José Frade, P.C.
bigladiesman
Captures by
Eric S.
Video captures courtesy of
LogicSmash and isaaxperez
Background
This is a production company owned by José Frade (b. 1938), a retired film producer who spent his career between Spain and Italy. He owns the rights to several of Samuel Bronston's films as well. His company now works on television series and specials.
1st Logo (March 26, 1965-1980)
Visuals: On a hot pink background, a pair of white circles outlined in dark green zoom in and take up the whole screen, with the yellow letters "JF" appearing in each circle in an odd boxy font. The circles then zoom out into the background as they move up a bit, and a white box outlined in yellow fades in below, containing "FILMS" in it. A smaller box then appears below, along with 3 yellow lines arranged in a fan-like form appear one-by-one, forming a tripod of sorts and making the logo resemble an abstract camera, as "DE DISTRIBUCION,S.A." appears below in white and a yellow underline draws in below it. Finally, the background fades to a dark blue vortex-like tunnel made of overlapping light blue and pink bands zooming out.
Technique: Cel animation.
Audio: A bombastic orchestral fanfare that gets more intense towards the end.
Availability: Seen on films distributed and produced by JF Films, like Kleinhoff Hotel, Los Heroes Millonarios, 1990 Los Guerreros del Bronx, and other films. Its still intact on some prints of these movies.
2nd Logo (December 19, 1980-1993)
Visuals: On a turquoise background, 2 glowing white lines draw in from opposite sides of the screen, set fairly close to each other. As they meet in the middle, they curve inwards to create a small hole and zoom in towards the screen, while rotating 90 degrees to the left. After they stop zooming in, the scene slowly fade away to reveal new colors for them: red for the left curve and orange for the left side of the screen, and blue for the right curve and sky blue for the right side of the screen. It then zooms out slowly to reveal them as the current José Frade logo, an abstract "FJ" shape, as the background is revealed to be a black background dotted with stars that slowly zoom forwards, as well as a blue vignette surrounding the edges. Above the logo, "JOSE FRADE" appears in a neon Art Deco-esque font, followed by "PRODUCCIONES CINEMATOGRAFICAS, S.A." below it in white. At the end of the logo, "presenta" appears below in a neon style.
Technique: Traditional 2D animation.
Audio: Same as the previous logo.
Availability: Seen on El Liguero Mágico, El Castigador, and possibly other films. Its still intact on some prints like the last logo.
3rd Logo (1993-)
Visuals: On a shaded dark blue background, 2 3D curves, one cyan and the other orange, appear in the background and come flying towards the screen with arched paths, with the cyan curve coming to the left and the orange curve coming to the right. As they take positions, a purple sphere, which slowly turns a mixture of red and blue, zooms in and the curves slowly gravitate and revolve around the sphere, swerving slightly as the sphere turns into smaller curves, the left red and the right blue, and the curves tilt towards the left and spread apart. Then, the pieces quickly come together to form the José Frade logo and flash white, before moving upwards and swerving towards the front of the screen, all the while the logo shines and stars line the edges. As it settles at the top of the screen, the text "JOSE FRADE", in a Gill Sans font, fades in below it. "Producciones Cinematográficas, S.A." follows suit in a smaller size, and then "PRESENTA" flips in letter-by-letter below.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: Same as the previous logos.
Availability: Seen on Spanish DVD prints of El Cid and For A Few Dollars More.
