The POSSIBLE Return of KODAK EXR, KODACHROME

[James Compton]

Beverly Pasterczyk, a R&D Film chemist spoke at a SMPTE meeting in Los Angeles last week. She has some very interesting things to say regarding possible short runs of just

about any modern KODAk motion picture film. This is a repost from another forum :

 

Ms. Pasterczyk is a chemist with film R & D at Kodak, and she mentioned that Kodak Research is currently engaged in the continuing design and implementation of new emulsions, such as the new version of the Vision III product.

 

"Regarding consumer films, she said that they are considering restructuring

a new approach aimed at producing these at a reasonable cost in much

smaller volumes than in the past. She said that new technology will

permit them to continue to produce these in "boutique quantities" using

single coating machines rather than the huge multiple coaters of the

past. She said that basically, as long as they had sufficient orders for

a minimum of a single master roll "54 inches (almost 1-1/2 meters) wide by

whatever length - no minimum stated", they would consider examining

production in terms of the economics involved. Future production would

primarily be on an "on demand" basis."

[James Compton]

The 2nd part of the post :

 

This would include the infrastructure for processing, probably at a single

lab, either in Rochester NY, or sub-contracted.

 

"On demand" could conceivably include any film that Kodak has ever

manufactured. Someone in the audience asked the inevitable question:

"Including Kodachrome?" Her answer: "Yes, including Kodachrome". She

added that while small runs of Kodachrome were unlikely, it was not out of

the question, since they have had numerous inquiries.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Great. I'd really like to be able to have small runs of stocks for specific projects. It's be interesting to see how well the economics work out for kodak in "on demand," emulsions.

[James Compton]

Great. I'd really like to be able to have small runs of stocks for specific projects. It's be interesting to see how well the economics work out for kodak in "on demand," emulsions.

 

KODAK EXR 5248, 5298 and 5245. I would like to order those film stocks. I'd be interested to see what old school cinematographers that like the look of the older film would do, knowing they now have this option. Janus Kaminski could probably get Spielberg to order some of the stuff for their next film.

[John Holland]

I am "Old " 5254 would be my stock but that would mean going back to ECN 1 developing and thats not going to happen !

[Indiefilmstock]

Hey, I've got some EXR stock right now! Got 10 rolls of 7248 and 20 rolls of 7245. They've been in our film vault for all this time. Why they weren't sold is a long story, but I bet they are fine. Will test if wanted.

 

Any interest?

 

Richard Kaufman

Comtel Pro Media

818-450-1122

richard@comtepm.com

[Chris Burke]

has anyone heard anything more (recent) about this?

[Stuart Brereton]

Nice as it would be to have a boutique short run system for stock, the bigger problem is soon going to be finding anywhere that can process it at reasonable cost.

[James Compton]

UPDATE: I spoke to my sales rep about the situation and I found out is that, YES - it is possible. MONEY is what it will take to get it done. I was told a minimum of 4 million feet of each stock is required for KODAK to cookup the emulsion. The main problem is KODAK uses very large ovens to baked the film. Ovens created during WWII to meet both military and civilian demands. KODAK is no longer making that volume of film anymore. A microbrew solution would better serve the current need for older filmstocks. Making an oven from scratch would be vey expensive. So, now we need to raise about 2 million dollars to get the first order of about 4 film stocks.

[Robert Houllahan]

Sounds like a job for Nolan Spielberg Thomas Anderson.

 

-Rob-

[James Compton]

UPDATE:

 

I ran across this news article a few days ago:

 

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/money/2015/03/14/film-hollywood-richard-crudo-spielberg-tarantino-kodak-movie-digital/24780181/

 

I was quite surprised to see the idea or re-releasing the older range of filmstocks, finally gaining some traction at KODAK.

The conversation is definitely happening there. The article also mentions that motion picture R&D has stopped for the time being.

That is not necessarily a bad thing either.

[Josh Gladstone]

Well that's interesting.

[Phil Rhodes]

You'd have thought Kodachrome was a bit of an unnecessary pain in the neck as regards processing, though.

[Mark Dunn]

Not long ago Kodak automated the K14 process and you could buy the packaged chemicals and the whole kit and caboodle. I wonder if anyone did. I think it was called K-Lab. You no longer had to employ an analytical chemist. So it's not inherently complicated. OK, so it is, er, was, but not too complicated.

Kodak was on top of it .

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/consumer/products/klabs/index.shtml

Edited March 18, 2015 by Mark Dunn

[Scott Pickering]

I'd request they bring back Panatomic X and Plus X films for both still and motion picture shooting.

[Anthony Schilling]

The problem with Kodachrome was the processing. it was a toxic and complicated process. Without the process it's just a B&W film. A boutique run would have to be a safe bet at least. With a current void and demand for a color reversal film, an E6 film would be the safest and best bet. If they updated it to be a little sharper, that would be awesome.

[David Cunningham]

Please bring back E100D. Please!

[Doug Palmer]

Please bring back E100D. Please!

ABSOLUTELY !

[Dirk DeJonghe]

I feel that the first priority is to use the existing films to the full extent possible before asking 'specials' from Kodak; It is already hard enough to get 'normal' stock such as Intermediate color stock in single perf. It is a matter of having enough footage per emulsion type to keep the manufacturing chain open. There are only 300 people at Kodak still making photographic film including MP.

The 7222 seems to have changed for the better recently, it used to have more grain and a typical acidic smell that is gone now, they didn't tell anyone but it certainly has changed.

[Anthony Schilling]

It's good to hear that they are still willing to evolve the Vision stocks instead of just letting them run the coarse as is. I've been wondering if a Vision 4 will come without an orange mask and just be a full DI stock. They tried it before with a one size fits all 500T stock but it was the wrong thing at the wrong time.

[David Cunningham]

Where did you hear that they were still willing to evolve the Vision series? All recent reports confirm that R&D in all film formats has ceased at Kodak and all efforts at this point are to maintain the existing availability while optimizing and maximizing profitability.

[Anthony Schilling]

Where did you hear that they were still willing to evolve the Vision series? All recent reports confirm that R&D in all film formats has ceased at Kodak and all efforts at this point are to maintain the existing availability while optimizing and maximizing profitability.

"Ms. Pasterczyk is a chemist with film R & D at Kodak, and she mentioned that Kodak Research is currently engaged in the continuing design and implementation of new emulsions, such as the new version of the Vision III product."

[Josh Gladstone]

That was from a years ago. Then they went bankrupt. Clearly nothing happened with that. It's safe to say there is no longer any R&D going on into photographic film at Kodak.

 

Edit: With the POSSIBLE exception of digital archiving film.

Edited March 22, 2015 by Josh Gladstone

[David Cunningham]

Ah yes. Old article. Per the most recent interview with Evevski:

 

"Kodak is no longer doing R&D into updating its film products with new lines."

[Scott Pickering]

If there is no R&D being done anymore, how could Kodak possibly release older products that have lapsed for some period of time? Certainly certain elements of making the film like cadmium, etc, would no longer be available to use to produce the older products using the original recipes. R&D would be needed to update the emulsions to todays standard. So unless the film was produced in the last 10 years, I really don't see older emulsions coming back into production, however small the run may be.