Columbia Pictures: Difference between revisions

'''Visuals:''' On a dark gray background with arch clouds below, there is a woman dressed in a Roman soldier's outfit (similar to the ancient Greco-Roman goddess Athena/Minerva), crowned with a wreath and covered in a toga, holding a shield in her left hand and holding an olive branch in her right hand. There is the text "{{font|Times New Roman|COLUMBIA PICTURES CORPORATION Presents}}", with "{{font|Times New Roman|COLUMBIA PICTURES}}" arched above, "{{font|Times New Roman|CORPORATION}}" underneath it in a straight line, and "{{font|Times New Roman|Presents}}" below.

*1932-1936: Same as before, but the words are replaced with "'''A COLUMBIA PRODUCTION'''" and the typeface is different.

* April 1968-August 1, 1976: The drapery is temporarily pink during this era. Several films that feature this variant include ''Where Angels Go'', ''Trouble Follows!'', ''The Swimmer'', ''The Big Gundown'', ''Hammerhead'', ''Funny Girl'', ''The Wrecking Crew'', ''Otley'', ''Model Shop'', ''MacKenna's Gold'', ''Easy Rider'', ''Castle Keep'', ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'', ''The Desperados'', ''Cactus Flower'', ''Five Easy Pieces'', ''The Owl and the Pussycat'', ''The Reckoning'', ''10 Rillington Place'', ''The Anderson Tapes'', ''Dollars'' (''$''), ''The Horsemen'', ''Brian's Song'', ''Nicholas and Alexandra'', ''A Day in the Death of Joe Egg'', ''Butterflies Are Free'', ''Fat City'', ''The New Centurions'', ''Monty Python's And Now for Something Completely Different'', ''The Valachi Papers'', ''1776'', ''The National Health'', ''Lost Horizon'' (1973), ''The Way We Were'', ''Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams'', ''The Last Detail'', ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'', ''Tommy'', and Brian De Palma's ''Obsession''.

* Two ending variants existed for short subjects during the early 1940s: (1) Near the top of the screen, "THE" is in a 3D-like Futura font with a white face and dark/light shadows to the left of the Torch Lady, and "END" in the same font and effects is to the right; the shadows from "THE END" go behind the Torch Lady to an unknown vanishing point behind the rays of her torch (much like the early-to-mid-60's [[Four Star International|Four Star Television]] logo's effect). Near the top of the Torch Lady's pedestal, "COLUMBIA" is in a small but wider version of the company name's "chiseled" font, and "SHORT" "SUBJECT" "PRESENTATION" is chiseled onto each step of the pedestal, going from top to bottom respectively (when seen on colorized prints of ''The Three Stooges'', "THE" "END" and "COLUMBIA" are in a yellowish-gold color, and the clouds and shadows are shades of dark blue and light blue, respectively); and (2) the standard "The End" additional text below would read "A Columbia Short Subject Presentation". These variants are usually seen on ''The Three Stooges'' shorts and often accompanies the aforementioned title card variant.

'''Visuals:''' It begins with the familiar Columbia Torch Lady (a less-detailed yellow-toned 1942/1955 Torch Lady), standing on the pedestal holding her light torch against the backdrop of clouds. Then, the picture moves upward and towards the torch as the rays pull in, which shines even more as the picture blurs around it. It then emits a flash that fills the screen. When the flash dissolves, the light torch itself appears, as if in a sunburst, against a black screen and as it shrinks, it changes into a more "abstract" torch: a blue half circle, or a semicircle, with thirteen white light rays in the center and the words "{{Font|serif|Columbia Pictures}}" in a beveled Souvenir Bold font under it. The entire logo then slowly backs away as it fades out.

'''Technique:''' Motion-controlled cel animation, with the Torch Lady and cloud backdrop being a matte painting. The animation was provided by Robert Abel and Associates, who also did work on commercials (including early 1970s 7-Up ads, among many others) and ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''.

* 1981-1990: The standard Torch Lady (a somewhat less detailed version of her 1970s iteration, wearing a more orange robe) is seen standing on a pedestal with her torch against a backdrop of clouds similar to that of the previous logo (albeit slightly less detailed and with a more blueish tone). The light emitting from torch grows brighter, and briefly shines in a sunburst shape (the same one from the previous logo) behind the Torch Lady before dimming back into place. The metallic orange words "'''{{font|Serif|Columbia Pictures}}'''" (in the same font as the last logo) fade in on opposite sides of the Torch Lady as her torch continues to shine.

