Warner Home Video

Compiled by Matt Williams and James Stanley Barr

WCI HOME VIDEO (WCI standing for "Warner Communications, Inc.")
(1978-1980)

Nickname: "The Big \\' "

Logo: We start out with a *VERY BIG* \\' logo (that is white with a blue "tube") that fills the entire screen. It then zooms back slightly. Then above the logo, the words "WCI HOME VIDEO" between two horizontal lines appear, followed by a much smaller \\' logo besides "A Warner Communications Company". The logo faded from black after the standard FBI Warning Screen and had a more-grainy film like quality to it. The W logo is slightly smaller than on the later Warner Home Video version of the logo.

SFX/Cheesy Factor: The "zooming out" of the logo, not to mention the film scratches.

Music: None

Availability: Most WCI releases had no logo, and went from Warning screen to the Warner logo in use at the time. The only video this logo has been seen on to date is "Every Which Way But Loose" with Clint Eastwood.

Scare Factor: Low. The fade from black to the logo may startle you.

WARNER HOME VIDEO
1st Logo
(1980-1986)

Logo: Same as #1, except the logo is better quality, with WCI HOME VIDEO replaced by WARNER HOME VIDEO, The FBI Warning Screen now cuts directly to this logo. The \\" logo is a little bigger as well.

SFX/Cheesy Factor: Same as #1, minus the film scractches.

Music: None

Availability: Seen on Warner Home Video releases of the era. These releases are easily to spot because they were released in clamshell packaging, with some videos from 1985-1986 released in cardboard jackets.

Scare Factor: Low. The transition from the FBI Warning screen to this logo is sudden and jarring, but this logo is otherwise harmless.

2nd Logo
(1986-1996)

Nickname: "The Cheesy Shield"

Logo: Over a time-lapse animation of clouds, the camera zooms out between the tops of some letters and the bottom of what appears to be a line. The camera then zooms out and the logo turns towards us, revealing that it is the words "WARNER HOME VIDEO" with two lines above it and two lines below it. It then zooms out to the bottom of the screen , followed by a giant WB Shield logo appearing from the top of the screen, slightly tilted to the bottom, then rotating to face us. The Warner disclaimer appears at the bottom of the screen. "Sparkles" appear and white "reflections" appear on the logo.

Bylines:

This logo had several different bylines on the bottom of the screen:

SFX: "time-lapse" cloud animation, WB shield rotating into place.

Cheesy Factor: Relatively primitive CGI along with the "time-lapse" cloud animation. Cheap synth theme as well.

Music: A proud, bombastic synthesized theme that really fit the logo. As a sidenote, a lusher orchestrated theme with the same notes as the HV logo was briefly used as the fanfare for the movie WB shield when it returned to usage in 1984.

Availability: Seen on every Warner Home Video release from 1986 to 1996.

Scare Factor: Median, the bombastic music and primitive CGI may scare some, but this logo is a favorite of many.

3rd Logo
(1996-)

Nickname: "Invisible/Visible Shield"

Logo: Against a backdrop of clouds, a clear WB shield with a wordless banner slowly fades into view. Then the words "WARNER HOME VIDEO" are wiped onto the banner as the colors slowly appear on the shield.

Variant: In 1998, like other Warner labels, a 75th Anniversary version was made. This used a smaller, bannerless shield, and had a 75 across it. "YEARS ENTERTAINING THE WORLD" would also been seen below.

SFX/Cheesy Factor: A simple, effective logo animation, nothing really cheesy except for the "wiping" on of the "WARNER HOME VIDEO" text.

Music: A rather quiet piano tune.

Availability: Currently in use.

Scare Factor: None, this is a clean logo.