Guild Home Video

Background
Guild Home Video was one of the earliest and most successful independent video companies in the United Kingdom, formed in 1979. In its early years, Guild was known for the high quality of their releases and having a large catalog compared to other companies of the time, and being a distributor for other companies' titles helped them survive the 1984 Video Recordings Act, which caused many other video companies at the time to go out of business. Guild remained strong in the 1990s when video became dominated more by major studios as opposed to indie labels until 1996, when both Guild Home Video and Guild Film Distribution merged with Pathé to form Guild Pathé Cinema. In 1998, Guild Pathé Cinema was renamed to Pathé Distribution, thus ending the Guild name for good.

1st Logo (1980-1983)
Nicknames: "The Hexagon G", "G Over Square & TV Tube"

Logo: On a dark blue background, a gold-yellow, hexagon-formed "G" with a square underneath it zooms in downward (a la the 1983 RKO Pictures logo), leaving behind a residue trail. When it gets to the center, the "G" and the square turn from solid to segmented, and a line draws what looks like a TV tube, surrounding it. Both parts of the logo zoom in, and we quickly fade to the same logo, only smaller, and with "GUILD HOME VIDEO presents" in Helvetica underneath.

Variant: A rare still variant with "video is alive – live with it" shown below was used at the end of Guild tapes.

FX/SFX: Early computer graphics.

Music/Sounds: A descending synth-electric piano scale at the beginning, followed by a synth-xylophone/flute/clarinet tune, which sounds similar to the beginning of the song "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield (most famously used in The Exorcist).

Music/Sounds Variant: On the "video is alive – live with it" variant, it's silent.

Availability: Ultra rare. Seen on UK tapes of Guild releases from that era, including Baron Blood and Scanners.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (1983-1986)
Nickname: "The Hexagon G II", "G Over Square & TV Tube II", "The Tick"

Logo: In the top-left corner of a black background, we see a bright light flashing before our eyes. The light reveals the same "G Over Square" logo, but colored cerulean. Again, the TV tube is drawn around the logo, but underneath a light draws a /dark pink line that starts downward, then upward, and then straight. When the line is finished, another flash of light reveals the words "Guild Home Video" above the line, and below it another reveals "Quality Video Entertainment". The logo then sparkles a bit.

Variant: A variant seen at the end of tapes starts with the name flashing in.

FX/SFX: The lights bringing forth all parts of the logo. It may be early CGI, but it's not too bad.

Music/Sounds: A weird synth tune in the beginning, then a synth-orchestra tune at the end.

Music/Sounds/Voice-over Variant: Sometimes, this is accompanied by an announcer saying "Before you enjoy our main feature, here's a trailer from another major release from Guild, which is available at your local stockist now.". Oddly, the announcer has an American accent, despite Guild being a British distributor (the same announcer is heard in Guild's trailers as well)!

Availability: Extremely rare.
 * Check an old VHS or Betamax PAL tape for this logo.
 * An example is the UK pre-cert release of Cujo.
 * It is also seen on the first Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends tapes from 1985.
 * Some prints use the Central Video or The Video Collection logos.

Editor's Note: None.

3rd Logo (1986-1990?)
Nicknames: "The Hexagon G III", "Go Guild!"

Logo: On a background,  bar segments fly in from the left and right of the screen, syncing with the music, while they sparkle and zoom out. Eventually, the bars start forming the Guild logo (without the TV tube and the square on the bottom). When the logo is fully formed, "GUILD Home Video" in white fades in below the logo.

FX/SFX: Great animation.

Music/Sounds: A synth note is held throughout, with a synth bass line (composed on a Yamaha DX7 synthesizer) that speeds up slightly near the end, followed by a synth fanfare in E♭ minor. A female chorus hums during this section, ending in them shouting "Go Guild!" (hence the nickname; it's hard to tell because the chorus is rather muffled). Oddly enough, it almost sounds like "Maniac", a 1983 song by Michael Sembello created for the film Flashdance.

Availability: Rare given its nearly 4-year lifespan. Appears on releases such as Roses are For the Rich and Action Jackson.

Editor's Note: The music is long outdated, but this is a pretty good logo nonetheless.

4th Logo (1987-1994)
Nicknames: "The Hexagon G IV", "CGI G"

Logo: Set on a white background, many of the (obviously cel-shaded) rectangular parts of the Guild "G" fly in all directions. When two parts of the G meet in the middle later on, it zooms out, and extra rectangles that make the stem of the "G" fly in. "GUILD Home Video" fades in below, and the logo shines with a "wipe" effect.

FX/SFX: Nice CGI for the 1980s.

Music/Sounds: A 12-note synthesizer tune, with a synthesized "whoosh" as the "G" forms and a synth choir for the remainder of the logo when the parts of the "G" stem fly in.

Music/Sounds Variant: Rental copies of The Wizard have the logo music start before the logo actually appears, due to an error.

Availability: More recent and easier to find than the previous logos, but still rare. Seen on the 4 Front Video re-release of First Blood, and the original rental releases of The Wizard and Total Recall.

Editor's Note: The music is very cheesy, but it's a great logo overall.

5th Logo (1988-1994)
Nicknames: "The Hexagon G V", "Neon Theater"

Logo:
 * Before Trailers: On a black background, we see a glowing outline of a movie theater with little flashing lights inside. Two sets of and yellow light streaks slide up, the last set flashing and bringing forth a white Guild Home Video logo. The streaks zoom out to outline the theater in  with a ticket box in the front, little light blue "chaser" light windows on the sides, yellow "<<<>>>" lights on the marquee sides, pinkish lights surrounding the center of the marquee, and more yellow lights on the top.
 * After Trailers: Same as above, but "SOLID GUILD" zooms out like a roller coaster out of the door. All, except the text in, fades into.

Variant: In 1990, a 10th anniversary variant was used, which has the theatre fade out and the Guild logo zoom forth and turn. A number "10" at the top surrounded by a round banner with stars and the years "1980" and "1990" on the sides fade in. "TEN YEARS OF" and "independence" are shown below. The logo shines with a few pings.

FX/SFX: The neon effects and the obvious chyron effects of the Guild logo. Awesome cel animation done by Cascom.

Music/Sounds: "Breaking Glass (One)" by James Kaleth and Richard Thomas with whooshes from the lasers, along with an overly excited announcer saying "Introducing future releases from Guild Home Video!" or "Look out for these and other great new releases from Guild at your local video library!". The first variant uses the beginning, while the other two use the end of the track. Like the 2nd logo, the announcer has a North American accent.

Availability: Very rare. Used concurrently with the 4th logo to introduce movie trailers, and used quite frequently as a result. Seen on the original rental release of The Wizard.

Editor's Note: None.

6th Logo (1993-1997)
Nicknames: "The Hexagon G VI", "The Director's Chair"

Logo: Against a black background, we see a director's chair in a spotlight. The camera pans around the chair, and both parts of the Guild logo slide from both sides of the screen in a tilted position, then "GUILD" appears underneath when we zoom into the chair.

FX/SFX: Top-notch CGI for the early '90s.

Music/Sounds: A mystical pan-flute tune, complete with a synth whoosh and an orchestra at the end.

Music/Sounds Trivia: The music was composed using the Korg M1 workstation from 1988.

Availability: Rare.
 * It appears on VHS tapes of later films that Guild released until their merger with Pathé in 1997, such as the re-release of Universal Soldier, Night Trap, James and the Giant Peach, Stargate, Army Of Darkness, Matinee, and Serial Mom.
 * This logo also appeared theatrically with Guild Film Distribution releases from 1993 until the Pathé merger, with films including James and the Giant Peach.

Editor's Note: None.