sounds: An analog synth bassline accompanied by synthesized chirps when lasers pass by, a "whirring" sound when "Video" zooms out while the bassline fades out, then a four-note synth fanfare as "Classics" is being written out.

Availability: See above for details.

Editor's Note: None.

4th Logo (Early 1980s, Alternate C)
Nickname: "Australian Map and VHS"

Logo: Positioned against a black background, we are in a tilted position, as we see what appears to be a wireframe grid of octagons, with a mirror image on top. It rotates into place, and we see blue outlines of video tapes flying (think the Prism Entertainment logo). We pass over what look like two white circles in the middle of the grid, then the picture flips up to reveal it is the map of Australia (with the Tasmanian island below), and the circles shoot towards us (some thought that the circles actually represent the cleaning heads of a VHS). Then, the Video Classics logo, in a rather old-fashioned, but modern font, fly upward and downward, and another logo zooms in, and a flash occurs. The logo shines all over, and an gold-colored light coming out the "O" engulfs the logo before we flash into the word "PREVIEW".

FX/SFX: All the animation in the logo. Very modern for its time...

Variant(s): An abridged version exists, starting at the point where the words "VIDEO" and "CLASSICS" fly upward and downward.

Music/Sounds: An ominous theme before building up into a two-note fanfare, a bang, and finally, a quiet synth arpeggio.

Availability: See 1st and 2nd logos.

Editor's Note: None.

1st Logo (Early 1980s)
Video Classics

Logo: On a black background, we see a golden TV tube shape zooming in that has "VIDEO CLASSICS" in the same font as the 3rd logo and "GOLD" in the same font. The octagon starts flipping, and then it zooms out.

FX/SFX: The zooming and the flipping.

Music/Sounds: A disco-synth tune that sounds like a cover/remix of "Get Up Action" by Digital Emotion.

Availability: Hard to find; check an old Aussie PAL tape for this logo.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (Early 1980s, Alternate)
Video ClassicsVideo Classics

Nickname: "The Brady Bunch of Logos"

Logo: We see a red outlined square against a black background. Inside the square, we see the logos of the companies owned by Video Classics. They zoom out to different positions, and then, the logo of Video Classics Gold animates in the very center of the picture. That logo then zooms in, and we see "AUSTRALIA'S LEADING HOME VIDEO DISTRIBUTORS" below it.

Here's the list of logos you'll see and where they zoom out to: Media Home Entertainment (USA) - 1981 logo, "MEDIA" not fully zoomed in and zooms out to the top-left. Has no Heron Communications byline. Electric Blue (UK) - Consists of the cursive "electric" in ultramarine, and "BLUE" in purple ("BLUE" being between two purple rectangles) over a nude blonde-haired woman who looks like she's holding two kinds of guns (her arms covering her breasts), one blue and one pink, against a white background with blue borders on the side. It zooms out to the top-right. (NOTE: It is not actually a logo-- it is actually the cover of Electric Blue Vol. 001) Sports World Cinema (USA) - Consists of four "C"s, red, yellow, green, and blue, positioned against a background of videos of sports events, such as yachting and skiing. As the logo zooms out to the bottom-left, "Sports World Cinema", in WindsorDemi font, wipes in. VCL (UK) - Consists of the brown letters "VCL", in a tall slab-serif font, against a background of the map of the world, only here, the continents are black, the water is white, and there's a pale-blue border surrounding it. This one zooms out to the bottom-right. The Nostalgia Merchant (USA) - Has the same logo, only positioned over a silhouetted image of what appears to be a boy (holding a flag) and his dog on a hill at sunrise. The logo is against a blue background. It zooms out to the bottom-center. Video Classics (Australia) - Alternate A logo, only starts at the white line morphing into "Video Classics" with the TV-static fade in. It becomes the pink-outline version when the picture zooms out to the top-center. Wizard Video (USA) - The print version of the logo, has "Wizard Video" stacked rather than in a horizontal line, and colored red in text against a black background, and zooms out to the center-right. Movies at Midnight (Australia) - This one is set against a black-and-dark red background, has "Movies at Midnight" in an 80s-esque cursive font, over an image a black-haired woman, clad in the dark red lingerie, on a black cube covered in the black velvet cloth in between two red sofas. As you'd probably guess, this logo zooms out to the center-left. (NOTE: This is also not an actual logo-- it is the cover for a VHS [and is also the poster for] of "Neon Nights", info also coming from AussieRoadshow)

FX/SFX: The logos appearing and zooming out. This might be one of the longest of home video logos in the world ever known, clocking in at just under 50 seconds!

Music/Sounds: An excerpt of the funky synth-keyboard disco tune "Protopulse" by Trevor Bastow. Has an announcer saying "More quality home entertainment from Video Classics!" before the tune ends.

Availability: See first three logos.

Editor's Note: None.