American Film Technologies

Background

American Film Technologies was a San Diego based colorization company, whose most notable clients included Ted Turner. The company also operated its own division AFT Entertainment to colorize public domain material, most notably, the titles on TV were distributed by Orbis Communications. It was originally started in 1985 in Philadelphia by George Hensen and Arthur Hatel, stopped colorizing movies by 1992 and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993.

1st Logo (December 16, 1987-1989)

Visuals: On a black background, there is the text "a Colorimaged Film by" in a sans serif font and "Colorimaged" in a variety of colors. A purple light then illuminates a metallic gold shape, resembling the text "AFT", flipping into place. "AMERICAN FILM TECHNOLOGIES" also appears with it in yellow. The text then turns into 3 multicolored lines, bordering the shape, as the text below turns multicolored as well.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: The ending theme of the movie.

Availability: Seen on older films that employed colorization from the company such as Casablanca and King Kong. Its first appearance was on The Bells of St. Mary's.

2nd Logo (1989-1991)

Visuals: On a purple/gold gradient background is the italic text "COLORIMAGED" in white with a rainbow outline and "by" in plain white below fly in from the right of the screen as a ball of light flies from the bottom before exploding into sparkles at the center. Then a gold abstract shape (what looks like an incomplete AFT with no middle slash) zooms out rom the top of the screen and the words

AMERICAN FILM
TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

zooms from the bottom. Both of the objects stop in the middle and three rainbow lines flip and stop in the abstract shape, making up the slashes for the A and F.

Technique: Early CGI.

Audio: A droning note followed by a synth bell and a triumphant five note theme.

Availability: A hard call. Many of the films the company colorized have been revised by other companies. It isn't at the end of Disney-colorized movies, such as Mickey Mouse cartoons and the 1992 colorized version of the Zorro TV series, which AFT colorized. However, it can be found at the end of RKO colorized movies.

3rd Logo (1989)

Visuals: On a purple space background, there is a gold version of the AFT logo from the previous logo zoomed out, but this time there are no rainbow lines, meaning that the "A" and "F" are having lines in it. The word "ENTERTAINMENT" zooms out as a comet streaks to the top left.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A remixed version of the last American Film Technologies logo theme ending with a choir.

Availability: Seen on public domain works colorized by AFT for the Orbis Color Classic series, most notably Black Dragons and It's a Wonderful Life, both of these can be seen on VHS.

4th Logo (1991-1992)

Visuals: Same as the 3rd logo, with some differences. A purple gradient background is used, the word "COLORIMAGED" is light purple and beveled in rainbow. After words being placed, "COLORIMAGED" shines in bright colorful lights. After that, the words disappear and the same "explode into sparkle" effect from before happens, changing the background to gradient blue. The "AFT" is bevelled and the words "AMERICAN FILM TECHNOLOGIES, INC." are on one line and in different colors, making the logo resemble the first logo.

Technique: Same as the 2nd logo.

Audio: Same as the 2nd logo.

Availability: Still intact on a colorized version of March of the Wooden Soldiers, which is sometimes aired, usually on local stations during the holidays.