Australian Video

Background

Australian Video was a joint venture between Star Video and the South Australian Film Corporation.

Logo (1983-1985)

Visuals: On a starry sea blue/black background, several bright stars of different sizes zoom out, with one moving downwards from the rest. 2 stars start to pulse apart from it and a silver token rotates towards the screen, shining along the edge and on the face so brightly that the entire face becomes white. When the shine dies down, it reveals that the token has "AUSTRALIAN VIDEO" engraved onto it, with the former logo of the South Australia Film Commission above it (3 V-shaped streaks bunched around each other) as well as their name bordering the bottom half of the token. While the token turns, a orange 4-pointed star appears and draws a wavy line before going down and underlining the entire bottom of the token before going up to its origin. As this happens, a distorted Union Jack appears in the upper left corner and the section fills with blue, and the stars die down to reveal 7-pointed stars and 1 5-pointed star, forming a waving Australian flag.

Variants:

At the end of previews, this logo plays while an announcer says "Be sure to watch more Australian previews coming up right after this movie."
At the end of a 1984 VHS of Breaker Morant, the finished logo moved to the top left quarter on the screen with the words "DISTRIBUTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH" beside it. The Star Video logo then plays in the bottom right of the screen.

Technique: Scanimate and live-action.

Audio: A synthesized "whoosh", then a series of warbly synth notes repeat for the remainder of the logo as what sounds like a synth version of Australia's unofficial national anthem ("Waltzing Matilda") is heard. A whoosh can also be heard at the end. The end variant uses a beeping synth fanfare.

Availability: Can be seen on old PBV tapes under the label, as well as some CEL tapes. Some tapes that include this are Hoodwink and The Man from Snowy River. It is unknown if this appeared on the Embassy laserdisc of Breaker Morant, which was co-branded with Australian Video.