* 1989-1993: Same as the original variant, but the sunburst animation is omitted (however, one can still see a glimpse of the red light from the sunburst if one looks closely). Instead, after a second, the "'''{{font|Serif|Columbia Pictures}}'''" text fades in (a la the 1936-1976 logo).

'''Visuals:''' First, there is a ray of light resembling a sunburst, with a different cloud background fading in a brief second later. The light is revealed to be coming from a torch, as the screen zooms out to reveal a redesigned Torch Lady; all of her fingers are now on the torch as she holds it. Once the camera is fully zoomed out, the word "COLUMBIA", in a bold, chiseled silver font, fades in, this time much smaller than the 3rd logo and positioned so that the "U" in "COLUMBIA" is behind the torch. A ring of light then shimmers around the lady before the logo fades to black.

* Starting with ''The Juror'', released on February 2, 1996, the byline "'''a SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT company'''" (set in Trade Gothic Bold Extended) fades in on the bottom, being slightly off-center. In its original appearance, the byline is cheaply chyroned in and is a lot bigger and wider than the proportion of the "COLUMBIA" name and the pedestal. Starting with ''The Craft'', released on May 3, 1996, the byline is darker in color, fades in, and is positioned under the Torch Lady instead of in front of her. However, some post-1996 films, such as ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'', ''Wild Things'', ''Les Misérables'', ''Dance with Me'', ''Vampires'' and ''Gloria'', may have this logo without the byline, while trailers and TV spots continued to use the bylineless version of the logo until 1999. The last film to use this byline was ''Captain Phillips'', released on October 11, 2013. and also makes a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" cameo on ''Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse''. Starting with the 2006 version, the font of the byline is in Arial.

* In late 2013, the byline was shortened to "'''a Sony Company'''" (in Arial Bold), with the orange-gold color of the previous byline changed to bronze, and is properly centered. This byline debuted on US prints of ''American Hustle'' (it only appears at the end; the film itself uses the 1976 logo), ''The Monuments Men'', and trailers for ''The Amazing Spider-Man 2'' and ''22 Jump Street''.

* 2006-2014: Starting with ''The Holiday'', released on November 29, 2006, the logo was given enhancements to better resemble the 2001 [[Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment]] logo and Michael J. Deas' original artwork of the logo. The Torch Lady's hand is also in a different pose in which her finger is at the tip of the torch. The sky is also darker, and the "COLUMBIA" text is more silver and is slightly off-center. Trailers and TV spots, however, continued to use the 1993 version of the logo until 2008. On ''The Holiday'', the logo is seen already formed; the fully animated variant debuted on ''Ghost Rider'', as between those two films, the 1993 version was still used until ''The Messengers''; and additionally came back for a one-time revival with ''Little Women'' (2019). The 2006 enhanced version of the logo might possibly have debuted earlier with the IMAX 3D release of ''Open Season'', considering it appears on it's Blu-ray 3D release that seems to use the same master on both the 3D and 2D versions included on the disc, not only because of the logo but also the Imageworks 3D and IMAX DMR credits at the end. Outside of the US, the original logo was used in various Brazilian releases co-produced and distributed by Sony even after the enhanced logo premiered, such as in ''Saneamento Básico: O Filme'' (2007), ''Era Uma Vez...'' (2008), ''Chico Xavier'' (2010), and ''Tainá: A Origem'' (2013).

'''Technique:''' CGI. The 1993 version was animated at Kleiser/Walczak Construction Company, now known as Synthespian Studios. Jeff Kleiser (the brother of ''Grease'' and ''Flight of the Navigator'' director Randal Kleiser), and Diana Walczak were lead animators, while Ed Kramer and Joel Hynek assisted in production. The staff used 2D elements from Deas' painting, edited them using Adobe Photoshop running on an Apple Macintosh Quadra 950 workstation and converted them to 3D. The clouds were divided up to 66 image maps and Walczak mapped every cloud onto a 3D object and twist-distorted and translated on Alias/Wavefront Advanced Visualizer graphics software running on a Silicon Graphics Crimson Elan workstation. The woman was also converted to 3D by sculpting a real model and scanning it using a Polhemus 3-space digitizing pen. [[Sony Pictures Imageworks]] animated the later versions, while Greenhaus GFX designed the 2014 transition to the logo from Sony.

<center><big><big><big><big>100 YEARS</big></big></big></big></center>

<center>COLUMBIA PICTURES</center>

* A 3D variant exists, where only the Sony logo and the first few seconds of the 1993 logo are in 3D. It was first (and possibly only) spotted on the theatrical 3D release of ''The Garfield Movie''.

'''Availability:''' This is used for the company's centennial anniversary.