It's Not CGI, It's HBO

Many people in my approximate age cohort remember this classic HBO intro, which they put in front of their movies from 1983 to 1987. And many might have assumed, as I did, that the flying chrome "HBO" that appears toward the end was an example of early CGI - which wasn't that bad at shiny objects, as long as they were relatively simple shapes and didn't have to really reflect anything in particular.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I recently saw this behind-the-scenes feature on YouTube and discovered that the logo was another practical effect: yes, they actually made an "HBO" out of sheet metal and put it up on a motion-control rig and filmed it. Huh.