Longman Video
Michael Kenchington
Background
Longman Video was the video distribution arm of Longman Press, a British publishing company, founded in 1982 and folded in 1986 into Screen Legends.
(1982-1987)
Nicknames: "The Longman Boat", "The RGB Boat"
Logo: On a black background, a white abstract sail (basically a square but with the bottom edge pushed up) appears and zooms out, quickly spreading into 7 different sails color-shifting red, green, and blue. As they spread and fixate their colors, 2 blue triangles, representing sails, and a hull that shifts from red to green, fade in and zoom out as well, forming the Longman logo at the time. The color of the sails also finish changing, resulting in this: the middle sail is green, the sails in the main cardinal directions are red, and the bottom corner sails are blue, matching up the triangle. A white rectangle, which quickly fades to a RGB gradient, opens up on the bottom as "LONGMAN VIDEO" in a white Rockwell font, fades in on the bar, and the logo fades to white.
FX/SFX: The sails zooming out and spreading, the color changing. Simple, yet effective computer animation.
Music/Sounds: A soothing string melody is first heard, which is followed by a synth "wah" and a echoing trumpet fanfare.
Music/Sounds Variant: An extended version also exists as well.
Availability: Very rare.
- Tapes from Longman have a RGB bar on the top of them, so find tapes with those.
- Can be seen on early prints of Nursery Rhymes, Postman Pat tapes, Little Miss, Battle Of The Planets, and more.
