Hello APUG from FILM Ferrania (PART 2)

Roger Cole · May 16, 2016

TheToadMen said:
There is still (cheap) colour negative film from AgfaPhoto available: AgfaPhoto Vista plus 200 and AgfaPhoto Vista plus 400.
Also Agfa slide film: AgfaPhoto CT precisa 100.

See: https://www.macodirect.de/en/film/?p=1&o=1&n=36&s=3

The AgfaPhoto CT Precisa is nothing other than Fuji Provia. Maybe or maybe not an older version of it, but shooting both I can't tell the difference. This lead me to stock up on some Precisa back when the price difference was significant but it doesn't seem to be more than pennies less now, if that, depending on where you get it.

twelvetone12 · May 18, 2016

For the ones who can understand Italian: a very nice documentary, probably shot in the mid-sixties, on the Ferrania factory, with many shots of the interiors, including the power plant, the acetate plant, the big coater ("big boy") and the huge drying tunnel. With the added bonus of music by Bruno Maderna. I wonder how much of the old plant is still there nowadays and I really hope they were able to save the most of it!
(addendum: you can also see the perforating machines that started the whole adventure in action, and also they had a metal workshop just to make the punches!)

Diapositivo · May 18, 2016

Very interesting documentary. I imagine many of these machinery were lost. The large machines taking the paper rolls, for instance, were never mentioned in Ferraniafilm videos.

Maybe people at Ferrania can tell us what was saved among the machinery depicted here.

I hope I will soon see a similar documentary about Ferrania today (with a different soundtrack! Please!).

Nzoomed · May 18, 2016

twelvetone12 said:
For the ones who can understand Italian: a very nice documentary, probably shot in the mid-sixties, on the Ferrania factory, with many shots of the interiors, including the power plant, the acetate plant, the big coater ("big boy") and the huge drying tunnel. With the added bonus of music by Bruno Maderna. I wonder how much of the old plant is still there nowadays and I really hope they were able to save the most of it!
(addendum: you can also see the perforating machines that started the whole adventure in action, and also they had a metal workshop just to make the punches!)

Sweet, ill have to watch this!
It looks a newer film than the older one i saw taken in the 1930's.

Diapositivo · May 18, 2016

It certainly is post-war, it also shows colour film, and the music is certainly post-war. Maderna died in 1973 so this is the other extreme of the dating interval.

Photo Engineer · May 18, 2016

Reminds me of the sound track for "Forbidden Planet" about 1957. I kept waiting to see Robby the Robot.

PE

Nzoomed · May 18, 2016

Diapositivo said:
It certainly is post-war, it also shows colour film, and the music is certainly post-war. Maderna died in 1973 so this is the other extreme of the dating interval.

I have not got time to watch it right now, but here is a picture inside big boy of the drying cabinets.
Does this look familiar to anything in the video?
http://www.japancamerahunter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/03.jpg

Truzi · May 18, 2016

Photo Engineer said:
Reminds me of the sound track for "Forbidden Planet" about 1957. I kept waiting to see Robby the Robot.

PE

I was thinking the same thing.

ericdan · May 18, 2016

I've only ever shot Ferrania's color negative film. Solaris 100 and 400 and they are (last two rolls now) still amazing. Every bit as good as Kodak or Fuji films. That being said, Provia is so good, it'll be hard to justify buying another slide film.

Andrew O'Neill · May 18, 2016

I watched the whole thing. The music and sound effects were beyond creepy. Enjoyed the visuals, though!

twelvetone12 · May 19, 2016

I think the video is definitely in the beginning of the sixties, because 3m bought Ferrania in 1964 and then completely halted the production of movie film (on youtube there is another italian docu on Ferrania's color movie film with shots taken from this video!). It also mentions that the factory just celebrated 40 years of activity. Too bad the music cannot be turned off
BTW the other documentary (quite boring...) says that color film was originally developed in Ferrania in 1947-1949, with the help of engineers brought in from Agfa. I would be curious to hear the story of the modern emulsions Film Ferrania is making!

Diapositivo · May 19, 2016

Nzoomed said:
I have not got time to watch it right now, but here is a picture inside big boy of the drying cabinets.
Does this look familiar to anything in the video?
http://www.japancamerahunter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/03.jpg

I don't remember the details, many scenese were taken in safety lights during the actual production so in many instances the machinery is not really visible.

RattyMouse · May 19, 2016

ericdan said:
I've only ever shot Ferrania's color negative film. Solaris 100 and 400 and they are (last two rolls now) still amazing. Every bit as good as Kodak or Fuji films. That being said, Provia is so good, it'll be hard to justify buying another slide film.

How about the idea that you are supporting a company that relies up on film and so is fully dedicated towards its future? We have clearly seen, countless times, that Fujifilm will cancel a film without notice. You think Provia's future is secure? That would be a serious error on your part. Fujifilm has shown ZERO commitment to film.

Ferrania, on the other hand, their very existence relies on their film sales.

