Unit 2.2 - Production Company Background

The production companies I have decided to look at are Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Both of these Production companies were established in the early 20^th century, Warner Bros was founded in Hollywood in 1918 and Paramount Pictures in 1912. As expected company logos for both production companies have changed over time.

Since the founding of Warner Bros, there has been an overwhelming use of a shield as the companies main logo. The companies logo has changed and adapted several times since the creation of Warner Bros, As expected WB's first few logos were all in black and white, this trend lasted from 1923 – 1970, the actual design of the shield changed during this time but the black and white appearance stayed. From their first logo WB updated it a further 10 times which all included the initial shield idea. WB updated their logo this many times so keep up with rival competition for instance MGM, Columbia p

ictures and Dreamworks. WB's logos became so well known world wide they were given nicknames throughout the production companies time line. For instance:

1^st Logo : Brain Shield (1923-1929)

2^nd Logo : Vitaphone Shield (1929-1936)

3^rd Logo : Zooming Shield (1936-1937)

4^th Logo : WB Shield (1937-1948)

5^th Logo : Classic Shield (1948-1967)

6^th Logo : WB-7 (1967-1970)

7^th Logo : The Kinney Shield (1970-1972)

8^th Logo : WCI Shield (1972)

9^th Logo : The Big W (1972-1984)

10^th Logo : The Shield Returns (1984-1998)

11^th Logo : CGI Shield (1998 - )

When examining the logos it is easy to see WB have a set idea for a logo which has taken time to get to the standard it is today, in many ways WB's 5^th logo seems as if it was the favored one as it is nearly identical to their modern day 10^th and 11^th logos.

Paramount Pictures Corporation was founded in 1912 as Famous Players Film Company by Adolph Zukor, and the theater moguls the Frohman brothers, Daniel and Charles.

The Paramount "Majestic Mountain" logo was first drawn as a doodle by W.W. Hodkinson during a meeting with Zukor, based on the Ben Lomond Mountain from his childhood in Utah. It is the oldest surviving Hollywood film logo.

The initial idea of Paramount's logo is still there, there idea of a mountain with a semicircle of stars is an iconic image. Overtime however there have been many graphical changes and some slight alterations. Each iconic image was also given a nickname like WB's for instance :

1^st Logo : Majestic Mountain (1914-1952)

2^nd Logo : Twisted Mountain (1952-1954)

3^rd Logo : VistaVision Mountain (1954-1967)

4^th Logo : Majestic Mountain (1968-1975)

5^th Logo : Blue Mountain (1975-1987)

6^th Logo : CGI Mountain (1987-2002)

7^th Logo : Ultra Majestic Mountain (2002- )

In 1987, for their 75th year anniversary, Paramount brought out a computer generated logo to represent the landmark. For their latest logo, brought out in 2002, something similar happened to represent their 90th anniversary with a more modern, so possibly in 2012, Paramount will update their logo once more to represent their 100th year anniversary.