Sunset Productions

Sunset Productions, Inc. was a subsidiary of Warner Bros. that licensed the television distribution rights to 192 black-and-white Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies to Guild Films in February 1955."Guild Acquires 191 WB Cartoons" - Variety (2/16/1955)"Hollywood TV: The Studio System in the Fifties" (page 176)"Film Distribution" - Broadcasting Telecasting (3/7/1955)
== Background ==
Jack Warner, Jr. was in charge of Sunset Productions during its operatation."Trio of Majors Accelerate Television Plans" - The Independent Film Journal (4/16/1955) The package included all black-and-white Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons except the Merrie Melodies cartoons produced by Harman-Ising Productions solely directed by Rudolf Ising (the very first, "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!", was directed by both Harman and Ising and part of the Sunset package). 
Unlike the sale of the copyrights of the remaining cartoons released before July 24, 1948, to Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) in 1956, Warner Bros. did not sell the copyrights to the cartoons in the Sunset package. Instead, they transferred them to Sunset Productions to facilitate the licensing to Guild Films, while also using the Sunset name on the cartoons' copyright notices, supposedly because studio executives feared that theater owners would not be pleased if the "Warner Bros." name was used on television. New opening and closing titles were made to remove any references to Warner Bros., and any Warner Bros. references in the cartoons themselves were removed. One example is in "Porky in Wackyland", where Yoyo Dodo zooms up with the WB shield to hit Porky Pig with a slingshot, then zooms back out. Additionally, the Leon Schlesinger Productions building sign from the start of "You Ought to Be in Pictures" and the ending gag from "Porky's Duck Hunt" are cut from these television prints for the same reason. The copyright dates on the new title cards use incorrect Roman numerals, with the first part rendered as "MXM" instead of the correct "MCM". 
In April 1957, Sunset Productions was turned into a subsidiary for the production of TV commercials, with Jack Warner Jr. remaining in charge."Hollywood TV: The Studio System in the Fifties" (page 277)"Jack M. Warner" - Broadcasting Telecasting (11/4/1957) 
Guild Films shut down amid a financial scandal in 1961."SEC Charges Guild Films Failed to Show True Facts" - Broadcasting Telecasting (3/6/1961) The TV rights to the Sunset package were sold to Seven Arts Productions instead."Film on Tap at NAB Convention" - Sponsor Publications (5/8/1961) Eliot Hyman, who had previously been president of a.a.p. when it acquired the copyrights to that company's package of cartoons,"AAP Buys "Popeye" Films for Tv Station Release" - Broadcasting Telecasting (6/11/1956) was the president of Seven Arts at the time."$1 Million in Warner Films to WOR-TV: 'Eliot Hyman, president of Seven Arts Associated Corp.'" - Broadcasting Telecasting (1/9/1961) In 1967, Seven Arts bought Warner Bros. and became Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, resulting in Warner Bros. regaining the TV distribution rights to the Sunset package.
===Colorization===
Soon after the WB-7A merger was complete, the studio had 78 of these black-and-white cartoons redrawn in color. These colorizations were produced by Fred Ladd."A Short Q&A With Fred Ladd" - The Colorized Cartoon Database In almost all cases, the 16mm Sunset TV prints were used as the source material, resulting in their titles being redrawn in color. In some cases, the Sunset titles are altered, usually with the WB-7A (or, in some cases, Warner Communications) opening logos plastered over these titles. Similarly, prints distributed by Kit Parker Films replace them with proper (non-Seven Arts) Warner Bros. cards.
The same 78 cartoons were colorized again in the early 1990s (along with 26 other cartoons not previously redrawn in 1968). This time, computer software was used to add color to the cartoons. Unlike the retraced colorizations that preceded them, however, the Sunset TV prints were not used here; instead, the original master negatives, which preserve their original titles, were used.
==== Purported public domain status ====
The hand-redrawn color versions of the cartoons that were in the Sunset package are claimed by some to be in the public domain and are often seen in public domain compilations (be it from home video releases or online sources). However, contrary to popular belief, the reasoning for this purported legal status is based on faulty reasoning and the redrawn shorts themselves remain under copyright, including those whose original black-and-white prints are in the public domain.
When the copyrights of the original black-and-white cartoons were transferred to Sunset Productions, the new prints created that replaced the original Warner Bros. title cards with ones assigning copyright to Sunset featured incorrect Roman numeral dates on their title cards, reading "MXM[....]" instead of the proper "MCM[....]", which results in nonsensical numbers.
Prior to the Copyright Act of 1976, any work that failed to properly disclose the year of its copyright would, effectively, instantly fall into the public domain. However, this did not affect the original black-and-white shorts, as the date errors on the new prints had no effect on their still-valid original 1930s–40s copyrights.
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, however, registered every redrawn-in-color cartoon under a new copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office. As the color versions were redrawn from Sunset prints, they also contain the dating error, and conceivably, their copyright registrations would be invalid. (This is likely why subsequent Warner-issued prints of the colorized shorts replaced the Sunset title cards, with the replacements featuring a proper 1968 copyright.) However, as the U.S. Copyright Office accepted the registrations in the first place, the dating mistake was not considered to be a forfeiture of rights. Also, copyrights extend to "derivative works" under international law, and the colorized copies are considered "derivative works" for these purposes.
The redrawn prints are also considered to be "new matter" derived from their original copyrighted works. The copyright for all of the redrawn colorized versions were renewed on 21 March 1994, which includes shorts that had their black-and-white version in the public domain.http://web.archive.org/web/20150919082045/http://cztoondb.tripod.com/cztoondb/looneytunes/index.htm As a result, the redrawn versions will not lapse in the public domain until at least 2063, or 95 years after their release.
==List of cartoons in the "Sunset Productions" package==
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== Notes ==
*Given that there are exactly 78 redrawn-colorized cartoons, they were likely (at least in part) designed to act as a syndication package; as the cartoons could air for 26 half-hours. This would be the same syndication format used for The Porky Pig Show, which the colorized shorts are known to have aired on in certain regional dubs.
*The artwork used for the Sunset Productions opening/closing screen appears to be comprised of cutouts from theater lobby cards. In particular, the dog in the bottom-right corner is taken from the lobby card for "Shake Your Powder Puff".
==References==
==External links==
*Sunset Productions and Guild Films
Category:Companies