Internacional Video Sistemas (Spain)

Background: IVS (Internacional Video Sistemas) was a video distributor based in Pamplona (Navarre), Spain. It was mainly devoted to the distribution of cartoons and movies for kids, tough they had an early cinema collection as well (for instance, some Valentino's films).

1st (known) Logo

(Mid 1980's)

Logo: On a black background, a red dot zooms in to the bottom-left and quickly starts forming a big, white, lower-case "i", followed by a "v". An "s" comes spinning from the right as the dot places itself on the "i" and turns white as well. Then a large red TV tube-like form zooms out from the upper side to the middle of the screen, finishing the logo after bouncing a bit. After a couple of seconds, the logo flips to the left to show the warning screen.

FX: Simple 2D computer animation to form the logo that goes 3D when the logo flips.

Cheesy Factor: The whole thing looks a bit cheap.

Music/Sounds: A playful piano and xylophone tune.

Availability: Seen on their VHS tapes from the era.

Scare Factor: Low.

2nd Logo

(Late '80s-Early '90s)

Nicknames: "Sparkling Globe"; "Hey, mom, the moon's red and it has something written on it!", "Apocalypse"

Logo: On a blue space background, a rotating sparkling globe fades in. Just then, at the same time, a twisting filmstrip showing some images from films shows up from the right as a rotating (faster than the globe) red sphere with white "ivs" written throughout comes from the left. The strip keeps twisting and flipping, moving from one side of the screen to another, as the sphere orbits the globe and zooms out to the center of the screen, totally covering it. Then two light blue lightning bolts appear from the left and the right and collide in a spark, with a flash that causes the globe to disappear. The strip stops its movement in the center of the screen, fades out and a red TV tube-shaped "ivs" logo which was in it zooms out to form the finished logo (two bolts more appear behind it).

What's in a Strip: The strip contains four still pictures: The top one depicts a woman (Ingrid Bergman?) on a B/W film, the second one is the red IVS logo, the third is a cartoon boy (presumably Jim Hawkins) finding a treasure and the fourth is a view of a city (London?).

FX/SFX: All the flipping and twisting, which is all CGI.

Cheesy Factor: The CGI is very dated, and the footage of lightning bolts and the flash are ripped straight from the first Channel 5 Video logo.

Music/Sounds: A rhythmic synth tune, which is actually "Flash", by Keith Mansfield, which was used as the theme of the pilot of the show Press Your Luck, and in Thorn-EMI's Australian logo and the Muppet Home Video logo.

Availability: Rare. Found on VHS tapes from this company, including Asterix cartoon tapes (on Spanish PAL tapes, that is).

Scare Factor: Medium to high; the music is cool, but the dated effects, the blatant use of lightning bolts from Channel 5 Video logo and the fact that this logo seems to depict some kind of Armageddon can scare sensitive viewers.