Vremya

Background
Vremya (Время; Time in English) is the main evening newscast in Russia (formerly the USSR), currently being broadcast by Channel One (formerly known as CT USSR Programme One, Channel 1 Ostankino, and Public Russian Television). It has been running since January 1, 1968, and first broadcasting color in 1974. However, from October 7, 1991 to December 15, 1994, it wasn't broadcasted due to heavy Communist and KGB ties, but returned on December 16, 1994 as ITA Vremya to cover the First Chechen War.

1st Intro (January 1, 1968-1970)
Visuals: On a black background, a radio transmitter with "TV CCCP" in a stacked format on the left is seen releasing radio waves in a leaf-like shape from top to bottom. The transmitter repositions itself to the center as a giant yellow "B" wipes in against the transmitter, followed by the transmitter releasing a giant horizontal grey bar with a white outline, with another line being released, splitting the bar into two. Two sets of text then appear within the bars letter-by-letter, both being "ИНФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ПРОГРАММА" on the top bar and "ВРЕМЯ" on the bottom.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A nautical string and piano theme, composed by Andrey Petrov.

Availability: Only partial recordings of the Intro have been found, but not the full Intro.

2nd Intro (1970-1974)
Visuals: On a black background, a model of the Earth rotating counter-clockwise is displayed with three sets of text saying: информационная программа «ВРЕМЯ» zooming in for a short period of time, eventually disappearing after a few seconds. This action repeats twice and after the third time, the Earth shrinks, and as it stops shrinking, two white bars wipe in from the top and bottom ends of the Earth, and curves until it reaches the right side of the globe, forming a stylized "B". "ЦТ" along with the same text from before fading in at the left side and bottom of the "B", respectively.

Technique: Live-action and cel animation.

Audio: Same as the previous intro.

3rd Intro (1974-1975)
Visuals: On a black- gradient background, a model of the Earth rotating along with the same "TV CCCP" is first shown. A circular panel comprising multiple dots (similar to its channel ident) wipes in from left to right, enclosing the globe, as "ИНФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ПРОГРАММА" within the panel in black scrolls by right to left and word by word. As it is done scrolling, the same "«ВРЕМЯ»" but in white abruptly appears within the panel. It then disappears, causing the globe to suddenly teleport to the left side of the panel, being noticeably bigger than it was before. Another stylized "B" fades in within the globe and gradually expands until it touches the surface of the Earth, which is followed by a black horizontal bar along with the same text from the previous Intro placed on the right-most side to fade in against the globe.

Technique: Live-action and cel animation.

Audio: Same as the previous intros.

4th Intro (1975-1979)
Visuals: On a background, a large transmission satellite rotating clockwise with "Impact" constantly zooming in and stopping during this. As the transmitter stops rotating, "Impact" and "Impact" appear in the center and both move to the top and bottom portions of the screen, giving space for the same "Impact" to appear in the middle letter-by-letter. The satellite then fades to a point where it starts to slowly turn towards the screen as it also zooms in.

Technique: Live-action and cel animation.

Audio: Same as the previous intros.

5th Intro (1979-1980)
Visuals: On a dot-matrix map of Eurasia and Africa, with dots for the ocean,  dots for the USSR, and light green dots for the rest of the land, it slowly starts to zoom in closer onto the USSR. After it fully zooms into place, a drawing of the Ostankino Tower, drawn at a high-facing angle, fades in over the picture and then starts to emit white pulses. After the pulses fill out most of the screen, the bold word "ВРЕМЯ" appears and swoops down to the middle of the screen twice in a row. The text "Impact" on top and "Impact" on the bottom then appear letter by letter in arcs. The pulses still continue to get released.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A slow, melancholic fanfare that turns more majestic as the text zooms in. This is actually an instrumental rearragement of Rodina by Yuri Polukhin.

