Film Labs - How many film labs are left?

Milovan Kristo · December 30, 2015

How many professional film labs are left?

Milovan Kristo · December 30, 2015

TF CineNova GmbH

www.taunusfilm.net

The TF CineNova GmbH unites a classical film processing laboratory with a modern digital lab at the historical film production site ‘Unter den Eichen 5’ in Wiesbaden, Germany. With a motivated and experienced team consisting of perennial and new staff we provide a broad range of skills in film treatment with accustomed expertise and quality.

Bill DiPietra · December 30, 2015

In the U.S. you still have FotoKem (in California,) Colorlab (in Maryland) & Cinelab (in Massachusetts) still making film prints. Not sure about the others...

Milovan Kristo · December 30, 2015

Thanks. It is assessable. In Europe is similar situation.

TF CineNova GmbH (TaunusFilm) will be the last professional film lab in Germany (2016).

Kenny N Suleimanagich · December 30, 2015

Also Video & Film Solutions in Maryland, Cinefilm in Atlanta, Continental Film Lab in Miami, Yale and Spectra in Los Angeles. The Alpha Grip mobile lab is in NYC at the moment.

Canada has Niagara in Toronto and Vision Globale in Montreal.

UK has Cinelab and iDailies.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Kenny N Suleimanagich

Milovan Kristo · December 30, 2015

Thanks. It sounds good. ARRI in Munich will close the analog department... at the end of this year. Sad.

http://www.welt.de/print/welt_kompakt/kultur/article150412032/Abschied-vom-Filmentwickler.html

David Mullen ASC · December 30, 2015

I was at FotoKem today and mentioned they must be the only lab on the West Coast but they said there is also a lab in Mexico City that the studios use for international release printing.

Milovan Kristo · December 30, 2015

Thanks.

Jay Young · December 30, 2015

Cinefilm in Atlanta was acquired by Crawford Media: http://crawford.com/creative-services/film-and-digital-dailies/

Dirk DeJonghe · December 31, 2015

We are still here and in full operation, digital and analog.

Color and B&W, 16 and 35mm, traditional film grading or Baselight digital.

Thanks to Fedex and the internet, distances are no longer a factor.

Milovan Kristo · December 31, 2015

Dirk, I agree with you. Thanks to FedEx and internet.

aapo lettinen · December 31, 2015

There is the former Stockholm Post Production (STOPP) lab in Sweden, now working under MediaMonks brand

J. Winfield Heckert · January 4, 2016

I have the Kodak Motion picture app on my phone, It has a function that finds the closest lab anywhere in the world.

Mark Dunn · January 4, 2016

I have the Kodak Motion picture app on my phone, It has a function that finds the closest lab anywhere in the world.

Not the most demanding task now they can presumably all be listed on one sheet of A4.

Assuming you know where you are without looking at a phone of course.

Edited January 4, 2016 by Mark Dunn

Robert Lewis · January 4, 2016

I am often left wondering what the word "Professional" is intended to mean when it is used in a thread such as this one. So that having been said, I feel that it would be quite appropriate in these times when film labs are getting more and more difficult to find, especially those which offer a print service, to mention a new processing lab which opened up in London in 2015.

"Film in Process" is a small artist run business providing a 16mm B&W processing and printing service. It has been set up by Bea Haut and Karel Doing, and the project is located at the University of East London, within the Fine Art Department’s 16mm facility. "Film in Process" aims to keep black and white 16mm film as an affordable medium for artists and students in London and the UK.

Bea and Karel are working closely together with Close-Up, and one can drop of and pick up films in their café and library.

One can Subscribe to their mailing list by sending an email to filminprocess@gmail.com. "Film in Process have a web page at www.filminprocess.com which contains more information for those interested.

My understanding is that Bea and Karel were associated with the processing service offered by "no.w.here" in East London, which discontinued the service they offered early in 2015.

I am sure they would welcome any support they can get.

Gregg MacPherson · January 4, 2016

I think that artists, experimentals, or any new talented person sticking their toe in the water (let's call them the A group) will benefit from an indie/co-op/rootsy artist run lab. So I like the Filminprocess idea, but the prices are too high. 37c/ft US for 100' and 33c/ft US for 400'. Sounds like someone with a longer project can negotiate.

Sofar the old hippies in Melbourne (hey Carl) look like the best model for an artist co-op. Are they the only oasis? I can't believe it.

I talked to a chap here in Auckland NZ who is setting up some processors (color and B&W I think). Not an artist's co-op, and to survive, the prices move up. NZ always had the lab business modality with highish rate cards but with negotiation for volume etc. This is off putting to the A group, who commonly don't feel they have any leverage at all.

