Film Workshop

Credits

Descriptions by
Thisisanswer and Chow Woon Gan

Editions by
MizukiAccent48 (Promise Frontier) and Chow Woon Gan

Video captures courtesy of
Asia Movie Logos, Logo Archive and LogicSmash

Background

Film Workshop was founded by filmmaker Tsui Hark and his ex-wife Nansun Shi in 1984. The company name was taken from a film making course Tsui once took in the 1970s. Nansun Shi would later go on to form Distribution Workshop with veteran filmmaker Jeffrey Chan of Bona Film Group in 2007. The company has not been involved in any productions since 2018.

1st Logo (October 11, 1984-1989)

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Logo: On a black background, we see red and white lines tracing a shape with part of a star made out of lines in the center. Under it is the Chinese characters "電·影·工·作·室". After the lines finish tracing the logo, 7 square holes open up and the characters gain drop shadows.

Technique: Cel animation.

Music/Sounds: A rising synth tune with drums, ending with a 3-note synthesized 'twinkling' sounder.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Peking Opera Blues, no twinkling is heard.

Availability: Seen on films at the time, such as A Better Tomorrow. Sometimes, it would get plastered by the 4th logo. This logo is preserved on Blu-Ray releases of A Chinese Ghost Story.

2nd Logo (July 6, 1989-1994)

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  Version with only the English text

Logo: On a red background, a white background fades in over it. A clear star backs up and spins away as the white background disappears. More stars spin away as we zoom away from a clear version of the logo from the 1st logo. When we zoom out, the stars form the Chinese characters "電·影·工·作·室" and "F I L M W O R K S H O P" moves up from the screen.

Variant: There is a variant where the stars fly away leaving the English text. There is no Chinese text in this version.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A patriotic synth theme.

Availability: Seen on films at the time like The Killer, The Swordsman 1 and 2, and A Better Tomorrow III. Otherwise, see the 1st logo.

3rd Logo (August 13, 1994-2001)

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Logo: We zoom out from a light blue filmstrip sea. We then turn to see a steel ball with the Film Workshop logo above the sea of filmstrips and a sunset in the distance. The Chinese characters "電·影·工·作·室" and "FILM WORKSHOP" rotate to the front of the ball and a bright light appears behind it.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: A majestic fanfare.

Music/Sounds Variants:

• On Tristar, the opening theme consisting of a synth rendition of the Wedding March plays.
• Early films used the ocean sounds.
• A synth tune is also used.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be seen on films like Tristar, Black Mask and The Chinese Feast".

4th Logo (April 5, 2001-July 27, 2018)

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  Version without URL

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  Website version

Logo: On a black background, a light appears in the middle and then we zoom through many dark balls crammed together. The balls form and become the Film Workshop logo in black. In the background, there are many changing colors. The logo continues to zoom out and jitters as "F I L M W O R K S H O P" zooms out. The logo disappears and 2 lights traces lines above and below the name. The Chinese characters from before appear and a URL appears below.

Variants:

• There is a website variant where the words "WWW." and ".NET" appear from the left and right of the company name respectively. Also, there is no URL below it in this version.
• A short version exists. Again, the URL is also omitted in this version.

Technique: CGI animation.

Music/Sounds: Chimes are heard with projector sounds and zooming sounds. None for the short version.

Music/Sounds Variant: On current prints of Spy Games, it uses the music from the 2nd logo, due to a rush plastering job.

Availability: Very common. Seen on any Film Workshop films since 2001 such as Master Q. Also plasters older logos on current prints of their old films.

Film Workshop

Distribution Workshop ►