Cinehollywood

Background
Cinehollywood is an Italian video company that distributed videos in Italy. It was also one of the sister labels of the UK video/pre-cert company label Video Programme Distributors only for a short time around November 1981. It then became an Australian video subsidiary of Thorn EMI Video around the mid-80s. In 2005, the company was rebranded as Documentaria to focus more on documentaries until its closure somewhere in 2019.

1st Logo (1979-November 1981)
Logo: On a background consisting of red/blue diamonds with white and black splotches on them arranged in an uneven pattern, we see the word "cinehollywood" (in the Broadway font with the dot on the "i" replaced with a star) zoom in and stop in the middle.

FX/SFX: The zooming.

Music/Sounds: A retro rock theme. This is actually called "Dipnoi" by Blue Phantom.

Availability: Seen on many VHS releases from Italy, the UK and Australia.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (November 1981-1988)
Nicknames: "The Optical Illusion", "First Time on the Computer"

Logo: On a flashing background, various white lines fly at us, then a white 8-pointed star zooms in and morphs into a circle, which explodes. Afterward, on a starry background, while blue chyron blocks fly through the sky, a box with the word "cinehollywood" in the same style as before zooms in rapidly and shines a bit. In a foil tunnel, "cinehollywood" flies away toward the tunnel and fades out. Then, a spiral optical illusion appears and moves, and ten "cinehollywood" boxes fade in two by two, with the center copies smaller and the outer copies larger. The background changes, and a white planet which is a chroma-keyed disco ball flies toward the middle of the screen, which makes the "cinehollywood" boxes disappear from largest to smallest. The planet then morphs into another 8-pointed star before the logo fades out.

FX/SFX: Everything in the logo is animated, but this is a contender for the cheesiest logo ever.

Music/Sounds: An excerpt of "Sting of the Serpent" by Ray Davies.

Availability: Seen on many later VHS releases from Italy, the UK and Australia such as their infamous video nasty The Devil Hunter.

Editor's Note: It appears all the animation was done with Scanimate, an Apple II, or both! The chyron blocks look like glass, and the optical illusions are flashy but cheesy. Many of the computer graphics behind the logo is clearly stolen from the one time television orchestra program performed by Michel Legrand called Astonishing Odyssey which performed various music and themes from classic science-fiction films. Also, the tunnel was stolen from a slit-scan demo animation used by Robert Abel & Associates in 1973 that can be seen here.

3rd Logo (1988-1991)
TBA.

Availability: Rare. After 1989, they've focused exclusively on Italy, so it should be found on tapes from them there.

4th Logo (1991-1994)
Logo: On a dark blue background, 4 circles are seen slowly moving and rotating around as patterns flash about around them. The 4 circles have the following (in a counterclockwise arrangement): "DIDDATICA" in a yellow serif font, "SPORT" in a bold red font, "CARTOON" in a rounded pink font, and "NATURA" in a green Elephant like font, which all also occasionally change to white and back. All of this occasionally transitions to a separate part of the logo; On a splotchy black background with blue splattered all over it, the "Cinehollywood" text from before slowly zooms in as an fuzzy blue outline, all the while several small blocks flash underneath the center of the screen. As the logo nears zooming into place, the blocks appear one-by-one below the logo. Finally, the logo then cuts to the final product, which now has a full rainbow-colored bar and a slightly different font, as well as having the logo glowing white before dying down and shining. A ring of yellow stars encircle around the logo before going back to the star-shaped dot, pinging as it does.

FX/SFX: The background pattern, the logo forming.

Music/Sounds: A repeating series of synth notes, which is accompanied by raindrop-like notes. It then suddenly ends with a low droning noise, with several similar notes playing in the background quickly.

Availability: Rare. A bit more common.

Editor's Note: None.

5th Logo (1994-1999)
Logo: On a light blue background, 4 copies of a blue pattern consisting of the diagonally-angled text "Cinehollywood" stacked infinitely on top of each other appear one-by-one in sync with the music; First, they appear on the far left side of the screen, followed by off-center right, then near-center left, then finally to the right side of the screen, filling it up with them as a pattern. Then, a multi-colored gradient bar, with the colors ranging from red-orange to dark blue, slides in from the right side of the screen and "Cinehollywood", in a white-blue gradient font, zoom out one-by-one from left to right, right past the screen barriers. Finally, a 8-pointed star appears over the "i", dotting it with a 5-pointed star in the same white-blue gradient color.

FX/SFX: The background pattern, the logo forming.

Music/Sounds: A upbeat synth funk tune, with "laser" noises for the logo elements sliding and zooming in. It then ends with a low, droning tone.

Availability: Used on VHS releases during the mid 90s.

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo (1999-2005)
TBA.