Kodak exits bankrupcy

[Andreas Wideroe]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23774639

[carllooper]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23774639

So, Kodak becomes a digital only company.

The related story, with respect to Kodak's film business, becomes an interesting story:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22351676

C

[aj]

How could Kodak become a digital oriented company?
Supposedly they were to sell their patents to Google and/or Apple at a mere USD billion.
Despite they invented a lot of digital stuff and really knew their thing they got done in by the Asian products digital onslaught.

And of course by their former employer's pension organisation. That is really something.
Isn't supposed to be illegal for a pension institute to invest their capital in the corporation of the employees?
Here in Netherlands it is forbidden and with good reason.

Seems the UK Kodak Pensioners now own the film production department.
Hopefully they will manage to keep it going.
We all need Portra, Tri-X and Tmax. And the Vision things.

[Will2]

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see any reference to the motion picture film business. Consumer film yes, but not motion picture. They are talking about all those kiosks but nothing about what's important to us.

By the way, those photo printers in their kiosks are really great. I'm amazed at the quality at my local drug store's Kodak kiosk.

[Will2]

Ok, looks like the main Kodak company will work on touch screen sensors and motion picture film while the UK Pension plan will control the consumer film and printing business. Strange combination for Kodak if you ask me.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-0 ... york-judge

[marc]

With the push towards digital in Hollywood and with digital projectors in the theaters, Motion picture film use will decline. Imagine how much less film will be used if countless film prints don't have to be made for film distribution.

[Tscan]

With the push towards digital in Hollywood and with digital projectors in the theaters, Motion picture film use will decline. Imagine how much less film will be used if countless film prints don't have to be made for film distribution.

Most big projects still prefer to shoot on film. Print distribution will fall off because the studios are cutting deals with all the theater chains big and small for digital projectors. But film origination will still continue and will benefit from 4K scans and 4K projection. I bet we will see a Vision 4 co,or negative, that will loose the orange mask and be totally designed for digital scanning and projecting.

[marc]

Yeah, I realize that origination is still popular (Tarantino says he'll quit film making if he cannot shoot on film) but the prints comprise a significant portion of film usage. Maybe more than the production. That is a significant decline. I think this will increase the price because it pulls film into an even smaller market.

[JeremyC]

I think prints for distribution went a year or so back. If film is going to survive then this past year coupled with the next couple of years should tell us if Kodak can survive without the print business.

What's happening with archiving on film?

[carllooper]

The market for film has been declining for decades. A shrinking market doesn't mean the manufacturing of film should necessarily cease. The reason is simple enough. As long as there is a market, however small , there are opportunities to "exploit" that market (and I mean that in the best of ways). It just depends on how small the market becomes. It's quite possible the decline will level out and find it's own stable and sustainable level if it hasn't done so already. Time will tell. In principle the market could shrink to just one person who buys film, and one person who makes the film for that person. They could in fact become the same person. What changes along the way is just the way that film is made and the price. But which way the price goes depends on a number of things. It doesn't necessarily mean an increase in cost. Indeed a large market can sometimes cause prices to inflate way beyond their actual cost (given certain monopolistic tendencies). A smaller market can bring the prices back to more reasonable prices. The way film is made need not produce a drop in standards. Indeed the reverse can happen. In a smaller more flexible environment innovation can occur more easily. Where before someone who might have manufactured film just didn't bother to do so, they can become re-inspired. An opportunity to bring to market some ideas about film manufacturing that had been sitting in the laundry cupboard for decades. Ideas more appropriate and workable in a small market than in a big one.

I'm no expert on film manufacturing and associated costs but I know that where ever there is a market for anything, whether small or large (niche or mass market), someone somewhere enjoys (whatever their motive) tapping that market. Indeed consumers become producers. One might start, at a young age buying instant coffee. After a while the taste no longer does it for you. You start buying latte's. You then discover you can get the same hit buying ground coffee and making a cup yourself. Sooner of later you start buying coffee beans and grinding them yourself. You then start buying beans in bulk because it's cheaper. You then start growing coffee beans because that's even cheaper. You then start selling coffee beans because that's even cheaper. You then open a coffee shop. You then find it's cheaper to employ live music on Friday nights than not to do so. Etc and so on.

The systems in place just re-adjust themselves, or recreate themselves, to suit the changing environment.

C

[S8 Booster]

I think it is difficult to predict how raw film makers will have to adhusr in the future as i believe digital imaging has not yet "setteled" ie it is still on a big roll not least through the smart phone photo capacity. I would assume that if a SP wont do it the next stage is a digi photo device not film.

Possibly after the digital overboosting digital imaging has reached some stability or predictability the film-film material makers can get some predictability for their investments in continued film manufacturing. Sort of "source" the market.
I am pretty sure there ekll be some demand for film in the future but the market will have to settle and get predictable some way or another.

In other areas i have seen an interesting trend in that the Chineese bougt tons - i mean litersay TONS of end production of japanese high end electronics before production ended in japan.
Shen no more avail from J you can still buy it from China.

Whithout seeing if this can be somewhat relevant for film i just took a surf over there and found this for the hobby eaw film manyfacturer:
http://m.alibaba.com/product/961450564/ ... graph.html

Internet buzz snd modern logistics could help a lot for the small film material maker. Time will show.

Shoot

[carllooper]

Internet buzz snd modern logistics could help a lot for the small film material maker. Time will show.

Yes, the internet is a godsend for small business. From bricks and motar to clicks and courier.

Film (of the photochemical variety) is a strange medium. I'm quite certain it will survive for a long long time. Those who use it will be those who actually appreciate it, rather than those who, in the past might have just put up with it. If one looks at the history of art technology none of the technologies have ever really disappeared as such. There are plenty of artists who make their materials in more or less the same way they've been made since antiquity. Of course they tend to be a bit easier to make than photographic film. Indeed I imagine video artists (are there any left) would have a hard time making their own video cameras

I guess that's the rub. Film is one of the first industrial age arts to emerge whereas the more traditional art practices (such as painting) are always an easier proposition because they have their genesis in a pre-industrial world. That said, film emerges at the beginning of the industrial revolution, so it isn't something that is too dependant on high tech industrial infrastructure. It would probably be a different story in relation to something like sensor chips.

I'm a tech geek myself, (I can't wait for quantum computers and teleportation) but I'm also completely enamoured with simple technology - not simple to use - but relatively simple to make: drawings, paintings, etchings, ceramics, woodwork, gold and silver smithing, and so on. I like the idea of creativity being more important than the more technical aspects, so the simpler the tech the more opportunity for creativity to pick up the slack. But I do love a bit of tech as well. Interestingly the word "tech" (or technology) comes from the Greek word for art: "techne".

C

[mr8mm]

Check the roster for the new board of directors when the Kodak exits bankruptcy. Financial types, digital types but no one representing film. And to add insult to injury Perez is still on the board. I guess his reward for destroying a company that was an American icon.

J.S.

[Will2]

They'll be looking hard at numbers. If there's money in motion picture film they will keep it around and probably sell off patents and technology when they can't make it work anymore. We can start a Kickstarter campaign to buy the film formulas and equipment!