Solax Studios

Credits

Compiled by
Camenati

Solax Studios
Founded:	1910 (114 years ago)
Founder:	Alice Guy-Blaché Herbert Blaché George A. Magie
Defunct:	December 29, 1927 (96 years ago)
Fate:	Absorbed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
Location:	United States

Background

Solax Studios was a film studio founded in 1910 by former Gaumont executives Alice Guy-Blaché, her husband, Herbert, and George A. Magie. Alice Guy-Blaché directed many of the company's films whereas Herbert produced these films. During its first few years, the studio was successful both critically and financially, being known for its avant-garde production stages at the time. In 1916, Metro Pictures began distributing Solax's films. Due to the rise of film facilities in Hollywood thanks to their low costs and more favorable climate, the East Coast film industry rapidly declined in the 1920's, and Solax was one of those companies. The studio was absorbed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, a recently-founded studio that merged Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1924. On December 29, 1927, the Solax Studios brand was discontinued.

Contents
1st Logo (February 10, 1911-November 2, 1916)	2nd Logo (1911-March 26, 1913)

1st Logo (February 10, 1911-November 2, 1916)

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Visuals: Usually consists of the company's print logo, consisting of the text "Solax" within a large sun that has light bursts coming out of the sun behind a valley, all inside a circle.

Opening Titles: The print logo is bigger and positioned to the top left corner of the screen. Several boxes containing plant motifs, two of which simply consists of circles of varying sizes, surround the center box which contains the title of the film.

Variants:

• The closing variant would have the print logo on the bottom of the screen with "THE END" on top of it.
• Sometimes, only the print logo would be present on screen.
• Sometimes, the print logo may appear at bottom of text cards.

Technique: A still, printed image.

Audio: None or the ending music.

Availability: It appears on most Solax Studios films from Mixed Pets to The Ocean Waif.

• As with many companies from the silent era, much of their films have been destroyed or subject to deterioration over the past several decades.
• Despite this, this logo was seen on all of their films with the title card variant being the easiest to find, appearing on Mixed Pets, Starting Something, Algie the Miner, Falling Leaves, Canned Harmony, A Fool and His Money, Making an American Citizen, The Coming of Sunbeam, Burstup Comes' Murder Case, A House Divided (1913), Matrimony's Speed Limit, Mr. Bruce Wins at Cards, among others.
• It can also be seen on text cards throughout their movies.
• However, most of their current prints lack these cards and instead start with the title of the film, the restoration company's logo, or simply the beginning of the film. When this logo does appear on a restoration print, it is usually a reconstruction of what could have been the opening title/endcap for the film.
• The closing variants are rarer thanks to restoration prints, such as the Library of Congress', having the film end with the restoration's credits.

2nd Logo (1911-March 26, 1913)

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Visuals: There is a dark valley against a black background. Upon the logo beginning, a cut out of a sun with light ray bursts containing the stylized word "SOLAX" rises from the ground.

Technique: Possibly live action, looking like it was produced in a controlled mechanical wall.

Audio: None.

Availability: This logo was featured in the trailer to the 2018 film Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, and was so far resurfaced at the end of Burstup Comes' Murder Case.

Solax Studios

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