Traffic Pictures

Background
Traffic Pictures is a film production company founded in 1977 by Jonathan Wink. The company originally served as a vanity label for Wink's film class projects. After graduating, he decided to become a full time director/producer. His movies are notable for having dark and surreal overtones, which often prevented his works from securing a proper distributor, so Wink elected to distribute his movies on his own, and show them on local TV stations. Several recent films, namely animated ones, have light hearted and/or funny tones. Pylit acquired half of Wink's company, and has distributed his films worldwide. Traffic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Pylit as of August 8th of 2015.

1st Logo

(1977-1981)

Logo: On a black background, we see the text "traffic pictures presents..." written in a jumbled font which resembles that of the first Scottish Television logo.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on Wink's original student films, such as Charlie, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory and the original versions of David and The Show Must Go On. Later prints cut this logo out and went right to the movie. Oddly, when Pylit Entertainment re-issued these movies, they included the fourth Traffic Pictures logo while keeping the original one intact.

Scare Factor: None. Can't be any worse than the logos that follow this logo.

2nd Logo

(1981-1986)

Logo: On a yellow background, we zoom out to see a black traffic light sketch. The black text "Traffic Pictures", stacked on top of each other in a rounded font zooms up to the right of the traffic light.

FX/SFX: The zooming.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on the later versions of David and The Show Must Go On, On the Rails and other movies. This is plastered by the fourth logo on Pylit's reissues of these movies, yet it makes a surprise appearance on a Brazilian copy of David.

Scare Factor: None.

3rd Logo

(1986-2014)

Logo: We see a photo of a traffic light in a square against a black background. The square shifts to the right, as the text "TRAFFIC PICTURES" zooms in, in the same fashion as the previous logo.

Variant: In later years, a byline reading "A PYLIT COMPANY" was included below.

FX/SFX: The square moving.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic synth note, followed by a cymbal whoosh and then an ascending series of synth notes and a metallic clang when the text appears.

Availability: Ultra common. Seen on The Weeds.

Scare Factor: None to medium.

4th Logo

(2014-)

Logo: On a black background, we see a box made up of red, yellow and green lines. A sketch of a traffic light zooms out onto a rectangle as the black text "Traffic Pictures" fades in below

FX/SFX: The zooming

Music/Sounds: A dramatic theme.

Availability: Current and common. Appears on Sonic the Hedgehog: Return to Station Square, Spirits of the Wind, Snack Games, and Ode to Underwear, among other films.

Scare Factor: Low.