Death of Kodak; Death of Film

The Reuters article, written from the 1%'ers capitalist perspective of course, makes it sound as though "perks" like lifetime employment and a generous, fully-funded pension program are intrinsically bad things. They may indeed be obsolete in the present business climate, but they are part of the important legacy of Eastman Kodak and not to be dismissed so lightly. I have known two families during my lifetime whose primary breadwinners were Kodak employees during the depths of the Depression in the 1930s. There were no raises and little new hiring, to be sure, and some of the amenities were cut back in those years, but those families survived hard times relatively unscathed and ultimately prospered as a result of the determination of Kodak management to take care of its employees and the Rochester community. Eastman's legacy extended beyond the technical achievements of his company to include building an honest and humane corporation that treated its employees decently, winning their loyalty (and enthusiasm for photography) over more than a hundred years, while remaining consistently profitable for almost all that time, leading the industry in technical achievements, and pretty much becoming synonymous with "film" and "photography" for most American consumers.

Major technological shifts like that from chemical to electronic photography often present an insurmountable challenge for established companies in any business, and if the change is profound and fast enough, it may really not matter how good or poor the managers are or how they react to the challenge -- huge corporations just sometimes cannot be turned fast enough to avoid disaster. The steamship and passenger rail companies, among others, know this from experience, and the "legacy" airlines are now facing similar circumstances as well. Some companies just cannot, and maybe should not, be saved if their entire business model and product line have become obsolete.

If there's still money to be made in the motion picture film business for awhile, then someone, somewhere, will fill the gap -- possibly a highly-downsized or spun-off Kodak division, or one of the other manufacturers like Fuji, or perhaps an entirely new enterprise. I'm probably more upset about the loss of film, and chemicals, and Eastman Kodak than most people, but objectively, I do realize it is almost entirely nostalgia -- I haven't actually bought or used any of those products in a decade or so, and in fact moved from movie film to video almost exclusively for my own projects as far back as the early '80s.

I actually hope some of those "obsolete" business practices will help make it a softer landing for some of the remaining Kodak employees who gave a great deal to both the company and the imaging technology field during their distinguished careers.

- Greg
 
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Kodak falls another 28% today.

They will likely file bankruptcy within the next 6-weeks if nobody goes to their patent yard sale.

:,(

The death of motion picture kodak film may be the digital photography camera and printers. I hope someone buys the film emulsion division and keeps it alive.
 
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Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
Kodak falls another 28% today.

They will likely file bankruptcy within the next 6-weeks if nobody goes to their patent yard sale.

:,(

The death of motion picture kodak film may be the digital photography camera and printers. I hope someone buys the film emulsion division and keeps it alive.
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Just thought about throwing this in here as it is rumored they going to be filing bankruptcy. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203471004577140841495542810.html
 
I'm praying for a motion picture division spin-off. Since it (motion picture film) is a slowing terminally ill product, it will be interesting to see if anyone comes to the rescue. Even if it is an attractive bargain buy now, the world knows the is an expiration date on film. It's a risky buy, which only hurts the chances of a spin-off. Maybe NFL films will buy it and get all of it's stock and processing at cost for a couple years. :)
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
I'm praying for a motion picture division spin-off. Since it (motion picture film) is a slowing terminally ill product, it will be interesting to see if anyone comes to the rescue. Even if it is an attractive bargain buy now, the world knows the is an expiration date on film. It's a risky buy, which only hurts the chances of a spin-off. Maybe NFL films will buy it and get all of it's stock and processing at cost for a couple years. :)
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Do you think the cost of film related equipment will just absolutely tank? I mean, I know certain things already have, but if Kodak goes belly up and does not get purchased, what happens to all of the film companies making film cameras, scanners, etc. And what happens to the film photography??!! There will be many-a-ripples caused by this one. Will be interesting to say the least.
 
I was listening to a NPR story and they said that Kodak invented the digital camera. How fricken ironic is that!

Steven Sasson, an engineer at Kodak, invented the digital camera all the way back in 1975.

 
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Even with the troubles that Kodak is currently in, I find it hard to believe that a business segment that is still profitable, like the production of motion picture film, would just disappear due to the collapse of the non-profitable business segments in a company as diverse as Kodak. I think that bankruptcy protection is next followed by a huge restructuring of the company. I wouldn't think that there is much hope of service and support for any Kodak consumer products continuing for much longer, but I think that motion picture film will made for years to come. I also wouldn't look to invest in real estate in Rochester New York.
 
That's rediculous! That's on top of all the ENG cams they have set up along with the live truck? They have two separate crews at once, simultaneously shooting separate mediums?
 
^ are you talking about NFL films? The answer is yes. They shoot film for archival purposes. The broadcast cameras are from the networks who air the games.
 
What about the GIGANTIC industries of medical and scientific imaging?
Every x-ray and ultrasound is printed onto silver nitrate film.
Who is making this stuff?
 
Paul V Doherty said:
What about the GIGANTIC industries of medical and scientific imaging?
Every x-ray and ultrasound is printed onto silver nitrate film.
Who is making this stuff?
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They've gone digital. My wife does Radiographs (Xrays), CTs and MRIs at a vet school and they don't use film anymore. Even when I had my lungs Xrays and CTed a week ago (Pulmonary Embolisms) they were ALL digital. I even got a copy of all the digital files!

And Ultrasound in realtime. It's sound. No film. Totally different process.

(And MRI is different process as well)
 
And yet Kodak still sent me issue 2 at the end of 2011 of Incamera and I expect Ill get my two issues again this year. FWIW - always a nice little read. Point is - is this a little bit of truth mixed with a whole lot of hype? Seems everyone just wants to say the words "FILM IS DEAD".
 
Film may be breathing it's last and this does make me a little sad. I have always had a love-hate relationship with film. I shot many thousands of feet of Kodak and Fuji, even Agfa once or twice. I loved the way film looked, still do. But I hated the expense of stock, processing and color correction. If I had a 1/4 of that money back I could buy a few new Alexas. But I wouldn't have had the joy of learning so much and the pleasure of seeing this first few, amazing frames come up in a transfer suite.

As you can see I am very conflicted.
 
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My DP has done extensive work for NFL films, and indeed, they still shoot it on film.

They'll restructure, dump some pension and medical obligations to retirees, and keep going for at least a while I imagine.
 
I shot a commercial on film not long ago. But I had to miss the color timing session because I was on a long commercial stint as an AC. I trusted the director to do the session alone (as he's a photographer/videographer as well) and just got to see it the other day. Wow. We shot true- black and white, I believe it was 7266 reversal and god.... those blacks were amazing. It was very sharp, very contrasty and just beautiful. The grain was a bit much, as we pushed it to get the grain and it was 16mm, but I was really impressed and loved the feel. I may do some passion projects film before we are all back to digital.

It was quite amazing, and I had forgotten since it had been a year or two since I had DP'd on film.
 
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