Jerry Bruckheimer Films

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

This is Jerry Bruckheimer's production company, formed through a renaming of Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films after Don Simpson died in 1996 (the Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer name has been used as a label for the company on sequels to films that had Simpson's involvement since 2003), with the name debuting on Con Air. From 1983 to 1990, and again starting in 2014, the studio's films were released by Paramount Pictures and by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (later Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) through its Walt Disney Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, and Touchstone Pictures units from 1990 to 2013 (although select films were released by Columbia Pictures and sister company Screen Gems Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures).

Logo (June 6, 1997-)


Visuals: The camera zooms down a road, as a thunderstorm brews above and lightning flashes multiple times. As the camera stops at a leafless tree, a lightning bolt strikes it, and leaves instantly appear on the tree. The scene freezes and zooms out in a box, as the text

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER
F I L M S

is revealed below.

Trivia:

  • According to Jerry Bruckheimer, the lightning bolt is meant to represent "the power of an idea." The tree was modeled after an oak on a property in Kentucky that Bruckheimer owns. He photographed the tree and sent it to Dream Quest Images, who created the logo.[1]
  • The lighting bolt comes from the Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films logo, and was intended to have two bolts for Bruckheimer and Simpson, not unlike the Simpson/Bruckheimer logo. After Simpson died, only one bolt was featured.

Variants:

  • A prototype version of this logo exists, where the tree backdrop is entirely different. It also already has leaves on it and lacks the zooming down the road animation. The text is also larger, more stretched out and in a yellow color.
  • On Con Air, the logo is slightly longer, and the box above the text is bigger.
  • A later variant also exists, where there is a thin green rectangle added around the clip as the camera gradually keeps zooming out, stopping when the lightning strikes. The text is also absent.
  • A print version also exists.
  • A short version also exists, which begins with the lightning strike.
  • On ITV, ITV2 and Channel 4 UK airings of Coyote Ugly (2000) as well as small HD widescreen versions of Deja Vu (2006), the logo is cropped to 16:9 aspect ratio.

Technique: CGI by Dream Quest Images.

Audio: The sounds of wind, thunder, and cracks of lightning.

Audio Variants:

  • In most cases, the film's opening theme is heard, with the wind and lightning sounds intact.
  • On Confessions of a Shopaholic and The Lone Ranger (2013), the film's opening theme is heard without any of the usual sounds.
  • At the end of Disney-distributed movies like Armageddon, as well as on Black Hawk Down and Young Woman and the Sea, the logo is silent.
  • On Secret Headquarters, the opening theme of the movie plays a few seconds before the logo cuts out.

Availability:

  • It made its debut on Con Air and has appeared on every film since.
  • The later variant can be found on most films from 2004 onward, beginning with National Treasure.
  • The prototype variant appeared at the end of Con Air, as well as trailers and TV spots for the film.
  • This logo does not appear on Remember the Titans, which was produced by Technical Black Films and uses that label's logo instead.
  • It was also seen on two made-for-TV movies: Max Q and Swing Vote (1999).
    • The Sony Pictures Choice Collection DVD-R and Amazon Prime's print (provided by Samuel Goldwyn Films under license from Sony) of the latter title also retain this.

References

Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Jerry Bruckheimer Films
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