Original Film

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum

Background

Original Film is a production company founded in 1997 by Neal H. Moritz, who also briefly founded Neal H. Moritz Productions. Prior to 2000, the company didn't use a logo; earlier films (e.g. I Know What You Did Last Summer and its first sequel) merely used an in-credit notice (in some cases for Moritz himself rather than the company).



1st Logo (February 1, 2000)

Visuals: Over a black background is the print logo of Original Film from the era. It consists of a white frame with a speaker's face with a striped bar under his head, placed inside a white box. The word "ORIGINAL" is posed vertically left to the frame and "FILM" appears below (a la the 1991-2005 LucasArts logo), all in black, with a small green square in the corner dividing them. The words are in a custom font.

Technique: A still digital graphic.

Audio: The end theme of the movie.

Availability: Seen on the TV movie Cabin by the Lake.

2nd Logo (March 31, 2000-April 29, 2004)


Visuals: The logo starts with a black background. Then, a yellow director chair fades in. The camera slowly pans up as other contents of a recording room fade in: a director sitting with his megaphone, a man with a film camera, lights and a boom microphone. Then the camera stops at a speaker with a striped bar under his head; this matches the speaker and bar from the previous logo. All the action is made in unique decorative design and with a limited amount of colors, including yellow, green, dark blue and brown. The speaker's head and the bar remain in the frame, while everything else fades out and the name "ORIGINALFILM" in the same font as before appears. The word "FILM" is placed directly below the frame.

Variant: On Cruel Intentions 2 and Return of Cabin by the Lake, the logo is shortened, beginning with the fade-in of the name.

Technique: Fading effects.

Audio: A simple uprising composition. Most of the time, it's silent or the opening theme to the movie is heard.

Availability:

  • It debuted on The Skulls, and also appeared on its sequels, as well as the direct-to-video film Cruel Intentions 2, and Slackers.
  • It also appears on Return of Cabin by the Lake.
  • Most movies, including The Fast and the Furious and its sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious and XXX, don't have this logo.

3rd Logo (August 8, 2003-)


Visuals: A silver "O" flips in from the darkness on a black background. Then it moves left, making room for "RIGINAL FILM", sandwiched between two lines up and down. While the letters in "RIGINAL" fade in, "FILM" just slides to the right. The logo shines.

Variants:

  • Television shows feature a shortened, sped up version. It starts when the "O" moves left.
  • Starting with The Bounty Hunter, released on March 19, 2010, the logo has a more enhanced look. The letters in RIGINAL" also flip in letter-by-letter.
  • On Sonic the Hedgehog, the logo is blue and the background is red (meant to represent Sonic's colors).
    • On Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the colors are switched. The version leaked online has brighter colors.
    • Nickelodeon airings of both films have a 16:9 open-matte version.
  • On some TV shows, the logo is still.
  • On Tru Calling, the logo is stretched and it simply fades in as the letters of "RIGINAL FILM" move from the "O".
  • On the 2017 version of S.W.A.T., the logo is above the Perfect Storm Entertainment logo.
  • On Point Pleasant and The Boys, it is in warp speed.
  • On the 2017 version of Prison Break, the print logo is used and shares the screen with the Dawn Olmstead Productions and Adelstein Productions logos.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: None or the movie's opening theme. At the beginning of Vantage Point and the 2012 remake of Total Recall, the tail end of the Columbia Pictures logo's music echoes over the very beginning of the logo, then the logo remains completely silent. The television variant had a humming-like whoosh.

Availability:

  • First seen on S.W.A.T. (the movie).
  • It appears on movies such as Vantage Point, Prom Night (2008), I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, Sonic the Hedgehog, its sequel, and most of the Fast & Furious movies (the original version was on Fast & Furious, while all the subsequent films (excluding Hobbs and Shaw and F9: The Fast Saga) use the enhanced version).
  • The television version can be seen on Prison Break, Tru Calling and the 2017 S.W.A.T. TV series.
  • This doesn't appear on XXX: State of the Union, Stealth (2005), The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Click (2006), The Change-Up, R.I.P.D., The Art of Racing in the Rain, Hobbs and Shaw, or F9: The Fast Saga.
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