Interscope Communications

Background

Interscope Communications was founded in 1982 by film producer Ted Field. For the first several years of its existence, it did not use an on-screen logo. Field sold his company to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in 1993. While the film production part of Interscope eventually was made a division of PolyGram and later folded altogether under Universal Studios in 1999, its record label (which was founded by Field in 1989 and originally distributed by Atlantic) still exists as the Interscope/Geffen/A&M unit of the Universal Music Group.

1st Logo (1986 - 1990)

Nickname: "Flipping Interscope"

Logo: On a blue background, a white circle is seen made of lines with an "i" inside it flipping as it zooms in towards the viewer. The letters "INTERSCOPE COMMUNICATIONS, INC." also are flipping with the logo.

FX/SFX: The logo flipping.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Ultra rare. Seen on some TV movies from the era made by Interscope, such as Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure, Murder Ordained, and The Father Clements Story, among others.

2nd Logo (1990? - 1992?)

Nickname: "Sliding Interscope"

Logo: On a black background, three pieces of the stylized oval with the lower case "i" ease in towards the screen. They slide together to form the logo. As this happens, the word "I N T E R S C O P E" in white slides in from the right and a red line slides in below from the left.

FX/SFX: The oval pieces flying in and sliding together, the "I N T E R S C O P E" and red line sliding in.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the program.

Availability: Extremely rare. Seen on TV movies from the time from Interscope, such as Shoot First: A Cop's Vengeance. This logo is not intended to be seen on Jersey Girl.

3rd Logo (January 7, 1994 - February 18, 2000)

Nickname: "The (CGI) Interscope Studio", "The PolyGram Era Interscope"

Logo: The logo starts off inside a movie studio complete with a camera, a boom, a director’s chair and several lights, shown in a purple hue. The camera scrolls down-left and heads towards one of the lights. The hue turns orange and the word “INTERSCOPE” appears and heads towards the light. When the camera goes into the light, the light changes to an oval and the background changes with a flash to purple. As the camera eases back a bit, “COMMUNICATIONS” appears under “INTERSCOPE” and the oval shines into a stylized oval with a lower case “i”. After the shining stops, the 1993 PolyGram Filmed Entertainment logo appears underneath.

Variants:

• A later variant has "a PolyGram Company" in the company font appear underneath instead.
• On some prints of Pitch Black, the logo is bylineless.

FX/SFX: The camera scrolling, the lights, the stylized "i" forming.

Music/Sounds: None or the opening theme of the movie.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Terminal Velocity, a synthpad theme with whooshing sounds is used.

Availability: Uncommon.

• Seen on some Buena Vista-distributed films such as Terminal Velocity, Mr. Holland's Opus, Operation Dumbo Drop, The Tie That Binds, The Associate, Kazaam and Roommates.
• Also appeared on Snow White: A Tale of Terror, What Dreams May Come, Gridlock'd and Pitch Black.
• Don't expect this logo on Jumanji (which was a co-production with TriStar Pictures).
• On current prints of Gridlock'd, this is plastered by the 1997 Universal logo.

Editor's Note: A nicely-animated logo for the time.

• For other related logos and images see: Interscope Communications/Other