It's your choice who you support.

fdonadio · May 19, 2016

Photo Engineer said:
Reminds me of the sound track for "Forbidden Planet" about 1957.

IIRC, it was 1956. The "Forbidden Planet" soundtrack, produced by Louis and Bebe Barron, is considered the first electronic music album ever released.

The Ferrania documentary is nice, but I find the music quite disturbing. Sounds like a visit to a mad scientist haunted mansion!

Cheers,
Flavio

Diapositivo · May 19, 2016

fdonadio said:
The Ferrania documentary is nice, but I find the music quite disturbing. Sounds like a visit to a mad scientist haunted mansion!

True. Probably they wanted to give the idea of modernity, complication, high-tech, brains of the future at work. It certainly did not work then, and works even less now.

Vonder · May 19, 2016

RattyMouse said:
How about the idea that you are supporting a company that relies up on film and so is fully dedicated towards its future? We have clearly seen, countless times, that Fujifilm will cancel a film without notice. You think Provia's future is secure? That would be a serious error on your part. Fujifilm has shown ZERO commitment to film.

Ferrania, on the other hand, their very existence relies on their film sales.

It's your choice who you support.

Wouldn't it be interesting if in the end, it all came down to Ilford's B&W offerings and Ferrania's one color slide film? Since there's no Cibachrome nor equivalent any more, any slides we wanted to print would have to be scanned first, then digitally printed. Would that, since it'd be the LAST color printing methodology, be considered the "new traditional" and be discussed openly, without shame, on APUG?

BTW, if Ferrania handles their film sales and distribution like they've handled their (infrequent and often useless) updates I'd expect them to fold in short order.

pbromaghin · May 19, 2016

fdonadio said:
The Ferrania documentary is nice, but I find the music quite disturbing. Sounds like a visit to a mad scientist haunted mansion!

Cheers,
Flavio

I couldn't take it. Turned it down and watched in silence.

Photo Engineer · May 19, 2016

Diapositivo said:
I don't remember the details, many scenese were taken in safety lights during the actual production so in many instances the machinery is not really visible.

Except for the narrow isles between plenums and the lack of transparent doors, it looks like a Kodak machine.

After all, there is a limited number of ways for this to be done.

PE

MartinCrabtree · May 19, 2016

Wolfeye said:
BTW, if Ferrania handles their film sales and distribution like they've handled their (infrequent and often useless) updates I'd expect them to fold in short order.

Owning and having worked for Italian motorcycle makers you cannot tell from the info you refer to. Those guys have a passion Americans cannot grasp. And they get the job done in a rather spectacular fashion when driven by it. We'll see........soon I hope.

AgX · May 20, 2016

Nzoomed said:
Im excited that they plan on making high speed E6 again, Ferrania had the fastest (3200 ISO) E6 film on the market at one time, ...

To be precise, it was a ISO 400 film optimized for "Push 3" to EI 3200 .
Kodak offered the same time a similar film.

The fastest-ISO slide films came from Agfa and Ferrania: ISO 1000 .

Nzoomed · May 20, 2016

AgX said:
To be precise, it was a ISO 400 film optimized for "Push 3" to EI 3200 .
Kodak offered the same time a similar film.

The fastest-ISO slide films came from Agfa and Ferrania: ISO 1000 .

OK, so you had to push process it to that speed?
I see they has ISO 1600 listed also, i assume this had to be pushed to that speed too?

cuthbert · May 20, 2016

Anybody have any update from them? They are one year back in the schedule at this point, the video is interesting but were are not in 1965 anymore.

railwayman3 · May 20, 2016

cuthbert said:
Anybody have any update from them? They are one year back in the schedule at this point, the video is interesting but were are not in 1965 anymore.

Their updates on the website seem comprehensive ? Obviously they have had unforseen problems, beyond their control, like the asbestos issue and the delays with local authorities, but, as MartinCrabtree says, when Italians really want to do things, they usually stick-at-it, and do them rather well.

Nzoomed · May 20, 2016

railwayman3 said:
Their updates on the website seem comprehensive ? Obviously they have had unforseen problems, beyond their control, like the asbestos issue and the delays with local authorities, but, as MartinCrabtree says, when Italians really want to do things, they usually stick-at-it, and do them rather well.

These guys are totally dedicated, driving hours to the plant each day working round the clock 24/7, they are committed to getting this to work.

twelvetone12 · May 21, 2016

I got this is my "related videos" fro the previous one, it is fantastic. It is one of the last runs of the big coater at Ferrania. You see the drying tunnel when drying inkjet paper and, one of the control rooms for the coater (or coaterS? it says number 6 in the video!) and lastly the actual coating room and coating head during the startup of the coating operation! From the images posted by Ferrania you can see it is the same equipment. I really hope that the bulk of this machinery is safely in storage now.
@PE are they in any way similar to those in use at Kodak?

Hello APUG from FILM Ferrania (PART 2)

Moderator

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency