Toppic Video

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum



Logo (1983-2000s?)



Visuals: There is a variation of a stand by screen. On the top half of the screen, there are eight vertical bars that are each a different color (L-R: white, yellow, light blue, green, pink, red, dark blue, and black). The bottom third is a red rectangle with "Video" (with a blue tittle and white "e") overlaying it. The stand by screen fades to black, in which the aforementioned "Video" fades in, and a residue trail of "Video" appears behind. The screen then zooms into the tittle of the front text, in which the screen transitions to a white box surrounding another white box covering the right half and the company name (in the same retro font, but not italicized). A star is seen in place of the tittle and there are six stars underneath each letter.

Variants:

  • Some tapes (as well a promo, which the video on the right seems to come from) leave out the "stand by" screen and simply begin with "Video".
  • On the promo variant, the animation is sped up.
  • The logo has a closing variant: the sequence begins with "Video" in chyron/video feedback trail which has a larger amount of the text expanding in a trail and the text somewhat being smaller. Then the "Video" trail all simply transitions into a chyron trail of the Toppic logo.

Technique:

  • Analog computer graphic for the "stand by" screen.
  • Camera-controlled animation with video feedback and iris effects for the logo animation.

Audio: None or the opening theme of the movie.

  • One such tape that uses the opening theme begins with a woman screaming in horror (apparently from the end of a preceding promo), which transitions into an upbeat disco tune (an excerpt from the song "Beach Love" by The Yan Tregger Group).
  • Another tape (said to be an adult German comedy based on fairy tales) uses an edited excerpt from "I Love You, Joe Walker" by Angelina Monti from the Kommissar X film series.

Availability: Can be seen on some German tapes distributed by Polyband and WVG or just Toppic itself. This may also be found on some Australian tapes [Examples?]. The Toppic logo has been long out of print in many German DVDs and Blu-Rays distributed by "Polyband & Toppic Video/WVG" with only the Polyband print logo added in it.