Watched nice POLAROID documentary on Netflix...Time Zero: The Last year of POLAROID

Interesting documentary on the last year of Polaroid...got me feeling very nostalgic...a lot of interviews with
people and how Polaroid affected them and such...I'm sure it's been discussed here before. Recently, my
son introduced me to "Snapchat"...I was dumfounded when he told me the picture disappears as soon as you
have looked at it...come again? Why?...he didn't understand my confusion.

I have a book filled with polaroids from my assisting days, complete with lighting set-ups, the polaroids are glued
in the book...personal notes, funny memories...it is such a special thing for me. My son doesn't even grasp the concept of why I print images in the darkroom. Youth is wasted on the wrong people.

When I worked with Martin Schoeller, we shot Warren Buffett in Omaha once...he saw that we shot polaroid for lighting...he told us (circa 2003) that he had thought about buying Polaroid and began asking us why we used it, and about the photo industry...we were selling him on the product I guess. He said the company had been poorly managed over the years. He said, "I appreciate you guys helping me understand the product...you just got another 10 minutes". I guess he never followed through....wish he had.

Neat to see the whole Impossible Project and all.

Polaroid prices

I knew a guy who bought $80,000 worth of Polaroid stock at $2 a share (it went up to over $240 at one time). He asked a neighbor who had a gigantic camera store if he thought Polaroid was a good investment and the camera store guy said "no way." He bought the stock anyway. The camera store guy was totally invested in the film-prints way of doing things and saw Polaroid as a silly fad, not an aid pro photogs and the like, and a fun party thing. A lot of times, the "experts" ain't the people to ask.

Polaroid's a great example of very smart people who lost their way.

Watched the same a few days ago, very well produced and worth watching even if, like me, you dont use instant film.

not available everywhere. Not available in Canada on Netflix or Google Play.

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CropDusterMan said:

Recently, my son introduced me to "Snapchat"...I was dumfounded when he told me the picture disappears as soon as you have looked at it...come again? Why?

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Teenagers sending each other naughty pix

Thanks for the info - I love Polaroid, so I'll have to watch this.

mrred said:

not available everywhere. Not available in Canada on Netflix or Google Play.

Sent from my BS970 using Tapatalk

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How is it not avail? It's on the Internet.

mgb74 said:

Polaroid's a great example of very smart people who lost their way.

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I haven't seen the documentary, but I can recommend Peter Wensberg's "Land's Polaroid" as an insider's history of Polaroid in its heyday under Edwin Land and its transition as Land was forced out.

Land himself had his own blind spots. While the SX-70 was a technical marvel, its was so expensive to manufacture (and to support) that it cut into profitability and growth. Land however refused to allow Polaroid to make and sell simpler and cheaper instant cameras. "By July 1974, just 26 months after the SX-70 was introduced, [Polaroid's] stock had fallen from $149 to $14." (Quote from Fundinguniverse.com) Land was also utterly convinced that Polavision, his instant movie system, would be a big success and spent huge amounts to put it into production, which was the nail in the coffin of his leadership and he was forced out.

Sales peaked in 1991 (ten years after Land departed) and began to decline in 1997. This led to a cycle of aggressive cost cutting, resulting in its (first) bankruptcy in 2001.

cropdusterman: the IP addresses assigned reveal where you are. sites can use this to restrict media access.

mrred said:

cropdusterman: the IP addresses assigned reveal where you are. sites can use this to restrict media access.

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I had no idea...bummer. Maybe you could route your search through Cairo, then Berlin, then Angola like they do in the movies. lol

Up here in British Columbia, Canada, it will air on The Knowledge Network this month.

Sounds like an interesting network Andrew....is it new? I grew up there.

It's been around since '81. It's like PBS. Where abouts in BC did you grow up? I did most of my growing up in Saskatchewan. Moved to BC (Kelowna) my last year of highschool in '80.

FYI: https://www.knowledge.ca/

Grew up in Southern Ontario (Kingston), then was based in Calgary for about 5 years. I have spent a ton of time in the Okanagan Valley...shot a wine calendar there back in 1998,
loved the region...some really good wines too. There is some great photography to be had down in the Okanagan...one vineyard in particular, Blue Mountain Vineyards is
especially pretty.

vdonovan said:

I haven't seen the documentary, but I can recommend Peter Wensberg's "Land's Polaroid" as an insider's history of Polaroid in its heyday under Edwin Land and its transition as Land was forced out.

Land himself had his own blind spots. While the SX-70 was a technical marvel, its was so expensive to manufacture (and to support) that it cut into profitability and growth. Land however refused to allow Polaroid to make and sell simpler and cheaper instant cameras. "By July 1974, just 26 months after the SX-70 was introduced, [Polaroid's] stock had fallen from $149 to $14." (Quote from Fundinguniverse.com) Land was also utterly convinced that Polavision, his instant movie system, would be a big success and spent huge amounts to put it into production, which was the nail in the coffin of his leadership and he was forced out.

Sales peaked in 1991 (ten years after Land departed) and began to decline in 1997. This led to a cycle of aggressive cost cutting, resulting in its (first) bankruptcy in 2001.

Click to expand...

Polavision was a great example of what can happen with one becomes too determined to pursue a dream. Land envisioned instant home movies around the same time he had envisioned instant still photography. Problem was, Kodachrome had already made home ciné a color medium before instant photography arrived, so it was obvious that instant monochrome home movies wouldn't fly. All attempts to find a workable way of forming a subtractive tricolor image on transparent film had failed, only a throwback to the beginning of the 20th century - an additive réseau, was demonstrated. Because of the dark image and obvious screen pattern in an 8mm image, the idea was shelved - but Land's dream never died.

When the first home video systems - bulky systems in which one held a heavy camera and straps held a bulky full-size VHS recorder, and a heavy battery, over the shoulder, and cost about $1K, hit the market in the late 1970s, Land had exactly the wrong reaction to the threat - get Polavision on the market NOW, if it has to be additive, so be it. One wonders where Polaroid could have gone if they had put the money and effort into making a more compact home video system.

It also did not help that one could only see a Polavision movie after the entire cassette had been used, whereas each picture in a roll or pack of still Land film could be developed at once.

I think his successors may have been too greedy for their own good. When they won the patent case against Kodak, they had a monopoly, and knew it. Consumers who did not like the pricing and choices offered by Polaroid, the looked for alternatives to instant photos altogether.

I think that if Polaroid had made the larger Spectra (Image) format their standard, and had maintained the price of the film below $10 USD/pack (the psychologically important "a dollar a pop"), that Polaroid cameras would still be in general use today, beside digital cameras, for different purposes.

I just watched it and it was excellent. Super informative and I think it made a lot of important points about how film and analog photography in general is something crucial to hold onto. I love instant film and I shoot FP100c because its easy to get a hold of and decently affordable, but I will treat myself to Impossible Project film as a way to support. I haven't shot my SX-70 since my last box of 600 film about 5 years ago, I'm excited.