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== History == |
== History == |
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The VID TV Company was founded in 1990 by [[Vladislav Listyev]] in the course of seeking funding for a television project known as 'Vzglyad'. Vzglyad means "glance" in Russian as the show was intended to be a critical glance on Soviet political life. VID is an abbreviation of "Vzglyad I Drugiye" ( |
The VID TV Company was founded in 1990 by [[Vladislav Listyev]] in the course of seeking funding for a television project known as 'Vzglyad'. Vzglyad means "glance" in Russian as the show was intended to be a critical glance on Soviet political life. VID is an abbreviation of "Vzglyad I Drugiye" (Взгляд И Другие) or "Glance and Others". Coincidentally, "vid" also means "view" (a word similar to "glance") in Russian. The VID TV company was not able to obtain a separate channel but instead had to base itself on the state [[First Channel]]. Listyev later found some other programs including [[Pole Chudes|Field of Wonder]], Theme, [[Chas Pik|Rush Hour]], [[Zvyozdnyy Chas|Star Hour]] and [[Guess the Melody]]. |
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In 1995 Listyev went to work on [[Channel One (Russia)|ORT]]. He was later killed in an incident of which full details have never been provided. His killers were never found. On March 2nd, ORT (Russian Channel One) Broadcast nothing but a still image of Listyev with the subtite 'Vlad Listyev has been killed'. [[Aleksandr Lyubimov]] then took his place as head of VID. |
In 1995 Listyev went to work on [[Channel One (Russia)|ORT]]. He was later killed in an incident of which full details have never been provided. His killers were never found. On March 2nd, ORT (Russian Channel One) Broadcast nothing but a still image of Listyev with the subtite 'Vlad Listyev has been killed'. [[Aleksandr Lyubimov]] then took his place as head of VID. |
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Revision as of 21:33, 25 May 2009
| File:VIDLogo.jpg | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | TV Show Production |
| Headquarters |  Moscow, Russia |
| Products | Television shows in the Russian language |
| Website | www.vid.ru |
VID is a Russian TV Company started by Vladislav Listyev in 1990. It is best known for producing the television programmes Wait for Me, designed to help people find loved ones and Pole Chudes which is a popular Russian version of Wheel of Fortune.
VID is known both for its logo, which has attracted controversy and popularity in equal measure for being visually shocking and austere and its wordmark, which uses the latin D instead of the Cyrillic Д, so the logo appears as ВИD as opposed to ВИД.
History
The VID TV Company was founded in 1990 by Vladislav Listyev in the course of seeking funding for a television project known as 'Vzglyad'. Vzglyad means "glance" in Russian as the show was intended to be a critical glance on Soviet political life. VID is an abbreviation of "Vzglyad I Drugiye" (Взгляд И Другие) or "Glance and Others". Coincidentally, "vid" also means "view" (a word similar to "glance") in Russian. The VID TV company was not able to obtain a separate channel but instead had to base itself on the state First Channel. Listyev later found some other programs including Field of Wonder, Theme, Rush Hour, Star Hour and Guess the Melody.
In 1995 Listyev went to work on ORT. He was later killed in an incident of which full details have never been provided. His killers were never found. On March 2nd, ORT (Russian Channel One) Broadcast nothing but a still image of Listyev with the subtite 'Vlad Listyev has been killed'. Aleksandr Lyubimov then took his place as head of VID.
VID allowed many celebrities to advance their careers: Sergei Bodrov Jr. was the dictor of Vzglyad after Listyev and Lyubimov, Leonid Yakubovich became a comic figure due to his Field of Wonder appearances and Valdis Pelsh was the dictor of Guess the Melody (himself being a musician). Now the program Wait for Me is led by actor Igor Kvasha.
Logo
The logo for VID has attracted a large amount of interest from the internet due to its visually shocking nature. It is a stone mask (allegedly of Guo Xiang, a Taoist philosopher) that was copied directly from the Museum of Eastern Art in Moscow. Apparently, the museum attempted to sue VID, leading them to digitally alter the mask in order to avoid legal difficulty.
The most notable use of the logo is in their 1990 intro, which is publicly available for viewing on the video sharing website YouTube. In it we see a line slowly moving into the screen while a loud, inappropriate sound of a jackhammer is played. A ball then drops off the line and as we see it 'splash' into the white background a 5-note fanfare plays, which is not only loud and unexpected but aurally intimidating.
When the ident was introduced there were many complaints from parents with young children, who found it scary to watch, especially when it preceded children's television. To add to the grievances the logo incorporated flashes of bright white light against black backgrounds; this feature was later removed due to epilepsy concerns. When people started to circulate petitions to remove the old ident, VID released a version in 1999 which featured a match being struck, the smoke of which formed the VID logo, although there are no videos of this online. In 2002 a new version of the ident was produced, featuring a smaller version of the logo on a yellow background with the text "VID Television Company presents" (albeit in Russian).
There have also been claims ([1]) of the mask's similarity to the late Russian President Boris Yeltsin or a death mask. Some people thought it was, the face of Leonid Yakubovich, the second host of Pole Chudes.