Millar Gough Ink

Background
Millar Gough Ink is an American television and film production company, best known for producing television series such as Smallville. It was founded in 1997 by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.

1st Logo (October 12, 1999-November 10, 2011)
Logo: In an office setting, at the forefront, we see a bottle filled with orange red ink in it labeled """ in an Impact or Helvetica font colored in a - gradient. After a while, a stapler falls on top of it and breaks it that causes the orange red ink in it to spread everywhere, covering up the whole screen.

Variants:


 * There exists an open-matte version of the logo.
 * On “Trulz!”, when the unidentifiable object breaks the bottle, an bottle gets turned into water as the explosion particle appears.
 * On season 2 episodes "Apostrophe Is On The Way" and "Be On the Deck" of “Team Overload: The Animated Series”, there is a version of a logo with some differences: The color of an ink is, the font in the label is Ink Free, the office setting is slightly different, and the registered sign is added next to the bottle. Also, when an unidentifiable object breaks a bottle, the camera shakes and the bottle gets shattered into pieces except for the label, which causes it to fly away.
 * On “The Alfred Gough Show”, the heavy object in the logo is absent. Also, it's a still logo.
 * Christmas variants exist. In this one, the color of the wall in the office is green, the word "MILLAR" is red, the word "GOUGH" is green and the word "INK" is in a red-green-white gradient.
 * International variants exist.
 * A PAL variant exists.
 * An uncropped version of the logo is seen on 2003 DVD releases and Channel 4 and E4 UK airings of season 1 of Smallville.

Dream Variantions: If you wanna write dream variations for Millar Gough Ink, click here to look at it.

FX/SFX: Full ink in the bottle, the stapler hitting the ink bottle, the ink spreading. Entirely live-action.

Cheesy Factor: How could there be so much ink in that one, tiny bottle? Also, the transition to the next or split-screen logo is really poorly done.

Music/Sounds: Music/Sounds Variants:
 * October 12, 1999-July 7, 2000: The closing theme of the show, along with the sound of a splatter.
 * October 16, 2001-February 12, 2002: Just the sound of a bottle breaking.
 * February 26, 2002-May 21, 2002: An odd, 3-note Korg M1 internal patch "Piano8" tune, accompanied by an eerie noise.
 * September 2002-November 2011: An 13-note Roland D-50 internal patch "Cathedral Organ" tune, followed by a last note, along with the bottle breaking sound.
 * A silent variant exists. In this one, the bottle breaking sound in the logo is absent.
 * On early episodes of the 2nd season of the series, the cathedral organ ditty is somewhat slightly quieter.
 * Original airings (eg, The C&W airings) use a generic theme and a voice over.

Availability: Common. First seen on the short-lived series The Strip, and later seen on Smallville, the 2011 remake of Charlie's Angels on ABC, Sony Crackle and the CTV Throwback in Canada, Trulz!, Team Overload: The Animated Series and The Alfred Gough Show. It also made an appearance on the 2006 television pilot of Aquaman, which was initially released on iTunes on July 2006 and later included as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray release of Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.

Legacy:


 * For the version with only the sound of the bottle breaking, the bottle breaking without a warning can be jarring to many people. However, for the music version, it may slightly less scary than the earlier version.
 * While the sound of the bottle breaking can be startling for some people (especially the version without music where it breaks with no warning, which could be jarring to many people), some people may find this logo funny, and it may be favored for fans of Smallville.

Scare Factor:


 * 1999: High.
 * 2001-2002: Medium to high. The bottle suddenly breaking with no warning can be jarring to many people, especially after the long silence during both this logo and the one before such as the Tollin/Robbins Productions logo.
 * Early 2002: Medium, due to the eerie music, but tame compared to the previous version.
 * 2002-2011: Low to medium. It is slightly less scary than the earlier version with the music playing.

2nd Logo (November 15, 2015-)
Logo: On a black background, we see the stacked dark red words "MILLAR GOUGH" in a Helvetica font. To the right it is a dark red beaker with a water drop in it and the dark red word "INK" inside.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None or the closing theme of the show.

Availability: First seen on the 2015 AMC series Into the Badlands. Also seen on the 2016 MTV series The Shannara Chronicles. It should be expected to be seen on the upcoming 2022 Netflix series Wednesday.

Legacy: None.

Scare Factor: Low. The logo on a black background can creep someone out, but as always, it's tamer than the last logo.