Solax Studios

Credits

Compiled by
Camenati

Background

Solax Studios was a film studio founded in 1910 by former Gaumont executives Alice Guy-Blanché, her husband, Herbert, and George A. Magie. Guy-Blanché 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.

1st Logo (1911-1916)

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Logo: Usually consists of the company's print logo, consisting of "Solax" within a large sun that has light bursts coming out of it 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.

Technique: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the ending of the film.

Availability: Extremely rare. As with many companies from the silent era, much of their films have been 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 Falling Leaves, A Fool and His Money, 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 movie, 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?-1913)

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Logo: We see a dark valley against a black background. A few seconds later, a cut out of a sun with light ray bursts containing the stylized words "SOLAX" rises from the ground.

Technique: Cut-out animation.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Near extinction. This logo was featured in the trailer to the 2018 film Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, but it is unknown what particular film from the company used this logo.

Solax Studios

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios ►