Filmways Distribution (Australia)

Background : Filmways Australasian Distributors Pty. Ltd. was a film distributor that focused on releasing foreign and independent films from 1970 to 1991, when it went out of business due to bankruptcy protection. They have no affiliation with the American company of the same name.

1st Logo (1970-1982?)
Logo : A filmstrip containing the letter "f" in stained glass, along with "ilmways" seen in a different font in italics, which is on the side of the filmstrip and is also on stained glass, is seen on a black background, with the filmstrip appearing to be shining light. "Released by" is on the top of "ilmways" and on the bottom is "Australasian Distributors Pty, Ltd". "PARIS - MELBOURNE - LONDON - NEW YORK",all appear on the bottom, each location having a respective color before having their colors fade to white. After everything is in place, everything disappears except for the company name, which is in white on a black background. The logo zooms back and fades out.

FX/SFX : The shining light, and the fading.

Music/Sounds : A bluesy jazz piano theme.

Availability : Seen only on films from the company and maybe seen on Filmways Home Video tapes. One of these films include The Superbug Rally.

Editor's Note : None.

2nd Logo (1982?-1986?)
Logo : On a black background, two rainbow strips appear, the bottom moving up and the top one going down. Then, suddenly, they form a lowercase F with the top half containing rainbow colors and a black BG, and the bottom half containing the opposite (a little map of Australia fades in in the top left corner of the screen, as well, next to the filmstrip). Then, it zooms out to the left in a filmstrip, on a blue background. Then, a metallic dot writes "Filmways". After it's done, it moves over to the F in "Filmways". "AUSTRALASIAN DISTRIBUTORS" fades in next to the Australian map.

FX/SFX : The metal dot, the rainbow background, "AUSTRALASIAN DISTRIBUTORS" fading in.

Music/Sounds : A ominous-sounding drum roll, then as the metallic dot writes the name, some high-pitched chime noises, then, as it stops, a synth stinger.

Availability : Extremely rare; seen on Filmways' Australian cinema releases, but most home video releases have it deleted, which was preserved on the Australian VHS of Antarctica.

Editor's Note : None.