Take a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making of HBO's 1983 Promo Video

Today, anyone with a basic grasp of Photoshop can recreate famous television logos on their computer. But before the digital age, studios were forced to get creative. Twitter user Andrew Wiseman recently shined a spotlight on this chapter in TV history when he posted a behind-the-scenes shot of the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française logo. The image is composed of white lines and text against a black background. It could have easily been a 2D drawing, but in order to get the luminescent look they were going for, the crew built a 3D model with a web of string.

Colossal shared another classic example of a television promo that was built on a sound stage instead of inside a computer. This 1983 clip from HBO was shown between movies. Instead of filming an actual city, the network built a scaled-down model town. Even the colored lights that streak across the HBO logo were physical objects—in this case, fiber optic lights attached to a rig.

You can watch HBO’s full behind-the-scenes featurette below.

[h/t Colossal]