6th Intro (1980-Febuary 9, 1986)
Visuals: On a cloudy sky background, the Spasskaya Tower, complete with its Kremlin star, is seen on the left. Below, a string of "ИНФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ПРОГРАММА" with a white shadow, scrolls continuously for a few seconds. After the text stops, the text "ВРЕМЯ", also with a white shadow, zooms in while also cycling colors, stopping as it hits the right side of the screen

Later Variant: Starting in October 1984, the intro was altered to have a shot of the USSR flag flying in the wind, followed by a shot of the Kremlin complex, and then a zoom out to the Spasskaya Tower. "ВРЕМЯ" also stays throughout. In 1985, the "ИНФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ПРОГРАММА" is now white with a black outline, and the Spasskaya Tower is already in place.

Technique: Live-action with chyron animation.

Audio: A portion of the main theme to Time, Forward!, composed by Georgy Sviridov.

Audio Variant: The later variant had a portion of the Patrioticheskaya Pesnya.

7th Intro (Febuary 10, 1986-July 1990)
Visuals: On a starfield background, a CGI spinning Earth with a -colored map of USSR zooms out, and a 3D star with a yellow web flies out of the map. A white oval draws in as the white words "ТВ СССР" zoom in the right side above. The golden word "Serif" zooms in and leaves a feedback trail behind, and a  spotlight under the Earth.

Technique: A mix of CGI, 2D computer animation and video feedback effects.

Audio: Same as the previous logo.

8th Intro (July 1990-1991)
Visuals: On a starfield, there is an image of an Earth with a space station above. The camera slightly moves up, and a pink light occurs and points at a space station, and a live-action clip flies out from it. After many footages of live-action clips, the clip dissolves, and the golden futuristic word "ВРЕМЯ" flies out of the space station, slighty tilted. The white text "ИНФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ПРОГРАММА" with a black shadow fades in at the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Technique: A mix of 2D computer animation and live-action.

Audio: A soft horn and triagle tune, followed by a rapid violin tune and a 5-note synth tune.

9th Intro (Early-Fall 1991)


Visuals: The sequence starts on a aurora-like background. The camera zooms out (from the Eurasia continent) to reveal that its actually the part of a map of the Earth on a sky blue shiny surface. A thin metallic grid forms under the map of the Earth as several small white squares appear sliding on a grid. While the camera slides to right, revealing another copy of the same map of the Earth, four pictures (with golden outlines) of the cities from countries are fading in and out, sliding on the continents of the Earth. The camera zooms to the Eurasia continent to reveal the Ostankino Tower, which is located on the same location where Moscow (a current capital of Russia) is located. As the camera turns to the front and zooms in to its place where the Ostankino Tower would be located on the left side of the screen, a cut-out picture of Saint Basil's Cathedral slides in from the right side of the screen, while a cut-out picture of the top of a Kremlin Senate building with a USSR flag slides in from the left side of the screen; both of these pictures have golden outlines. During the final animation of the camera, a surface with a grid fades out as a dark blue/turquoise gradient is revealed in the background. During the animation of cut-out pictures of buildings, the 3D golden word "ВРЕМЯ " (which appears to be chroma-keyed) slides in from the bottom of the screen at a tilted angle to the middle of the screen before the stacked text "ИНФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ПРОГРАММА " ("INFORMATION PROGRAM") would appear below the word letter-by-letter via a white glowing circle. During the appearence of the stacked text, the dark turquoise part of the gradient background fades to the still shot of a blue cloudy sky and the map of the Earth fades out.

Technique: CGI with chroma-key effects.

Audio: Same as the 6th intro.

10th Intro (September-October 6, 1991)


Visuals: On a rotating marble background, twenty silver horizontal, curved lines are sliding in from the left before they became shorter once they stop in the middle of the screen. They form a silver cylindrical bar from the bottom as the sky blue continents of the Earth pan up from the bottom, spinning around a bar. Once the continents stop in the middle of the screen, several arcs of transparent footages (with blue outlines) of cities, people walking, cathedrals, zooming shots of buildings, the news crew, an airplane, and the military, are panning up from the bottom to the top off-screen. After that, the golden word "ВРЕМЯ" (in the modified version of the font from the previous intro; it also appears to be 2D-animated, even though it still has a 3D effect) pans up from the bottom almost in the same style as the previous intro, and stops at the center of the screen before the stacked text "ИНФОРМАЦИОННАЯ ПРОГРАММА " appears below the word letter-by-letter. The continents remain spinning around a bar.

