THX: Difference between revisions

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{{YouTube|yln8u5BZW58|id2=TijRr2m4MaM|id3=4XVo-xEMX-Y}}

'''Nicknames:''' "Cimarron", "The Conductor", "The Audience Is Now Deaf"

'''Variants:'''

* This trailer was remixed in Dolby Digital in 1995. This variant had slight changes. At the start, the Dolby logo and the text (In Caslon Open Face font) fade in reading "'''Dolby Digital sound in a THX Theatre'''," and in the end the Recorded in Dolby Digital logo was added at the left-bottom of the screen.

* On LaserDisc releases starting with [https://youtu.be/8dSIcaKa5Ek?t=74 ''Highlander: Director's Cut''], the hyperspeed boost is removed. The text "Mastered and duplicated for optimal video and audio performance" fades in on the red abyss, which transitions to the THX logo zooming in. Once it's finished zooming, the THX LaserDisc logo from "Broadway" fades and zooms inside the silver outlined rectangle. The THX LaserDisc logo and the silver outlined rectangle shine. This was used until 1999.

'''FX/SFX:''' A conductor flicks a baton which triggers a hyperspeed boost, finishing in an abyss with the THX logo moving past the screen. This is CGI, mixed with live-action with the hand, done by Industrial Light and Magic.

'''Music/Sounds:'''

* 1988-1990: The appearance of the box is accompanied by the sound of an orchestra warming up, which fades out as the conductor's hand appears. Once it flicks the baton, a booming, descending synth note accompanies the hyperspeed boost, overlapped by an orchestra crescendo as it reaches its peak. When the THX logo appears in the abyss, the descending synth is played again with less distortion. An ascending string note slowly becomes prominent as the THX logo appears before it replaces the synth note entirely as it reaches its peak, representing the Deep Note. Twinkling sounds play as the "'''The Audience is Listening'''" text appears, and echo until the end of the trailer. This early audio was recalled due to its potential to break underpowered theater speakers and thus replaced with what can be read below.

* 1990-2002: A new orchestral piece composed by James Horner. The trailer still begins with an orchestra warming up, but the loud descending note following the conductor flicking his baton is replaced with a rousing orchestral cue; whistling sounds accompany the hyperspeed boost as the cue reaches a crescendo before abruptly fading out (not in the original version of ''WOW!'' except for the 2002 & Vimeo releases). As the THX logo appears, a slightly quieter series of ascending string notes is heard, representing the Deep Note; a "whoosh" accompanies the THX logo zooming in. Wind chimes, played in the same pitch as the string notes that preceded it, accompany the appearance of the "'''The Audience is Listening'''" text.

** The LaserDisc variant also starts with a thunder strike, transitioning into the ascending string notes from the 1990 music variant.

'''Availability:''' Rare. This became the first alternate THX trailer to be used in 1988, beginning with the original theatrical release of ''Willow'' in THX theaters.

* The LaserDisc variant can be seen on LaserDiscs from 1996-1999 such as ''The Blues Brothers'', ''Volcano'', ''Independence Day'', and others (namely [[20th Century Studios|Fox]], [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]], and [[Universal Pictures|Universal]] flicks).

* It was also seen on LaserDiscs from other major film companies, except for Disney's labels, [[Columbia Pictures|Columbia]] (except for the 1998 LD release of ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'', which uses this logo) and some Fox releases which used the Broadway trailer instead. [[Warner Bros. Pictures|Warner Bros.]] would also use this logo for LaserDiscs, but only for the ''Twister'' LD release. The last release that used this trailer was ''Saving Private Ryan,'' released June 29, 1999.

'''Editor's Note:''' This is one of two logos that used a theme other than the original Deep Note, the other being "Grand" (the 4th logo). It proved to be unpopular among viewers. Andy Moorer, in an interview with Twenty Thousand Hertz, recalled that "Nobody liked [the sounds], nobody remembered them".<ref>Twenty Thousand Hertz, June 2018 (part 1 and part 2)</ref> The original version is infamous for both the reason it was recalled and for its extreme rarity. Various reconstructions have been made, and some audio had resurfaced, but no one was exactly sure what the original version sounded like beyond a general idea until video footage of the logo was uploaded in mid-February 2022. Nonetheless, this logo boasts some very impressive CGI for the time, and it's otherwise a very nicely done effort.