Nova Studios

Background

Nova Studios was a gay pornographic studio founded by Scott Masters in 1977. They distributed their films through mail and adult bookstores, usually with high prices. The company is known for the "West Coast Look", a filmmaking style that makes pornos like staged plays, and established many gay porn tropes such as partially clothed sex. In 1980, the studio's finances declined thanks to Masters' lover licensing the company's material without permission, mostly in lower quality. After a series of failed changes such as a transition to sound films, the company licensed its remaining products to a third party and ceased operations in late 1986.

1st Logo (1976-1981)

Opening Visuals: On a blue background, there is an orange star with a white outline with the warped, white text "NOVA" overlapping the bottom portion of it. Underneath it all is "PRESENTS"

Closing Visuals: The text has been replaced with a fancy font reading "The End".

Technique: A still, printed image.

Audio: None or the ending of the movie.

Availability: It was seen on gay pornographic films that were obtainable through direct mail and adult bookstores back then. Seen on their first movie, Tubtricks, and was also seen at the end of Big Brother is Watching You.

2nd Logo (1978-1986)

Visuals: On a zooming space background, a star cut-out of blazing fire appears. Shortly after, the text "NOVA" in the same fashion as before fades in.

Technique: 2D animation for the zooming space background and fading text. Live-action for the fire footage.

Audio: Starts off with an ominous sting that transitions into a fast synth arpeggio with a 6-note synth jingle played twice. This is actually the stock music "Electrosonic IDs And Logos #6" composed by Richard Sanders, and was used by other logos such as MTC Video.

Audio Variants:

Sometimes, it is silent or the opening/closing of the movie plays over the logo.
On Big Brother is Watching You, the ominous sting was omitted.
On Hunk, a synthesized xylophone arpeggio can be heard instead and as the text appears, "Electrosonic IDs and Logos #7" by Richard Sanders can be heard.

Availability: It was seen on Beached albeit silent and Brian's Boy. The one without the sting was seen on Big Brother is Watching You, and the one with the alternate jingle was seen on Hunk.