Vicodore Productions

Background
Vicodore Productions was a production company operated by Linda Dunn, Penelope Charest and Ruth Dodd, launched in 1987 and based in Salt Lake City, before opening an office in East Sussex and relocating. It was initially created to help finance projects by Dunn's husband, actor and writer Robert Dunn, though they also worked on projects without him. Muriel MacPherson would join the company in 1989, but she and Dodd would leave in 1996. The company was hit with a lawsuit by Bonneville International in 2003; Bonneville had helped contribute the company's nestegg and accused Vicodore of funding films promoting sacrilege against The Jesus Christ Church of Later Day Saints, owners of Bonneville. The suit was dismissed, as Vicodore only used Bonneville's funds for corporate purposes, and did not specify they would produce non-secular content. In 2006, Vicodore attempted to sue First Look Media for re-releasing their last film The Nun and indirectly causing bad publicity through its promotion and release around the time a film with a similar name and premise was released, causing Vicodore's film to be labeled a mockbuster. Vicodore lost the suit, and legal fees from that and the Bonneville proceedings led them to file for bankruptcy in 2006. Crystal Sky would acquire Vicodore's catalog the following year and reissue their films via Echo Bridge Home Entertainment (physical media) or SP Releasing (digital distribution).

Background/Trivia: The name of the company is a merger of the names of the VIC-20 and Commodore 64. This is in reference to Robert Dunn's hobby of collecting old home computers.

1st Logo (1987-1997)
Logo: On a vermillion background, we pan through a city, zooming in to a window on the tallest building. Once it engulfs the entire screen we see two interlocked rings; a solid salmon colored ring and a teal ring resembling a filmstrip. The rings rotate and reveal the embossed words "VICODORE" and "FILMS" on the teal and salmon rings respectively. After a few seconds, sections of the logo begin to rotate and form into a sphere, which rotates as two white comets strike it and make it break into a series of squares.

Variant(s):


 * When it debuted, we saw a still version where the rings were in red and white.
 * Later uses cut out the skyscraper and last half.
 * There exists an earlier version of the skyscraper logo where we just see symbols representing a mirrored play button and a fast forward symbol (meant to spell out the initials of the company founders) with VICODORE FILMS" in a plain black font below, all taking place on a purple background.

FX/SFX: The skyscraper, comet and sphere effects, along with the turning rings for it and the shorter version. The original version was produced using NewTek's Video Toaster software, while the ring animation was produced by Information International.

Music/Sounds: A triumphant fanfare, or none. The original variant had a bizarre synth theme made up of harpsichord and guitar notes that gradually speeds up before going into a disarray of notes.

Availability: Appeared on D.O.A.D., Huge and the 1995 remake of The Beast of Yucca Flats. The original version was only seen on Nest, while the early variant can be seen on original prints of Dine; Echo Bridge Home Entertainment's reissue of the film had it plastered with the standard Vicodore logo. It also appeared on two TV movies, Rabies: A Neighborhood's Nightmare and She-Hulk. The purple background version was never officially used, but was posted on Dunn's YouTube channel and featured in her own retrospective of the company.

Legacy: Dunn has gone on record saying the creator of this logo made it out of frustration due to the founders' alleged indecisiveness, with this logo being made in the course of three hours. The ring animation was also made relatively quickly and was commissioned late into the production of the first film to use it, leading to the company reducing the quality to hide rendering bugs; this would be ironed out in 1990 however.

2nd Logo (2001-2003)
Logo: We fade in to a herd of horses running. A girl is soon seen running with the herd and eventually leaps up. The area freezes around her as she gets framed and the text "Vicodore Productions" appears below.

Variant: On the unsold pilot for U-Turn, this shares the screen with the logos for Camelot Pictures and Ixtlan Films.

FX/SFX: The horses and girl running.

Music/Sounds: A somber theme.

Availability: Appeared on The Hunchback and The Nun.