Initial

Credits

Compiled by
RSX-798

Captures by
RSX-798 and Camenati

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, 1987-1997)

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• File:Initial and Granada logos (1990) (From - original airing of Saturday Night at the Movies).mp4

Logo: On a black background, we see 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 we see 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.
• On Seaforth, a print version is used.
• On a 1987 broadcast of Terence Trent D'arby, the logo is shown next to the 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.

Technique: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A guitar country-like riff, with some film projector-type sounds. Sometimes, the logo is silent or has the end theme of the show play over.

Music/Sounds Variant: 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: Extremely rare. It was first seen on Wired, then seen on Saturday Night at the Movies, Grim Tales, Underbelly, The White Room and No Sweat, as well as concert shows and documentaries from the period. 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 did have this logo intact on its Australian Volume 2 VHS tape. The animated variant can be 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 (1997-2001)

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Logo: On a black background, we see 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:

• 1997-1998: "A Broadcast Communications Company"
• 1998-2000: "Part of GMG Endemol Entertainment (plc)"
• 2000-2001: "Part of Endemol Entertainment UK"

Variant:

• Sometimes, the logo is still.
• On Fab Lab, In the House with Cleopatra and Miami 7, the letter "l" of the "Initial" script is shorter and there is a shoe mark on the bottom right reading "Kids" on it also there is no byline in present on the former.

Technique: The fire writing the words.

Music/Sounds: A sound of a fire, followed by a whoosh, and then a hip-hop theme. Sometimes the logo was silent or having the end theme of the show play over.

Music/Sounds Variant: 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: Ultra rare, if not extinct. It mainly appeared on live and reality programming, appearing on Dr. Fox's Chart Update, The Pepsi Chart, Bar Wars, Shafted and Number One. Those programmes are hard to find, as they were not rerun after their original broadcasts.

3rd Logo (2001-2016)

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Logo: 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.

Music/Sounds: Same as the Endemol logo, sometimes it uses the ending theme of the show.

Availability: Common. Seen on later episodes of The Pepsi Chart, as well as then-new shows such as Orange Playlist, Totally Frank, Total Wipeout, and later iterations of Big Brother, among others. It was also seen on Emu and Bel's Boys.

4th Logo (2016- )

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Logo: On a black background, we see 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.
• There is a version where it starts with the three dots zooms out and hides into the word "INITIAL", then the animation plays as normal.

Technique: The dots moving.

Music/Sounds: Three bouncing sounds.

Availability: Current. It's seen on current and new programmes produced by Initial such as Tenable and The Royal World, among others, as well as Big Brother.