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 labelVideo Programme Distributorsonly for a short time around November 1981. It then becamean Australian video subsidiary of Thorn EMI Videoaround the mid-80s. The company is also known to still be currently operated to this day in Italy.

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 a white retro 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-Mid 80s) Cinehollywood (Mid 1980s)

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 in the following arrangement, from smallest to largest: cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood cinehollywood

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 morphs into another 8-pointed star before the logo fades out.

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

Music/Sounds: An 80s synth orchestra theme with a twinkling sound in the middle. This is actually called "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: None.