I've skimmed some of these big yellow threads out of curiosity, and generally don't have anything to add, only that I use a great deal of Kodak film so I can only offer the limited view of someone in the trenches. I don't think the problem is not enough advertising. I think the problem is that there's a product that is nearly perfect (I mean Portra and Tri-x are incredible) that has become exceptionally difficult to use. Film is much more difficult to get good results form than digital. The good commercial film techs are a dying breed, even in big cities they're becoming rarer. Man, just try and find a decent scan. Almost everyone I know, especially pros, prefers the look of film, they just jumped shipped b/c of how difficult the workflow became. The problem of usability is what I think needs to be solved.
I've no idea what the answer would be, but film shouldn't be so difficult to use well. Why are the brownie snapshots Kodak sent out 50 years ago so much better than anything being done on a big scale today? Maybe Kodak could go full circle. Send your film back in an overnight mailer, they process it and do really top notch machine scans, not auto stuff, but actually put some good techs into it, upload to FTP, prints, etc, send the film back. But do it really well. Don't try to beat them on price, beat them on quality. Especially the scans, since scanning has always been the weak link in the film chain for prosumer and consumers.
Make it turn key high end. Sort of a portra botique that can remind people how good the stuff is. Get a ton of free coupons out via social media that gives it a test run if you order a 5 pack of film, get people going into it.
Maybe even the same thing could be done for indie and student film makers. In my mind, anything should be possible given the resources and pedigree kodak has on this stuff.
I'm dreaming w/ this stuff. I know. I'm sure there's more problems in those ideas than there is possibilities, but seems like all ideas would be good at this point.
