UFA-Dabei

Background

UFA-Wocheschau (known from 1968 as UFA-Dabei), was a West German series of black and white newsreels produced by Universum Film AG (UFA) and Deutsche Wocheschau GmbH. From 1956 until 1977 were produced 1072 issues. All of these newsreels nowadays, are owned by Bundesarchiv, the German Federal Archives.

1st Logo: (October 1, 1956-January 16, 1968)

Logo:

Opening: In a black background we see a rotating globe at the left side. Seconds later, a slightly different UFA wordmark zooms in from Germany while the shadow just fades in. It stays there several seconds until the camera slowly zooms into the globe, them, the logo fades out.

Closing: The camera zooms out fastly to the already formed logo, except the UFA wordmark is neater to the globe.

Bylines: Only used in the closing logo.

October 1, 1956-November 27, 1957: (The print logo of Herzog Filmverleih)
December 4, 1957-February 7, 1962: (Bylineless)
February 14, 1962-March 9, 1966: "Constantin-Filmverleih" (in its corporate script)
March 16, 1965-January 16, 1968: "Constantin-Film" (again in its corporate script)

Variant: In the issue Nr. 387, after the UFA wordmark appears, the "u" moves to the left corner by a trail making itself 2D and the text "nsere" wiping. Followed by the "f" moving to left by the same trail and the text "rechste" wiping. And finally, the "a" moves to the left bottom by the trail and wiping the text "usgabe". The result is the staked text "Unsere Frechste Augabe", translated as "Our Cheekiest Issue" (As the letters of the wordmark "moves away", the globe gets darker). The text stays there until the logo end, and the globe zooms in (keeping the UFA shadow).

FX/SFX: Live-action and 2D animation.

Music/Sounds:

October 1, 1956-September 4, 1957: A bombastic jazzy fanfare.
September 11, 1957-January 16, 1968: A drumroll, followed by another jazzy fanfare.

Music/Sounds Variant: In the end of the issue Nr. 304, it's used the closing theme.

Availability: Extinct. Seen in newsreels of the period until the issue Nr. 599, the last one to use this logo and the name "UFA-Wochenschau". It also shortly appeared in the following issue to announce the name changing. Like Neue Deutsche Wochenschau (and probably other newsreels), only the closing version first appears in the first issue, while the opening one first appears in the next issue. This logo was also used in El Mundo Al Instante (the Hispanic-American version of UFA-Wochenschau) from 1965 to 1980 as a closing logo (both original opening (when the camera zooms in) and closing versions).

Editor's Note: Like other newsreel logos (e.g.: Neue Deutsche Wochenschau 1950 and 1951 logos, Universal-International News 1959 logo), this logo has a nice animation for its time. This logo looks a throwback and update of the UFA-Tonwoche logos from 1934 and 1938, and the Unsere Frechste Ausgabe variant shows to us an exemple of early cel-animated trail effect, as it would be used in logos from late 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s.

2nd Logo: (January 23, 1968-June 28, 1977)

Logo:

Opening: In a zooming-in gradient diamond-shaped tunnel background, the UFA logo zooms in toward the screen. When it covers the screen, it zooms-out as a white rectangle with the black "DABEI" text in a zooming-out gradient rectangle-shaped tunnel background.

Closing: A white gradient vertical background wipes away. revealing a black background with a zooming "DABEI" text. Then, the byline "mit Constantin-Film" pops-in and a white gradient horizontal background covers the screen.

Variant: In the Issue Nr. 300, the closing card, as well the final part of the newsreel, is in color.

FX/SFX: Rostrum camera.

Music/Sounds: A news-like jazzy theme.

Music/Sounds Variant: In Issue Nr. 300, the music in the closing card is a different jazzy theme.

Availability: Extinct. Seen in the newsreels of the period.

Editor's Note: None.