Prism Entertainment

Editions by Logophile, DaBigLogoCollector and others Logo pictures by Eric S. Video captures courtesy of osdatabase, EnormousRat, MachineryNoise, and ItsBartman

1st Logo (1984-1992) Prism Entertainment - CLG WikiPrism Entertainment - CLG Wiki

Nicknames: "Neon Videotape (of Doom)", "ZAP", "Black Triangle/Prism", "The Pink Floyd Logo", "Dark Side of the Videotape"

Logo: On a black background, we see a blue globe, with longitude and latitude lines, and an orange shooting star forms a neon green outlined videotape, which then spins around throughout, and then the background zooms in, which we zoom from the globe, as is the neon videotape disappears. Then shooting stars form eight sets of double dots, eight times, forming a triangle. Then it becomes a black 3D triangle with blue outlining, and a line goes through the triangle downward. Then "PRISM" appears, then a shooting star forms "ENTERTAINMENT". "PRISM" changes its colors throughout.

Variants: • On some laserdisc releases, and later releases from Prism Entertainment cut out the first part of the logo, going directly to the triangle forming. • A still logo appears on a blue background, with everything in white, and a slogan under that reading "Reflecting a new light in home video." •A B&W variant exists.

FX/SFX: The animation in the logo.

Cheesy Factor: Off the scale. The first half of the logo (with the cassette tape) is completely unnecessary (it only seems to be for aesthetic purposes), the chryon is bad, the synth theme is pretty cheap, and the outdated-ness of the cassette will make you laugh (though it was pretty advanced for the time).

Music/Sounds: A creepy synth tune with sound effects that resemble a zapping noise when the shooting stars appear.

Availability: Seen on tapes by Prism in the 80's and early 90's, including The Forest, The Orphan, My Little Girl, Junior (1985), Almost Human, Berserker, The Arrival (1991), Night Friend, Legal Tender, Last Call, Evil Toons, The Pink Chiquitas, Blood Hook, Red Blooded American Girl, The Boneyard, Murderlust, Death Mask, The Confessional, The Jitters, The Dark Side of Midnight, Eaten Alive (1977), Willard (1971), Ben, Open House (1987), Cheerleader Camp, Demon Wind, Track of the Moon Beast, Vice Academy 1-3, Ghetto Blaster, Shock Waves, Hell High, Alienator, Club Fed, My Mom's a Werewolf, The Willies, Warm Nights on a Slow Moving Train, Criminal Act, Club Extinction, Body Moves, Ghost Writer (1989), The Phantom Empire, and The Land of Faraway, among others.

Scare Factor: Depending on the logo variant: • Long Version: Medium to high; the bad animation, the music, SFX, and length make this a nightmare-inducing logo. • Short Version: Medium. The music and some zapping noises are still there, but the logo is quite tamer without the first half. • None for the still blue background logo.

2nd Logo (1992-1996)

Prism Pictures (1995)

Nicknames: "The Paintbrush and the Filmstrip", "The Rainbow Filmstrip"

Logo: On a smokey blue background, we see a multicolored filmstrip moving around the screen. After about two seconds, a paintbrush appears on screen and follows the filmstrip until it goes off screen. After the filmstrip goes off screen, the paintbrush paints a straight multicolored line with small squares on each side, making the line look like a filmstrip. The paintbrush then zooms across the area below the line, going off screen and creating the text "PRISM PICTURES." The letters of the text spin around a few times, and then stop. Finally, the smoke in the background turns purple for a second, and then disappears, leaving the background completely black.

FX/SFX: The animated filmstrip, paintbrush, and letters.

Cheesy Factor: Almost none. The logo is much better than the others.

Music/Sounds: A glorious fanfare with tube sounds and xylophone sounds.

Availability: Used in film production. Was seen on Sleepstalker and A Million to Juan.

Scare Factor: None; much better than the previous logo.

3rd Logo (1992-1996)

Nicknames: "The Prism Cube", "The Rainbow Filmstrip II"

Logo: On a white gradient background, we see six white panels fly in from random parts of the screen extremely fast. The panels collide to form a cube, and the Prism Pictures logo appears on all six sides. The cube then tilts diagonally to face us, and zooms foward, taking up the entire screen.

Variant: On some tapes, the animation is slightly different. The panels come in from different angles, and fly a lot slower. Also, before the panels collide, they spin, and then slowly come together.

FX/SFX: The flying panels, spinning cube, and zooming.

Cheesy Factor: The spinning and zooming are very simple, even for 1992, but it's better than the first logo.

Music/Sounds: Either a droning snyth theme fading into two gentle music hums, during which are loud, descending hums, thuds, wooshes, and a twinkle (at least in the logo in the second video above), or a glorious calm fanfare with tube sounds and xylophone sounds. On most releases, the logo is silent. Sometimes there will be an announcer saying "Coming soon from Prism Pictures."

Availability: Used in home video releases. Can be found on newer tapes from Prism such as Project: Shadowchaser, Monkey Boy, Triplecross, Acceptable Risks, Fleshtone, The Double O Kid, Phantom of the Ritz, Bitter Harvest, Hail Caesar, The Unnameable II, There's Nothing Out There, Black Ice, Chain of Desire, A Million to Juan, Dark Universe, Abraxas, Still Life, and Baby on Board.

Scare Factor: Minimal. Aside from the panels coming out of nowhere and zooming towards the screen, the droning synth theme and sounds could catch first-time viewers off-guard.