How they make Kodak film

Very interesting.
Thanks for posting.
When I was young, everyone knew of the town of Rochester, NY...because we also used Kodak film.
 
I watched the video, "Kodak: Behind the Scenes". It just came out yesterday. Did you make it?

I’ve been filming on Kodak film now for 4 years and I just found out about this..
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What did you find out, exactly? I didn't notice anything new.
 
Has Kodak released any new film stocks in the last 10 years? Seems to be no R&D going on there.
 
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d shay said:
Has Kodak released any new film stocks in the last 10 years? Seems to be no R&D going on there.
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There's no business case for making new films. There's damn little business case for making film at all (Kodak tried to get out of the film business in the early to mid 2010s, but Hollywood wouldn't let them. But are Hollywood productions actually using the film they contracted to buy? IDK). Kodak created a heck of a technology for making film, but it takes a huge building and a huge machine and lots of people to run it. All in complete darkness. Kodak also created digital imaging, but was unable to capitalize on that. Said another way, they were unable to reconcile owning both technologies at the same time -- pushing digital undermined film, which at the time was a huge money maker.

Cutting to the chase, digital exceeds film in just about every category now. Negative films (not positives, chromes, transparencies, whatever you want to call them) exceed the best digital sensors in dynamic range (typically over 20 stops for B&W, somewhat less for color). And that's about it.

So, why would anyone actually want to use film in this day and age? Using film in a digital era makes as much sense as using internal combustion engines in an electric motor era. And this is from a serious photographic film fanboy.

Kodak let Robert L. Shanebrook document the Kodak film making process in a book called Making KODAK Film. My copy has a 2010 copyright date on it. The level of detail (including pictures) is phenomenal. You might want to try to find a copy. If nothing else it will convince you of the complexity of the process (and of the finished film itself) and illustrate the enormous barrier to entry into the film business.
 
It's a very scientific and chemical process mixed with physics that is involved with film. In fact if you understand digital sensors they're even more scientific and get down into really technical stuff.
 
Oh, the memories! Shooting reversal for news. I see EKTACHROME Color Reversal Film 7294 has been resurrected now back a while. Razor-thin latitude, exposures had to be spot on. Ten minutes before news, running it through a projector holding a squeegee on the film before it ran down into the gate to get excess water off the film as it had just come out of the dev. Those were the days. :) Totally steeped in history. Thank you, Kodak.

Chris Young

A moment in time from Steve McCurry. His famous 1984 Nat Geo cover of the Afghan girl, shot on Kodachrome is now a legendary image. And he shot the last roll ever made.


Anyone ever watch this movie? Guess what... it was shot on film.

 
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