Popular film stocks of the 70s...

[Dominic Case]

yet another money making scheme so labs good get more through put

Aw c'mon John!

 

Kodak changes the process to speed it up, and labs are obliged to replace their processing machines at their own cost. How is this a money-making scheme for the labs? Labs couldn't "get more throughput" unless filmmakers shot more film. "Oh look, this stock gets processed in 20 minutes instead of half an hour - let's shoot another couple of takes for good measure :lol: " I don't think so.

 

What the speed-up did do was get negative processing completed earlier in the night, so that rushes could be printed and shipped a bit earlier the next morning.

 

Agfa continued to make their negative stock for the ECN1 process for a couple of years after Kodak switched to ECN2. There wasn't a lot of it used in the US but much more in Europe and also here in Australia. We had to run both processes in separate machines at that time.

 

5254 used to have a magnificent flesh-to-grey balance. 5247 produced much pinker flesh tones and colder, greener shadows and greys. Every stock since has got slightly better - but Vision 2 was the first series that even came close to the old 5254 look.

 

Another point - at first there was a distinct difference between US manufacured 5247 and European 5247 (though I forget if the Euro version was made in Harrow or in France (Brian might remember)). Kodak asserted that everything was made to a global standard - but there is no doubt that the US stock was more contrasty and produced even pinker fleshtones than the European version. Australian DoPs used to insist on having their stock imported from Europe rather than buying the US product that Kodak here kept on the shelf.

[Charles MacDonald]

Kodak asserted that everything was made to a global standard - but there is no doubt that the US stock was more contrasty and produced even pinker fleshtones than the European version. Australian DoPs used to insist on having their stock imported from Europe rather than buying the US product that Kodak here kept on the shelf.

diden't they decide at one point to make all the 5247 at Toronto, (Sa'fety Film) rather then have toronto make a mutitude of small batches of everthing for a while. UK would be labled Saf'ety Film, and french as Safe'ty Film.as I recall. I think the australian stock would end up being safet'y film.

[Brian Pritchard]

Another point - at first there was a distinct difference between US manufacured 5247 and European 5247 (though I forget if the Euro version was made in Harrow or in France (Brian might remember)).

 

Yes, it was made in Harrow, certainly in my time at Kodak.

Brian

[Dominic Case]

I think the australian stock would end up being safet'y film.

Although Kodk had (until recently) a largish plant in Melbourne, they never manufactured motion picture stock (at least not ever in my time).

 

Kodak Australasia would supply stock that was manufactured in Rochester (mainly), but Kodak used to divide the world up in odd ways from time to time as far as marketing was concerned. At one time they used to get regular print stock from Rochester, but Low Contrast stock from Vincennes (France).