450 Million Feet of Film

[RattyMouse]

Wow....in this article one tangential piece of information that is stated is that Sony Pictures has purchased 450 MILLION feet of Kodak film, just since Kodak went bankrupt!! What is that, about 2 years? Half a billion feet of film from only ONE studio? Such enormous consumption.

I guess with movie studios going fast towards digital, film has a lot longer to fall than I thought. Such a shame, I had hoped that we were closer to the bottom.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/bankruptcy-judge-cancels-kodaks-agreement-422680

 

[timparkin]

Wow....in this article one tangential piece of information that is stated is that Sony Pictures has purchased 450 MILLION feet of Kodak film, just since Kodak went bankrupt!! What is that, about 2 years? Half a billion feet of film from only ONE studio? Such enormous consumption.

I guess with movie studios going fast towards digital, film has a lot longer to fall than I thought. Such a shame, I had hoped that we were closer to the bottom.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/bankruptcy-judge-cancels-kodaks-agreement-422680

I'm not sure I understand - are you saying you wish film were completely dead already? Personally I'm happy that Kodak has such strong support for their film production plants.

Just to put that in perspective, it is the equivalent to 44 million sheets of 5x4

Tim

 

[AgX]

Tim, I assume Ratty was hoping that the industry had stabilized by now.
It depends on the very market we are talking about.

In general the industry is moaning on high levels of absolute production with still amazing area units. The problem is the general ongoing decline from former levels with plants that in spite of closure of production lines are still not running as economic as they used too.

 

[zsas]

I believe Ratty is saying something like, oh dear, Kodak sure has a lot more sales to lose out of over the next few years to the eventual 100% cinematic conversion from film stock to digital. The sky had a lot more to fall than he thought

I say.....yawn....shoot some pictures and call it a day....

Technology always leads to change, nothing to see here (my $0.02)....

 

[Kevin Kehler]

If you are a fan of the Hobbit, there is a series of videos on YouTube which Peter Jackson and company have been putting out to hype the movie. This has been going on for about a year before the movie was released and includes interviews, set designs, etc. One of the interesting points I found was that while the movie was shot with digital cameras, they are able to tell how much film they would have used if they had used film - 22 million feet and they hadn't done re-shoots or pick-ups yet. While admittedly it is a trilogy, you can see how half a billion feet are used in two years by one studio.

 

[railwayman3]

Wow....in this article one tangential piece of information that is stated is that Sony Pictures has purchased 450 MILLION feet of Kodak film, just since Kodak went bankrupt!! What is that, about 2 years? Half a billion feet of film from only ONE studio? Such enormous consumption.

I guess with movie studios going fast towards digital, film has a lot longer to fall than I thought. Such a shame, I had hoped that we were closer to the bottom.

I find the statistic quite encouraging (insofar as it means anything at all)....I'm sure that Sony are one of the most up-to-date and progressive producers, but they clearly still have an ongoing use for film, whether it be for specialist parts of productions or archiving of some kind. Hopefully we are close to the bottom?

Anyway, enough things to worry about without inventing more.

 

[DREW WILEY]

There will still be producers who want the look of film. That's not the major issue. The biggest hit is in mass distribution of the final product,
with digital projection eliminating film in that capacity (not the original shoot).

 

[railwayman3]

If the film is 35mm, I calculate that it might equate to about 37,000 hours of film per year (with no allowance for wastage). If most were used for projection prints, this could give, typically, 15,000 cinema prints per year. But if, say 50% were used in shooting, special effects, duplicate negs, wastage etc., it might be as little as 5,000 prints. If, say, 12 features a year that could be around 400 prints per film....if worldwide distribution, maybe that sounds plausible? IDK, just playing with numbers, doesn't prove much.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I believe Ratty is saying something like, oh dear, Kodak sure has a lot more sales to lose out of over the next few years to the eventual 100% cinematic conversion from film stock to digital.

Yes and we all know television killed off radio.

 

[BMbikerider]

I only hope they have not bought the film with a view to scrapping it and reclaiming the silver content. Thus denying it's use to the likes of people here.

I'm assuming of course, it is raw unused film and not film ready to be projected???

 

[RattyMouse]

I'm not sure I understand - are you saying you wish film were completely dead already? Personally I'm happy that Kodak has such strong support for their film production plants.

Just to put that in perspective, it is the equivalent to 44 million sheets of 5x4

Tim

No I dont want film to die. That's ridiculous. I'm saying what is going to happen to us when the studios convert to digital and Kodak no longer needs to produce a few billion feet of film for the movie industry each year.

 

[AgX]

I only hope they have not bought the film with a view to scrapping it and reclaiming the silver content. Thus denying it's use to the likes of people here.

Actually there had been a time the silver content of some materials was worth more than the new bought raw film, seemingly even making recuperation economic. Though I don't know whether it was done.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

...I'm saying what is going to happen to us when the studios convert to digital and Kodak no longer needs to produce a few billion feet of film for the movie industry each year.

You'll be shooting Ilford black and white film or digital color.

 

[RattyMouse]

You'll be shooting Ilford black and white film or digital color.

Well, you are half right. I just cant get much enthusiasm for shooting digital these days.

 

[michaelbsc]

You'll be shooting Ilford black and white film or digital color.

Or reviving tricolor shooting.