Kodak Building 58 Film Finishing circa late 90s internal video

[KyleMika]

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this, but I found this DVD and had to share it. It appears to be an internal video of some kind showing off how Kodak finishes the film products, back in their peak in the late 90s. It's VERY 90s, and it's frankly amazing. I find it further interesting since B58 of Kodak Park was imploded in the late 2000s, leaving nothing behind. It's an incredibly rare look inside manufacturing of the time, I hope you all enjoy.

 

[ChrisGalway]

Thanks for posting this ... there have to be lots of other videos on others parts of Kodak and I hope some of them are found and posted!

 

[Tel]

Interesting evidence of the extent to which Kodak designed and manufactured its own production line machinery. And the scale and speed (and precision) of these operations explains why it's been so difficult for others to replicate--the video helps to show why others, like Ferrania, have had such a struggle to get production restarted. It reminds me of 2001, when I was in a tour group at Kodak Park watching their engineers working on a design for 35mm movie projector gates that would minimize chatter and ensure that the film would lie perfectly flat at the moment of projection. Esoteric stuff indeed.

 

[bfilm]

Interesting evidence of the extent to which Kodak designed and manufactured its own production line machinery. And the scale and speed (and precision) of these operations explains why it's been so difficult for others to replicate--the video helps to show why others, like Ferrania, have had such a struggle to get production restarted. It reminds me of 2001, when I was in a tour group at Kodak Park watching their engineers working on a design for 35mm movie projector gates that would minimize chatter and ensure that the film would lie perfectly flat at the moment of projection. Esoteric stuff indeed.

Yes, it was quite interesting to see. Although, it does seem like some of the complexity came from their desire to make the machines high-speed. There was mention of an older perforating machine. It is possible that a small volume maker could approach things a bit differently. Nonetheless, photographic film manufacture certainly requires great knowledge, skill, and coordination.

 

[mshchem]

Very cool!

 

[FredK]

Building 58 was torn down by wrecking ball and not imploded due to its proximity to the coating machines in Building 29 & Building 38. Imagine 400+ perforators all running and vibrating at slightly different levels. There were times when they would seem to fall in step and the vibrations were so great we all looked at each other and thought "this is the end...it's coming down".

As for the comment by bfilm, the production was made to highlight new technologies for the intended motion picture film users / production companies / printing companies audience. In order to do that, some technologies such as high speed perforating were shown while, at that time, were not employed for motion picture films out of Rochester. High speed perforating was used one consumer and professional films then (most of those films, but not all).

As for those gold cans, in the kick-off meeting that discussed the "New Look" packaging for VISION films, the marketing & sales rep tried to sell the idea by stating. "Why would you want the silver when you can have the gold?" Never have been a big fan of the gold cans.

For the poster of the video on Youtube, did you receive clearance to post this and all the other productions that have some level of copyright on them? You should reach out to Kodak to confirm clearance for your own good.