Orion Pictures/Summary

1st Logo
(1979-1982)

Nicknames: "Red/Blue Split", "Splitting Rectangles", "The Orion/Warner Bros. Combo"

Logo: On a black screen, two rectangles, one blue and one orange, each one tilted forward at a 45 degree angle (making them appear like the floor and ceiling of a tunnel), shoot out towards the center of the screen. When they both connect at the center of the screen, they tilt back 45 degrees, so that they are facing the viewer completely, and enlarge to fill the screen. In the blue rectangle, which is on the top, we see the \\' logo and the words "WARNER BROS" in orange. In the orange rectangle, which is on the bottom, we see the words "ORION (in their trademark font) PICTURES COMPANY (in an ITC Avant Garde Gothic font)" in blue. After a while, the blue and orange rectangles move to each others spot, briefly overlapping. "A WARNER COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY" and "present" fade-in under "WARNER BROS".

Variants:


 * On the 1983 Warner Home Video VHS release of Time After Time, the color scheme is brighter and is zoomed in.
 * On the trailer for Zelig, the logo appears in red and black rather than orange and blue.

Closing Variants:
 * At the end of the credits, we see the text "AN ORION PICTURES /WARNER BROS RELEASE" with "ORION" in its trademark logo font and "WARNER BROS" in its 1972 font from the theatrical logo. We see the byline,"Thru WARNER BROS, A Warner Communications Company", with the Warner Communications \\' logo in between the name and the company byline.
 * Another variant looks close to the opening logo, but has a red stripe on a blue background, inside which it has "A WARNER BROS/ORION PICTURES RELEASE"; below which is "Thru", with the "\\'" to the right, and the Warner Communications byline below (all company names are in their trademark fonts as with the regular closing variant).

FX/SFX: The tilting and sliding.

Music/Sounds: Usually silent or the opening theme of the film.

Availability: Near extinction, due to chronic plastering by the original version (the version with the Warner Communications byline) of the next logo, and on certain cases, the 1973 Warner Bros. logo. Seen on the original WCI/Warner VHS and Betamax releases of Monty Python's Life of Brian, Time After Time, Prince of the City, Sharky's Machine, Arthur (retail copy only as the rental copy has it plastered by the next logo), Wolfen (also intact on a 1992 HBO broadcast), The Great Santini, and Caddyshack, along with a TV Land airing of the latter and AMC airings of former. The only known source for this logo currently is Prince of the City. The second closing variant is available on early home video prints of Arthur.