CreditsDescriptions by
gshowguy and billywws
Captures by
graaaaagh (Rexeljet), Eric S., MegaAveron25 and TR3X
Editions by
Michael Kenchington
Video captures courtesy of
dylan fagan and Owen Eisensmith
gshowguy and billywws
Captures by
graaaaagh (Rexeljet), Eric S., MegaAveron25 and TR3X
Editions by
Michael Kenchington
Video captures courtesy of
dylan fagan and Owen Eisensmith
Castle Home Video
From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum
Castle Vision (later Castle Home Video, also known as Castle Pictures and Castle Video) was the video imprint of British independent record label Castle Communications, which went defunct in 2007 when its then-parent company, Sanctuary Records Group was sold to Universal Music Group (now owned by BMG Rights Management since 2013).
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| 1st Logo (June 1, 1987-1993) | 2nd Logo (October 19, 1988-1998? | 3rd Logo (October 2, 1989-1999) | 4th Logo (1990-1992) | 5th Logo (1999-2007) |
Visuals: Against a live-action sky background, a white grid can be seen with its tiles advancing forward. This scene then zooms out to reveal that it takes place on a rich lilac-coloured background. Once it's zoomed out all the way, the words "CASTLE" and "VISION" on black squares can be seen above and below the sky/grid scene respectively. The sky/grid scene then splits in two and a flash of bright light appears in the middle of the screen, causing the logo to disappear and leaving just the background when it dies down.
Variants:
- On a promo variant, the logo is shortened to when the grid splits in two and is silent, all before fading to the beginning of the promo. At the end, some of the titles are then shown on a still of the grid scene, all before finishing off with a slightly faster version of the logo.
- Sometimes, the logo would be extended, where it would show the background for roughly another ten seconds.
Technique: Motion-controlled animation, live-action footage and chroma-key animation.
Audio: A synth-timpani plays throughout. When the sky/grid scene begins to zoom out, a harsh distorted guitar drone begins playing. When the flash of light appears, both the timpani and the guitar stop and a loud, dramatic orchestral sting plays.
Audio Trivia: The guitar drone - officially titled "MUSIC, ROCK - ROCK STAB 01", is from the Sound Ideas Series 2000 library. It's best known for its usage in the 1996 video game Quake (when picking up +100 health), and was also used in the 1991-1993 opening of the Russian news programme Vesti 
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 | The video of this logo may be too loud or severely distorted. |
Visuals: On a white cloudy background, three blue down arrows fly to the middle of the screen. A blue shaded square appears on the arrows, shading them and forming an abstract portcullis design, while the background fades to white. Then, a chrome ribbon circles around the portcullis, and a thin red line draws in from the left below the square. The text "CASTLE HOME VIDEO" appears under the line, then flashes.
Variants:
- Sometimes, "HOME VIDEO" would be replaced with "PICTURES".
- An alternate version of the above variant exists, where the logo is placed a bit higher; a filmstrip instead of the chrome ribbon covers half of the portcullis design, and two red lines are being drawn in from the left. "CASTLE" in Garamond, and "Pictures" in Laser Std Chrome, both in chrome, are enclosed between the lines and flash. The logo then cuts to black.
- The logo may cut off or fade out.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A dramatic synth note, which is "MUSIC, SUSPENSE - THEME: 'TELL TALE'" from the Sound Ideas Series 1000 library, coupled with three loud whooshes, a phaser-like sound and a reversed cymbal crash.
Visuals: On a black background, a teal square with a blue, stylized, slightly slanted portcullis (the print logo for Castle Communications) appears. Below, there are the words "CASTLE vision" with "CASTLE" in teal, placed inside a black bar.
Variant: A white version exists.
Technique: A still graphic.
Audio: None.
Availability: Seen on most UK VHS releases by Castle Vision from the time-period until 1999.
- Examples include the 1992 UK VHS release of Jingle Bells/Twas The Night Before Christmas, the 1993 UK VHS release of Popeye: Popeye at Sea, the 1994 UK VHS release of Captain Zed And The Zee Zone: Revenge of the Killer Bunnies, the 1995 UK VHS release of Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, and the 1996 UK VHS release of Inspector Gadget: Tyrannosaurus Gadget, among others.
- This is notably also seen on a handful of English-dubbed Russian programmes co-distributed by Krupny Plan.
Visuals: Against a white/blue gradient sky with a reddish-white horizon and a midnight blue ground, a scarlet, an amber and a celadon green arrow, all with elongated tails and a black drop shadow fly down to the middle one-by-one and the tails shorten. Then two parallelograms with "CASTLE" and "VIDEO" in a modified Microgramma font slide in from the left and from the right respectively, forming the portcullis design, and the company name flashes.
Technique: 2D computer animation.
Audio: Three loud whooshes as the arrows fly down and a slamming sound when the company name flashes.
Availability: This logo can be seen on a few releases, like Izzy & Moe: Bootleg Busters.
Visuals: Cutting in from the warning screen is a space background with the Earth and the sun in the distance. The screen pans over the lowercase letters "castle", as if the camera is standing on the letters, from left to right. Around the letter "t", the camera pans down and sharply turns in the opposite direction, then zooms out to reveal the text is rotating around the Earth. As this happens, a series of rainbow light trails cover the space background; after a couple seconds, the screen flashes white to reveal nothing but the words "castle" and "HOME VIDEO" on a rainbow-coloured ellipse.
Variant: On VHS releases, the logo gets freeze-framed and stays on screen for another three seconds.
Technique: CGI animation.
Audio: A shortened excerpt of "The Limit" by Gary Scargill and Peter Oldroyd from the Ded Good Music library.
Availability: Seen on releases by the company from the time period until 2007.
- Examples include the 1999 UK VHS releases of Jimbo And The Jet Set: The Little Big Problem, Stoppit and Tidyup, and Jingle Bells/Twas The Night Before Christmas (both 1999 re-releases of the latter), among others.
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