Picturehouse Films

Background
Picturehouse Films was launched by marketing/distribution executive Bob Berney in 2005 as a joint venture between New Line Cinema (when it folded Fine Line Features) and HBO Films to distribute documentaries, foreign films, and independent films. In 2008, Time Warner moved away from producing independent films, and closed both Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures. In January 2013, Berney purchased the Picturehouse trademark and logo from Warner Bros. and revived it as an independent film company. Picturehouse went dormant in 2015 when Berney became the marketing and distribution head of Amazon Studios, but it came back in 2019 when his contract expired.

1st Logo (July 22, 2005-April 14, 2006)
Visuals: The word "PICTUREHOUSE" on a black background, with the byline "A TimeWarner Company" set in Bodoni, with a simple fade in and fade out.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo doesn't have a byline. This can be seen on Last Days and the trailer for The Thing About My Folks.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on the earliest Picturehouse-released films, including Last Days, Ushpizin and on US prints of Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (however, some prints of the film start with the next logo).

2nd Logo (April 14, 2006-January 20, 2009; June 5, 2013-)
Visuals: The camera looks down from a tall building at dusk, and some sparks fly off an unidentifiable object. The screen then cuts to the camera panning across the first few letters in a neon sign reading "PICTUREHOUSE", lighting up, and startling some birds. The screen then cuts to the camera panning back at a different angle, and all the letters in the sign brightly illuminate. When the last letter lights up, all the letters flicker, sending off some more sparks. The text then fades from neon to 3D as the standard TimeWarner byline fades in below.

Variants:
 * An open matte version exists and is seen on fullscreen DVDs and fullscreen TV airings of movies from the company.
 * On Gracie, the fanfare is absent (replaced with James Gang’s Funk #49), and the SFX of the logo can be heard more clearly.
 * When this logo returned in 2013, the logo became bylineless, due to the company now being independent.
 * The closing variant is a still version of the finished product.
 * At the end of Fatima, the "corporate" version of the logo (with a different sky background) is used.
 * Promotional material and theatrical prints of At The Gates strangely use the WarnerMedia byline on the logo itself.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A string fanfare with a piano and trumpets playing, ending with an orchestral hit when the last letter in "PICTUREHOUSE" lights up, and three piano/string notes. Electric sparking/buzzing sounds are heard throughout, and the sound of the birds flapping their wings to fly away from the "PICTUREHOUSE" sign can be heard faintly. The theme was composed by Ahrin Mishan.

Availability: Seen on foreign and indie films as well as documentaries from the company from 2006's The Notorious Bettie Page to the 2009 direct-to-DVD movie Amusement, and from 2013 onwards.