A New Video on Making Ilford Film

[pentaxuser]

Ribsy, an analogue film presenter on YouTube has visited Ilford and made recently a short video on its film and to a much lesser extent on its paper. I found it reasonably interesting and some of the comments are worth reading as well . He appears to have been reasonable access and what impressed me was the openness of the employees he interviewed and the natural and unrehearsed response he got, For those interested here it is:



pentaxuser

 

[foc]

Thank you for posting. It was very interesting.
It is always good to see a company with employees with long service. It shows what a good employer they are.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

Saw this a few days ago. I wonder if they'd be kind enough to give me a tour? I'd love to see all that. Also, it's a bit worrisome with such an aging staff. It seems that Kodak has been addressing that in a previous video posted here. How about Ilford?

 

[gone]

I'll never complain again about how much work it is to respool 120 film to a 620 spool.

It's wonderful seeing how they control almost the whole process.

 

[AgX]

Saw this a few days ago. I wonder if they'd be kind enough to give me a tour? I'd love to see all that. Also, it's a bit worrisome with such an aging staff. It seems that Kodak has been addressing that in a previous video posted here. How about Ilford?

Me and Ron hinted at this repeatedly over the years as major issue for that whole industry.

A niche industry on an allegedly outdated product, which at first googling impressed by numbers of insolvencies, demolishions of plants up to even a major labour law case, was hardly attractive to young academics and technicians.

 

[Agulliver]

On one hand it's lovely to see how loyal the staff and different sets of directors are, the people featured have all been there around 40 years. But sooner or later they will need to train their replacements. Probably as informative a video as can reasonably be made without ruining a production run. And yes, it shows how specialised the machinery is and why we cannot simply have 220 or some other unusual format without prohibitive investment.

 

[pentaxuser]

On one hand it's lovely to see how loyal the staff and different sets of directors are, the people featured have all been there around 40 years. But sooner or later they will need to train their replacements.

Well recently IlfordPhoto has been running articles on its staff and so far all have been highly qualified young newcomers , mainly with degrees so it would appear that it has realised that it needs "new blood".

Will it be able to find enough and be able to retain them? Only time will tell. It was difficult to be sure about how Ilford was perceived as an employer on the two tours I went on in 2006 and 2008 and these were 16 and 14 years ago respectively but I thought the atmosphere was decent and that there was a kind of family firm ambience there

An Amazon warehouse or assembly line situation it was not. It was relaxed in the best possible way

pentaxuser

 

[Tel]

A really good video--I like the fact that the maker is a film shooter (posing with his Mamiya TLR) and asks the questions I would ask. This reminded me of a tour I took of Kodak Park back in 2001. It was apparent then that Kodak, as big as it was, knew that its employees' expertise was its best asset. This seems to be true at Ilford. Sadly, I expect that many of the people we met at Kodak that day were laid off shortly afterward.

 

[AgX]

Sadly, I expect that many of the people we met at Kodak that day were laid off shortly afterward.

Do not overlook that employement at Ilford too has dramatically shrunk over the last two decades.

 

[Tel]

Do not overlook that employement at Ilford too has dramatically shrunk over the last two decades.

I noticed that the process at Ilford has been very highly automated. I expect the same is true at Kodak too. And I suppose that, as in other industries, jobs were lost because machines run themselves now. But it's also true, as the gentleman at the beginning of the video said, that Ilford has positioned itself well to support a niche market. In an industry whose products were ubiquitous for more than a century, it's heartening (for me) to think that producing 5,000 rolls of 120 film every day equates to "niche market" status. Film shooting could last quite a while in that sort of niche market.

 

[pentaxuser]

I noticed that the process at Ilford has been very highly automated. I expect the same is true at Kodak too. And I suppose that, as in other industries, jobs were lost because machines run themselves now. But it's also true, as the gentleman at the beginning of the video said, that Ilford has positioned itself well to support a niche market. In an industry whose products were ubiquitous for more than a century, it's heartening (for me) to think that producing 5,000 rolls of 120 film every day equates to "niche market" status. Film shooting could last quite a while in that sort of niche market.

