Initial

Credits

Compiled by
RSX-798

Captures by
RSX-798 and Camenati

Editions by
Michael Kenchington

Video captures courtesy of
Camenati, LogicSmash and Declan Simons

Background

Initial (formerly Initial Film & Television) was a British film and television production company that was founded in 1986 to produce film and television content, primarily music. It was sold to Broadcast Communications (later Endemol UK) in 1992.

1st Logo (December 11, 1987-October 17, 1997)

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• Normal

• Out of my Head with Rik Mayall

Visuals: On a black background, there is a orange filmstrip moving, with the movie countdown inside, and two blue filmstrip lines are shown, swirling toward the screen. More filmstrips swirl, and then a blue movie camera slides toward the screen, and then there is a orange girl looking up at the camera, and more filmstrips swirl toward the screen as the body appears, while the filmstrip disappears as the arched word "INITIAL" fades in below the logo. Extra credit info fades in below the logo.

Byline: Starting in 1993, a byline "A Broadcast Communications Company" fades in below the logo.

Variants:

• Sometimes, the logo is still.
• Sometimes, this logo also shares the screen with other logos (including the 1988 BBC logo).
• On Seaforth, a print version is used.
• On a 1987 broadcast of Terence Trent D'arby, the logo is shown next to the 1987 Zenith logo. Also, the film camera is replaced by the word "INITIAL" in a straight alignment and the shades of blue are a pure color.
• On The Times World Chess Championships, the logo is shown inside a circle.
• On The Best of The Tube, this logo shares the screen with the 1994 Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Enterprises logo, appears on a black background and the text also reads "A Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television Enterprises Production in association with Initial Film & Television © 1994" which appears below.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: A guitar country-like riff, with some film projector-type sounds.

Audio Variants:

• Sometimes, the logo is silent or has the end theme of the show play over.
• On Out of my Head with Rik Mayall, Mayall voices over the logo, reading "The stuff they put on the bottom of hamster cages. Some stuff they put on the bottom of hamsters: belly fluff, soil, breakfast cereal, nail clippings, icing sugar, cream powder..."

Availability:

• It first appeared on Wired, and was seen on Saturday Night at the Movies, Grim Tales, Underbelly, The White Room, No Sweat, Trivial Pursuit, and The Brit Awards '97, as well as concert shows and documentaries from the time-period until 1997.
• A lot of their programmes from this period had not been reran since their original run or saw no home media release.
• Some programmes such as Grim Tales also have this logo intact on the Australian Volume 2 VHS release, and the 1991 UK VHS release of Grim Tales: The Little Peasant from BBC Video.
• The animated variant was seen on the Bob Marley documentary Time Will Tell, Full Circle, and Saturday Night at the Movies (the latter two contain the logo's theme).

2nd Logo (February 4, 1998-2002)

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Visuals: On a black background, there is a fire that writes the words "initial" in a script font that flashes in gold. Then the text turns to white, as credit info fades in below.

Bylines:

• 1998: "A Broadcast Communications Company"
• 1998-2000: "Part of GMG Endemol Entertainment (plc)"
• 2000-2002: "Part of Endemol Entertainment UK"

Variant:

• Sometimes, the logo is still.
• Sometimes, this logo also shares the screen with other logos (including the 1997 BBC and 1999 Channel 4 "Square" logos).
• On children's programmes, the letter "l" of the "Initial" script is shorter and there is also a shoe mark on the bottom right reading "Kids" on it. Also there is no byline in present on Fab Lab.

Technique: Live-action.

Audio: A sound of a fire, followed by a whoosh, and then a hip-hop theme.

Audio Variants:

• Sometimes, the logo is silent or has the end theme of the show play over.
• Before The Pepsi Chart begins, the audio for the logo plays as normal but with the hip-hop theme replaced with the opening tail of said programme's intro.

Availability:

• It was mainly seen on live and reality programming, appearing on Dr. Fox's Chart Update, The Pepsi Chart, Bar Wars, Shafted, and Number One.
• The Kids version was seen on Fab Lab, In the House with Cleopatra, and Miami 7.
  • However, those programmes are hard to find, as they were not rerun after their original broadcasts.

3rd Logo (2001-2016)

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Visuals: It's just the standard Endemol logo from the period, but with the text reading "initial" and the byline "an endemol company" appearing below.

Variants:

• Sometimes, the logo shares the screen with other logos.
• Sometimes, the logo is in-credit.
• A still version of this logo exists.
• On programmes produced by its Scotland division, the text says "initial scotland".

Technique: Same as the Endemol logo.

Audio: Same as the Endemol logo.

Audio Variant: Sometimes, it uses the ending theme of the show.

Availability:

• Seen on later episodes of The Pepsi Chart, as well as then-new shows such as Orange Playlist, Golden Balls, Totally Frank, Total Wipeout, and later iterations of Big Brother, among others.
• It was also seen on some kids programmes by Initial, such as Emu, Bel's Boys, Space Pirates, I Can Cook With You, and Jedward's Big Adventure.

4th Logo (November 14, 2016- )

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Visuals: On a black background, there is the gold word "iNiTiAL". Three pink dots hide from behind the text, and bounces from the first "i", and then bounces and land on the second "i" and then the third dot bounces and land on the final "i". The company byline appears below.

Bylines:

• 2016-2021: "part of EndemolShineGroup" (in the same font as the Endemol Shine logo).
• 2021-: "We are Banijay", with the Banijay logo to the left of the Initial logo.

Variants:

• Just like the third logo, it shares the screen with other logos.
• A version exists where it starts with the three dots zooms out and hides into the word "INITIAL", then the animation plays as normal.
• Starting in 2023, the logo does not animate, and the 2020 Banijay logo also plays its usual animation. This variant was seen on later productions of the company, such as later episodes of Tenable and the ITV2 revival of Big Brother.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: Three bouncing sounds.

Audio Variants:

• Sometimes, the logo is silent.
• For the 2023 variant, the 2020 Banijay logo's music plays it over.

Availability: Seen on current and new programmes produced by Initial such as Tenable and The Royal World, among others, as well as Big Brother.