Interscope Communications

Credits

Descriptions by
Eric S., Hoa and Logophile

Captures by
Eric S.

Video captures courtesy of
Eric S.

Background

Interscope Communications was founded in 1982 by film producer Ted Field. For the first several years of its existence, it did not use an on-screen logo until the late 1980s. Field sold his company to PolyGram in 1993. While the film production part of Interscope eventually was made a subdivision of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, its record label, Interscope Records (which Field and record producer Jimmy Iovine created in 1989 and was originally distributed by Atlantic) still exists as a subsidiary of the Interscope/Geffen/A&M unit of the Universal Music Group.

In 1999, following Seagram's acquisition of PolyGram, Interscope Communications and other PolyGram-related products were folded into Universal Pictures. Later that year, Universal sold their 10% share in the Interscope film label to Barry Diller's USA Films, at the time a division of HSN, Inc. However in 2001, Diller sold USA Networks and its division, Studios USA, to Vivendi S.A., reuniting Interscope Communications with Universal Pictures and with its now-separate Universal Music division of Interscope Records. A year later in 2002, Vivendi merged with Universal Pictures to create Vivendi Universal Entertainment, thus combining USA Networks with all of Vivendi and Universal's assets, while merging Studios USA into Universal Television Distribution and/or Universal Network Television (both of which would later in 2004 be rebranded as NBCUniversal Television Distribution and NBC Universal Television Studio following the company's merger with General Electric's NBC). With the merger of Vivendi Universal also came the merger of Interscope Communications, USA Films, October Films, Gramercy Pictures, Rogue Pictures, Good Machine and Universal Focus into the 2002 creation of Focus Features.

Despite this, the Interscope Communications name continued to be used all the way until the summer of 2003, with many of its properties or planned films prior being retained under either Focus Features or Universal Pictures.

1st Logo (1987-1990s)

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Visuals: On a blue background, we see a white circle made of lines with an "i" inside it flipping as it zooms in at us. The letters "INTERSCOPE COMMUNICATIONS INC.", in Korinna, also flip towards us with the logo.

Technique: 2D Computer Graphics.

Audio: Silent.

Availability: Seen on some TV movies from the era made by Interscope, such as Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, Murder Ordained, and The Father Clements Story, among others.

2nd Logo (1990s-1992?)

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Visuals: On a black background, three pieces of the stylized oval with the lower case "i" ease in towards the screen. They slide together to form the logo. As this happens, the word "I N T E R S C O P E" in white slides in from the right and a red line slides in below from the left.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Just the closing theme of the program.

Availability: Seen on TV movies from the time from Interscope, such as Shoot First: A Cop's Vengeance.

3rd Logo (January 7, 1994-February 18, 2000)

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Visuals: The logo starts off inside a movie studio complete with a camera, a boom, a director’s chair and several lights, shown in a purple hue. The camera scrolls down-left and heads towards one of the lights. The hue turns orange and the word “INTERSCOPE” appears and heads towards the light. When the camera goes into the light, the light changes to an oval and the background changes with a flash to purple. As the camera eases back a bit, “COMMUNICATIONS” appears under “INTERSCOPE” and the oval shines into a stylized oval with a lower case “i”. After the shining stops, the 1993 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment logo appears underneath.

Variants:

• Later in its life, "A PolyGram Company" in the company font appears underneath instead.
• On some prints of Pitch Black, it lacks any PolyGram indication text.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None, or the opening theme of the movie.

Audio Variant: On Terminal Velocity, a synthpad theme with whooshing sounds was used.

Availability: Seen on films such as Terminal Velocity, Operation Dumbo Drop, The Tie That Binds, The Associate, Kazaam, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, What Dreams May Come, Gridlock'd, and Pitch Black. On current prints of Gridlock'd, this is plastered by the 1997-2012 Universal logo.

Legacy: A nicely-animated logo for the time.

Interscope Communications

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