How wrong they are on that.

aapo lettinen · January 4, 2016

I am often left wondering what the word "Professional" is intended to mean when it is used in a thread such as this one

I think it means very short or moderate processing times, good communication, excellent quality, possibility to negotiate price and delivery options and custom processing, etc.

for example Andecfilm has usually quite long processing times by my experience, at least when sent from Finland. may be 1-2 weeks for developing plus shipping time and sometimes may be up to 2 MONTHS for developing+scanning which is incredibly long time. They seem to use leftover time from other companies for scanning services which adds considerably to the processing times. The quality is good overall but from time standpoint it is more suitable for amateur and semi pro customers.

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As a reference, last time I processed 16 and 35mm film in STOPP they developed them in ONE DAY and with shipping the films from Finland to Sweden and back to me it took 4 days total :lol:

aapo lettinen · January 4, 2016

one thing I've never understood btw is why the heck it is so difficult to reach Lab people with email, almost all labs seem to skip most email questions about their services. this is not a single lab but almost ALL the labs I have ever tried to contact with even with different email accounts so it should not even be a spam filter issue and if you call them they have always read your emails even though not answered to them :blink:

Bill DiPietra · January 4, 2016

one thing I've never understood btw is why the heck it is so difficult to reach Lab people with email, almost all labs seem to skip most email questions about their services. this is not a single lab but almost ALL the labs I have ever tried to contact with even with different email accounts so it should not even be a spam filter issue and if you call them they have always read your emails even though not answered to them :blink:

FotoKem & Colorlab (NYC) have always been good with that, but I have a feeling most labs get so flooded with e-mails on a daily basis that only the priorities get responses.

Simon Wyss · January 5, 2016

I have a feeling most labs get so flooded with e-mails on a daily basis that only the priorities get responses.

How true.

When running my lab I had to undergo some kind of phone terror. One guy kept calling me at least once a week, bombarding me with questions that you can’t answer with Yes or No. I didn’t have an E-Mail address then (1999 through 2008), that saved me a lot of time and energy. There were more people calling.

I do understand that a lot of questions arise with a person that is discovering film and cinema. One element of the paradigm change is that less books are read and, of course, less books about the technical aspects of film making are readily available.

Eastman-Kodak Co. once had the H-1 publication, Kodak Motion Picture Film, CAT 155 2280. Don’t know whether still available

In a way it’s an honor for lab people to sustain the photochemical motion picture. Who else is as close to the phenomenon as those with their hands in rubber gloves? Film manufacturers, sure. Archivists? Much less.

Bill DiPietra · January 5, 2016

I do understand that a lot of questions arise with a person that is discovering film and cinema. One element of the paradigm change is that less books are read and, of course, less books about the technical aspects of film making are readily available.

It's interesting that you mention this because I've always had tons of questions about new methods and technologies. I was never in a dedicated film program so we never had any kind of class that toured a lab. And I never had a chance to do it on my own before DuArt - the last major lab here in NYC - stopped processing & printing film. So if a new lab ever opened up over here, I'd still love to do it one of these days.

All this aside, when I've dealt with labs, I always felt uncomfortable asking anything other than the most pertinent questions regarding my order because their first priority is to properly fill orders. That's kind of what lead me to read Cinematography around 1999 and it was a real eye-opener for a beginner like me.

Mark Dunn · January 5, 2016

I'm beginning to wish I had paid more attention when I worked at an outfit with an in-house ECN line.I had much more to do with the setting up of the new VNF line, but that bit of expertise became extinct in 2004.

aapo lettinen · January 5, 2016

I have a feeling most labs get so flooded with e-mails on a daily basis that only the priorities get responses.

Mostly I have asked about price estimates for processing certain amount of film but have not yet ordered anything because I've been still in the process of shooting the rest of the batch. Thus getting silence most of the time.

It is quite frustrating at times when you can't ask beforehand how much something costs and if they are even willing/able to process your films, you can't really compare their prices effectively because of this and it may delay the processing a bit if you're on a budget <_<

Bill DiPietra · January 5, 2016

Mostly I have asked about price estimates for processing certain amount of film but have not yet ordered anything because I've been still in the process of shooting the rest of the batch.

That kind of thing should be listed somewhere on their website. If not, just call.

Milovan Kristo · January 5, 2016

I think it means very short or moderate processing times, good communication, excellent quality, possibility to negotiate price and delivery options and custom processing, etc.

for example Andecfilm has usually quite long processing times by my experience, at least when sent from Finland. may be 1-2 weeks for developing plus shipping time and sometimes may be up to 2 MONTHS for developing+scanning which is incredibly long time. They seem to use leftover time from other companies for scanning services which adds considerably to the processing times. The quality is good overall but from time standpoint it is more suitable for amateur and semi pro customers.

------

As a reference, last time I processed 16 and 35mm film in STOPP they developed them in ONE DAY and with shipping the films from Finland to Sweden and back to me it took 4 days total :lol:

We need ONE DAY for film processing. If delivery takes place before 9 in the morning, we guarantee the shipment on the next day throughout Europe. And the most countries worldwide takes one day more- Thanks FEDEX.