I hope so too but in terms of world demand which I assume 5000 120 rolls per day meets, that really is very niche compared to the world of say only 25-30 years ago when film was all there was as a visual recording medium

The last Ilford cut back in staff was after the global financial crisis in 2008/9 but factor in the rise in energy prices and food and the situation in Ukraine and its shockwaves and I worry that demand of film may suffer again

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

I enjoyed the video as well - even if I had to resort at times to the Closed Captioning .
I find myself amazed at how relatively slow and small that confectioning machine for 120 is.

 

[logan2z]

I enjoyed the video as well - even if I had to resort at times to the Closed Captioning

My wife's family is from the UK. I've been trained to understand the accent from years of Coronation Street

 

[pentaxuser]

I enjoyed the video as well - even if I had to resort at times to the Closed Captioning .
I find myself amazed at how relatively slow and small that confectioning machine for 120 is.

It's called lean, keen and being nimble. A bit like Manchester City football team who are only a few miles away where the ball is the right shape for passing and heading. No body armour required

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

Part of my amazement about that confectioning machine is rooted in those old discussions with Simon Galley where he advised that a similar machine for 220 would cost at least 300,000 pounds.
That is a lot of money for a machine that would almost certainly be used for much less production than that relatively small capacity machine.
5000 rolls per production day being enough to satisfy worldwide demand for all Ilford 120 film. Hmmm.

 

[Graham06]

I enjoyed this. Different style to the recently posted video

 

[MattKing]

Threads combined

 

[Mike Crawford]

I recently interviewed Matt and Michelle from Ilford / Harman for Amateur Photographer about the heritage of the Ilford brand. We covered the importance of bringing in new people which is very important to the company. It is available online here though always prefer seeing it designed and on the page of the magazine! https://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/film/ilford-film-over-130-years-of-film-photography-162039

 

[MattKing]

As I understand it, one of the major reasons that Eastman Kodak agreed to the "How to make film" videos at their site was to aid in their efforts to attract new staff. I'm sure that the same needs are at least partially behind Harman's decision to participate in this video.

 

[Moose22]

Part of my amazement about that confectioning machine is rooted in those old discussions with Simon Galley where he advised that a similar machine for 220 would cost at least 300,000 pounds.
That is a lot of money for a machine that would almost certainly be used for much less production than that relatively small capacity machine.
5000 rolls per production day being enough to satisfy worldwide demand for all Ilford 120 film. Hmmm.

Well, per shift. She said 6 hours, they could be running multiple shifts per day...

which still makes it a very small number at 10 or 15K per day for worldwide demand. At least with historically low margins on film it's still an awful lot of years before you've covered that capital expenditure.

 

[pentaxuser]

Well, per shift. She said 6 hours, they could be running multiple shifts per day...

which still makes it a very small number at 10 or 15K per day for worldwide demand. At least with historically low margins on film it's still an awful lot of years before you've covered that capital expenditure.

That sounds true but we may not know all the econs here. However this ought to restore our faith in Ilford's motives and desire to keep film alive if it does take that long to cover capital expenditure

Maybe Ilford meant it when it said back in Simon Galley's days that it was determined to be the last man standing in b&w

Actually most us here who reply on such matters do have the faith. It tends to be only a few like me who can be of "little faith" at times

pentaxuser

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Always wanted to see how they punch the holes in 35mm film.

Dang.

 

[Tadeusz123]

I agree with the OP, it is refreshing to see how conversational and easygoing the conversation with the employees was. Oftentimes these sorts of "How it's made" videos are filled with ad copy, and you don't get a sense for what the actual process is like on the ground. Maybe this will convince me to pick up a few more rolls of Ilford film, just to do my part!

 

[pentaxuser]

Certainly, Tadeusz123, that was what I saw on my two tours in 2006 and 2008. It really was a relaxed atmosphere In fact we were able to speak to so many people and have them speak to us that it had to be the genuine relationships we were seeing

pentaxuser