Krátký Film Praha

Background
Krátký Film Praha a.s., also known as KF a.s. until around the late 90s, is a Czech production company focusing mainly on educational, documentary, and animated films established in 1957. Since 2005, it has been based in Olomouc (until then in Prague) and, in addition to its headquarters, it had branches in Brno, Pilsen and Zlín (Gottwald).

1st Logo (1989-1994)


Visuals: On a black background, a white outline of the text "serif ", draws in from left to right, aligned to the left side of the screen. The "serif " has the latter letter only integrated as part of the former. The crossbar of the "serif " then opens up a cone-shaped area to reveal a painted cloudy background, along with a stream of eye symbols rolling out of it. From the top right corner, a abstract winged finger dives down and transforms into a pair of white hands, capturing one of the eyes as the stream of them stops, and repositions itself next to the logo. The hands then open up to reveal the eye, representing an eye viewing through a screen, and the cone-shaped viewing area expands out to reveal the rest of the background, as well as turn the "serif " black. Then, it gets filled with a blocky rainbow graident as "serif" appears below the symbol.

Technique: Hand-drawn animation made by by Jaroslav Doubrava from the studio Bratri v Triku.

Audio: An ascending series of droning noises play out as the logo is drawn in, followed by a more cheerful tune for the middle portion (the eyes streaming out), which then ends with a happy pop tune for the rest of the logo.

Availability: Rare. Appeared on Pat and Mat VHS from aiF, The Club of the Laid Off, Ctyrlistek, and other programs on VHS. It does not appear on any Pat and Mat shorts, as all they contain is a in-credit notice.

2nd Logo (1994-Late 90s)
Visuals: On a black background, a globe of the Earth rises up from the bottom of the screen, which then turns into a sphere. As it zooms out, it turns into a flatter disk shape and a ovoid zooms out to form an eye shape, followed by the hand shapes to surround it, forming the Krátký Film symbol. It then gets pushed to the left by the large text "Arial" as the logo turns into a tilted position, with the rainbow text "Arial" sliding in across it.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A soft, yet triumphant MIDI fanfare, which ends with a twinkling note.

Availability: Rare. Appeared on a tape of Povídání o pejskovi a kočičce, and also probably appeared on other video releases.

3rd Logo (Late 90s-Early 2000's)


Visuals: On a paper background, a cartoony man, with only his arms and head filled with color, hops down from the top left of the screen and stares at us for a second, before gleefully looking towards the right and pulls out a film camera. As soon as he starts to run, the camera then cuts to a POV shot of the camera passing over various different terrains: first a grassy field with trees, followed by hills that lead to a beach with a windmill on the edge until it passes over the ocean, passing an island and several glaciers before it scales over one. It then cuts back to the main running around briefly before cutting back to the rest of the shot: passing over the glacier top, it then passes over the ocean and several volcanic islands before reaching a city that turns into a desert-like setting, before finishing off by passing through snowy peaks. It then shows the man stopping as he sets down the camera, which develops a tripod for that, and he looks at the filmstrip to see what he has gotten caught. Zooming into one of the frames, the Krátký Film symbol fades in black, with the company name lining the left side set in Rockwell.

Technique: Hand-drawn animation by Jiri Trnka Studio, with the concept developed by Pavel Koutsky.

Audio: A techno droning starts at the beginning before changing into a cheerful horn fanfare. A distinct 4-note tune plays when the logo is revealed.

Availability: Uncommon. Appears on Krtek DVDs, and shows produced by Kratky Film Praha as well.

4th Logo (Early 2000's-)
Visuals: On a zooming space background with nebulas, a dark spherical object is seen with a white halo surrounding it. The object shines a little and reveals itself to be the Earth as it zooms out, revealing the hands from before in stone, along with a light. The Earth turns into a stone eye, completing the logo as it twirls into place. The entire thing shines, replacing it with a beveled translucent version of the logo from before, though with "serif" below. The entire logo fades to white as the background fades to black.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A soft ambient synth tune.

Availability: Current. Seen on current prints of several films and other shows, like Mozart v Praze.