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 label Video Programme Distributors only for a short time around November 1981. It then became an Australian video subsidiary of Thorn EMI Video around the mid-80s. In early 2013, the company was rebranded as Documentaria to focus more on documentaries until its closure somewhere in 2019.

1st Logo (1979-November 1981)

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Visuals: On a background consisting of red/blue diamonds with white and black splotches on them arranged in an uneven pattern is the word "cinehollywood" (in the Broadway font with the dot on the "i" replaced with a star) zoom in and stop in the middle.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A retro rock theme. This is actually called "Dipnoi" by Blue Phantom.

Availability: Seen on many VHS releases from Italy, the UK and Australia. Should turn up on pre-cert copies of The Only Way to Spy and Werewolf Woman.

2nd Logo (November 1981-1988)

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Visuals: 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", in the same font as before but with a thin rectangular box around it, 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, with the center copies smaller and the outer copies larger. 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 then morphs into another 8-pointed star before the logo fades out.

Trivia: This logo uses footages 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 taken from a slit-scan demo animation used by Robert Abel & Associates in 1973 that can be seen here.

Technique: A combination of scanimation, slit-scan animation and CGI.

Audio: An excerpt of "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.

3rd Logo (1988-1991)

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Visuals: On a light blue background, 4 copies of a blue pattern consisting of the diagonally-angled text "Cinehollywood" stacked infinitely on top of each other appear one-by-one in sync with the music; First, they appear on the far left side of the screen, followed by off-center right, then near-center left, then finally to the right side of the screen, filling it up with them as a pattern. Then, a multi-colored gradient bar, with the colors ranging from red-orange to dark blue, slides in from the right side of the screen and "Cinehollywood", in a white-blue gradient font, zoom out one-by-one from left to right, right past the screen barriers. Finally, a 8-pointed star appears over the "i", dotting it with a 5-pointed star in the same white-blue gradient color.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: A upbeat synth funk tune, with "laser" noises for the logo elements sliding and zooming in. It then ends with a low, droning tone, which is the end of Higher and Higher by Orange Power.

Availability: hey solely focused on Italy since 1988, so look for the rainbow-colored stripe along the bottom of the box usually to find them. Tapes of I Puffi (the Italian name for The Smurfs) are an example of having this logo.

4th Logo (1991-1995)

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Visuals: On a dark blue background, 4 circles are seen slowly moving and rotating around as patterns flash about around them. The 4 circles have the following (in a counterclockwise arrangement): "DIDATTICA" in a yellow serif font, "SPORT" in a bold red font, "CARTOON" in a rounded pink font, and "NATURA" in a green Elephant like font, which all also occasionally change to white and back. All of this occasionally transitions to a separate part of the logo; On a splotchy black background with blue splattered all over it, the "Cinehollywood" text from before slowly zooms in as an fuzzy blue outline, all the while several small blocks flash underneath the center of the screen. As the logo nears zooming into place, the blocks appear one-by-one below the logo. Finally, the logo then cuts to the final product, which now has a full rainbow-colored bar and a slightly different font, as well as having the logo glowing white before dying down and shining. A ring of yellow stars encircle around the logo before going back to the star-shaped dot, pinging as it does.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: A repeating series of synth notes, which is accompanied by raindrop-like notes. It then suddenly ends with a low droning noise, with several similar notes playing in the background quickly.

Availability: A bit more common than before, appearing on a few sports tapes like Crash! 7 Mondocorse Enduro Rally Moto Car Truck.

5th Logo (1995-2000)

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Visuals: On a craggily-looking blue background, a magenta line draws in the middle of the screen from left to right, with several other streaks of color flying from right to left. A light green line wipes onto the magenta line, as well as a large blue rectangle coming in from the left and a very large white streak cropping it to fit the bar. Then, small colored rectangles come in from the top and move left, or bottom and move right, coloring the bar like the 3rd logo's, and cropping off the sides of it as well. A white line then wipe shines in as it reveals "Cinehollywood" wiping in from left to right, which has a different font and gradient effect, and the white line wipes from left to right with it matching the logo's borders. The star above the "i" then flashes.

Variant: At the end of tapes starting around 1997-98, the print logo appears on a black background by a streak wipe effect, with the circle of stars from the 4th logo appearing as well. Above the logo is "un' edizione", and below it is the company's e-mail, address, and website. It then fades out, and then fades back in to reveal Italian text talking about how to get their catalog online, as well as an URL. Different synth music plays throughout here.

Technique: 2D computer animation.

Audio: A five-note synth pad theme, with the first, second and fifth notes held out. Several synth whooshes and beats play throughout as well.

Availability: Seen on several specialty tapes from them, like I Puffi tapes and others.

6th Logo (2000-Mid 2000s)

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Visuals: There is a huge light that reveals a peach-purple atomic ball enclosed in a blue circle with eight trails that zooms out. Suddenly, the symbol starts to reveal a light blue-spiralized line, while the first letters of "CINEHOLLYWOOD" move along a dark purple background full of old symbols and phrases in a Times-like font, with a rainbow comet that draws a circle. The light enlarges and reveals the outlined company name zooming-out and setting on a cyan background with a circle full of symbols that disappear. When the background gets darker in the end, a white comet turns the word "CINEHOLLYWOOD" in gold with some colorful lines and shapes forming a bold rainbow rectangle below it. The final result was shown on a dark-blue fabric background.

Variant: There's a short variant with the final seconds shown. The animation is also sped-up.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: A dramatic orchestral ditty.

Availability: Found on later VHS tapes and some DVD releases of cartoons and documentaries. This is most common on VHS releases and DVD distributed with some magazines like "il Giornale" and "Panorama"; while sadly, the "Digital Adventure" brand would replace it on various DVD releases that the company released.