Technique: Analog computer animation with live-action footages.

Audio: An excerpt of "Action News" by Universal Production Music.

11th Intro (December 16, 1994-July 31, 1996)


Visuals: The sequence starts on a royal blue reflective floor with a spotlight; the camera slides to the right to reveal a large golden clock with Roman numerals. When the minute hand strikes twelve, the clock zooms in off-screen as the floor fades to a royal blue gradient background with rotating glossy stripes. The footage of moving golden gears fades in against a background, and the golden pendulum of the clock appears, peeking out two times. As the footage of moving gears fades out, a close-up of the transparent world map (which is made of hexagons) along with blue// thin lines slides in from the bottom to the top off-screen, and the golden pendulum of the clock peeks out for the third and final time. Then the background fades to a lighter gradient background with a zooming starfield, where the Earth (which is low-quality textured), along with three blue// thin, curved lines, appears from the left side of the screen, while rotating. A clock from the beginning of the intro slides in from the bottom of the screen as the background fades to the same floor from the beginning. Finally, the word "ВРЕМЯ" slides in from the left to the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Technique: CGI by Igor Barbe.

Audio: Same as the 6th intro.

12th Intro (August 1, 1996-September 26, 1999)


Visuals: After the clock strikes the time the program is supposed to start (9:00 PM MSK), the clock later zooms out of the television set. The camera moves to the left to reveal a silhouette of the set used at that time. The word "ВРЕМЯ" appears when it transitions from its glassy appearance to a silvery appearance (with lens flare peeking out), while zooming out to the bottom of the screen as the footage of the set gains a /blue/green aurora overlay, causing a shadow of the word "ВРЕМЯ" to be visible.

Technique: A mix of CGI and live-action.

Audio: A synth orchestra rendition of the 1980 theme, which was composed by Sergey Chekryzhov.

13th Intro (September 27, 1999-October 7, 2001)
Visuals: The intro starts with the camera zooming out from the clock on a wall of a television studio, which transitions into several shots of the master control set. In the final shot, the camera zooms into a close-up shot of a man pulling the lever on the master control console, and the screen cuts to a zooming shot of a light corridor from the Novosti intro of the time, which has a light blue tint. The glowing word "ВРЕМЯ" in white futuristic font wipes in the center of the screen, and the intro transitions into the news studio via several sliding, reflective horizontal blue bars.

Technique: A mix of CGI and live-action.

Audio: Same as the 10th intro, but slightly rearranged.

Audio Variant: Sometime during 2000, the theme was re-orchestrated, and it sounds more majestic. This was composed by Oleg Litvishko.

14th Intro (October 8, 2001-September 7, 2003)
Visuals: There is a master control center as it zooms out to later reveal more of the studio. After that, it transitions into the studio used at that time with the program's title card being displayed on a TV.

Technique: A mix of live-action and digital animation.

Audio: The 2000 recording of the program theme.

15th Intro (September 8, 2003-March 2, 2008)
Visuals: There is a master control center until the screen moves to the left to reveal the outside of it. After that, it zooms forward into an entrance to the television set. The doors open to reveal the set used at that time.

Technique: A mix of CGI and live-action.

Audio: The 2000 recording of the program theme.

16th Intro (March 3, 2008-Febuary 19, 2018)


Visuals: The intro mostly consists of zooming shots of a lightened Earth globe surrounded by multiple moving orange-red stripes from the Novosti intro of the time. At the end of the intro, the screen wipes to the same globe with multiple moving stripes at the bottom-left corner of the screen. At the bottom-right corner of the screen is the program title (in white Literaturnaya font).

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The 2000 recording of the program theme.

17th Intro (Febuary 19, 2018-)
Visuals: The intro mostly consists of zooming shots of a rotating globe surrounded by moving orange-red stripes on a light blue background from the current Novosti intro. In the final shot, a stripe flies around the screen, causing it to transition into the same set with the program title from the aforementioned Novosti intro, but the text inside a thick line reads "ВРЕМЯ".

Technique: CGI.

Audio: The 2000 recording of the program theme.