Savoy Pictures

Credits

Descriptions by
WillWill45 and Shadeed A. Kelly

Captures by
JoeCool85

Video captures courtesy of
James TheLogoMan and LogicSmash

Background

Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc. was a film distributor founded in 1992 by chairman and CEO Victor A. Kaufman. The studio was also co-ran by Lewis J. Korman. In 1995, it made a deal with Rysher Entertainment to co-produce several films and later in 1996 with New Line Cinema. In 1997, Savoy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed its doors after it was acquired by Barry Diller's HSN Inc. (now IAC). In 2006, the Savoy Pictures library was purchased by Universal Pictures through Focus Features.

Logo (September 29, 1993-August 30, 1996; March 30, 1999)

Visuals: On a black background, white lines begin to streak across the screen to the right, eventually building up into a rectangle made of 15 stripes that stretches across the screen. Inside of the rectangle, footage of a herd of buffalo running across a field can be seen, which is in a heavily contrasted monochrome color scheme. As they run, a red rectangle outline fades in around the middle of the rectangle and the corners of which expand out into lines, while the ends of said rectangle start to retract from the edges of the screen. As the red lines reach the corners of the rectangle, they stop moving to form a filmstrip-like shape, and the footage of the buffalo freeze in each frame one-by-one, ending up with a full buffalo in the middle, and 2 front halves at each end. The buffalo then fade to a more refined version of the images, and "SAVOY PICTURES" in a Baskerville font, fades in below with a red underline.

Variants:

• At the end of films, the logo is shown still.
  • On The Adventures of Pinocchio, the still version is seen at the beginning.
• On a TV spot for No Escape, the logo cross-fades to Earth while the satellite is spinning around in space.

Technique: 2D animation for the lines and possible live-action for the bison, compiled by REZN8.

Audio: A majestic orchestral fanfare by James Newton Howard. There are two variations of the theme; one of them is more synthesized and has a piano section, while the other is more "organic" and orchestral.

Audio Variants:

• On Steal Big, Steal Little, a rumbling sound of bison running and a guitar string tune are heard in the background.
• On Tubi's print of My Teacher's Wife (released by Trimark in 1999 though produced by Savoy in 1994), the Trimark Pictures logo music is heard instead due to sloppy plastering.

Availability: It can be seen on many movies on VHS and DVD, or when rerun on cable TV, such as Tales From the Hood, Serial Mom, Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde, No Escape (aka Escape from Absolom in other countries, while Columbia Pictures also distributed the film internationally), Last of the Dogmen, Destiny Turns on the Radio, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, A Bronx Tale, and The Stupids (the last film to have this logo).

• Some TV prints of films like White Man's Burden and Three Wishes would have the logo cut due to Rysher Entertainment owning the TV rights.
• This was plastered by the Focus Features logo on the 2012 Universal DVD release and TV airings of A Bronx Tale.
• It also popped up (after the 2006 Lionsgate logo) on TubiTV's print of My Teacher's Wife but with the Trimark Pictures music playing over it instead.
• This is retained on current prints of Three Wishes, after the 2003 Paramount Pictures logo and before Rysher Entertainment.