Pond Pictures (Canada)

Background: Pond was formed in 1978 as a join venture between Skylight Pictures, Galaxy Group and Xeon Cinemas. Originally it was known as Masterpiece Theatre Films, but the name was later changed to avoid confusion with a PBS show of the same name and most of the staff members don't felt like they were making "masterpiece" films. In 1987, Galaxy sold it's shares with both Skylight and Pond as well and formed Galaxy Movie Studios. Later Dawn merged both companies to form the Skylight/Pond Group, of which Dawn Soda owned 80% of it's stock. The company now owns 80% of it's shares with PSN and 20% with Dawn. They din't used a logo until 1981, with the release of their first film named The Z-Movie.

1st Logo

(1981-1985)

Nicknames: "The Pond I", "Pond, Trees and Mountains"

Logo: On a blue sky, we see hills, trees and mountains and a pond. We zoom out to reveal it's a clip showed on a 2D circle, which is surrounded by a yellow border. The words "Pond Pictures" fade in below.

Trivia: The footage wasn't taken by the logo's animators. They used footage from low-budget film director Dave Maynan, which asked them to use the pond clip on their logo. As a result, Dave's next movie The Key To Enter The Room was produced by Pond (and later his other movies), which became an American/Canadian box-office hit.

Variants:

1981-1982: The logo's still.

There's a rare variant in which the logo is played at warp speed. This can be found on Headless and some Canadian Loserman films since 1983 (including Son Of Loserman).

A B&W variant is seen on Farmers Don't Wear Tuxedos.

Another rare variant features a bigger circle and gray border, and the text is in a slim font. It also uses a more smoother zoom out.

On post-1984 trailers, there's the print version of the logo on a black background.

FX/SFX: The live-action clip, zoom and fade in.

Music/Sounds: None. A whoosh on Loud Bones' Louder Adventure.

Availability: Rare. Can be found on early films by Pond, particularly The Z-Movie, Stealing The Sunshine, This Will Not Happen To You, Casino 777, Burning Eld James, The Key To Enter The Door, and Who Am I?. Current Canadian prints of pre-1985 Hillbilly Dragons films (who are made by Drawing Triangle) also include this, including Hillbilly Dragons And The Mayo Monster, and Hillbilly Dragons: How To Live, because Pond distributes the Canadian rights of these films after PSN owned most of the company's shares. The trailer variant is extremely rare; most trailers containing it are saved by some home projectionists and never aired on TV or VHS releases.

Scare Factor: None to low; it may catch you off-guard.

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