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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Kodak files for bankruptcy

Kodak, like Smith Corona, did not know what business they were in; Smith Corona thought their business was typewriter manufacturing, Kodak thought they were a film manufacturer. They were both wrong. Smith Corona was in the business of enabling people to communicate and Kodak in the business of making images, both still and moving.
Had Smith Corona produced word processing software they could have been as ubiquitous as Microsoft Word and Kodak should have been successfully competing with Nikon, Canon, Sony, and, of course, Red.
Not just bad management, but blind management. Sadly, they are not alone in this fatal myopia.

Good shooting and best regards to all,
Leo
 
Did anyone notice that everytime Fuji came out with a very competitive film stock with Kodak films, magically Kodak had the next generation film release?? I always felt a bit ripped off by that kind of business model. It is very old school. Just ask Jim Janand. That kind of business philosophy coupled with the accompanying price increase at every new release accelerated their demise in my opinion. The largest Kodak customer was the U.S. Government back in the day, but those days are now gone. They went digital and video years ago for two main reasons. First was security. The unit or activity could keep and control the distribution locally. Secondly, the disposal of expended processing chemicals ceased to become a problem (it was only a problem if disposed of properly). Usually it went down the drain when I was in the Army 40 years ago, but now it is a big issue. Thirdly was the cost, although this didn't seem that important, as we turned huge quaities of film that was in cold storage for it's entire life, only to go unused and turned in because it was outdated.

I have to agree, few things better smelling in the morning than the opening of a film can to get the juices flowing. Love it or hate it, film is on it's way out. Kodak read the tea leaves wrong. The world is changing, and for environmental reasons, the world is going to be better off in the long and short run by going digital. Ones and zeros are easier to dispose of than film and the associated chemicals. Just reformat.
 
It's unfortunate that film is looked with such cynicism and disdain by many on these boards. Oh well, perhaps I'm just a sucker for nostalgia.
 
I like film very much and already saw that still no any digital cine camera system can't get even close to film IQ (Image Quality).

IQ (Image Quality) stands for the following factors in acquisition:

- Sharpness
- Noise
- Dynamic range
- Exposure Latitude
- Tone reproduction
- Contrast
- Color accuracy especially with skin tones at different lighting conditions

Remember when I first time watched in 2K theatre Malick's The Tree of Life shot by Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern, ASC, AMC on 35mm film

it was totally grainless, tack sharp with the best color rendition and accuracy of skin tones and nature.

For this amazing work Lubezki deserves to get his first Oscar for cinematography (2012).
 
The logical consequence of a suitable digital replacement for film is Kodak going under. You have to use pretty tortured logic to decouple the two.
 
Sanjin Jukic said:
I like film very much and already saw that still no any digital cine camera system can't get even close to film IQ (Image Quality).

IQ (Image Quality) stands for the following factors in acquisition:

- Sharpness
- Noise
- Dynamic range
- Latitude
- Tone reproduction
- Contrast
- Color accuracy especially with skin tones at different lighting conditions

Remember when I first time watched in 2K theatre Malick's The Tree of Life shot by Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern, ASC, AMC on 35mm film

it was totally grainless, tack sharp with the best color rendition and accuracy of skin tones and nature.

For this amazing work Lubezki deserves his first Oscar for cinematography (2012).

Finally and hopefully he will get it.
Click to expand...

Sanjin,

It's funny, "Tree of Life" illustrated to me a film worlkflow that was lacking in some regards (when compared to the best digital ones). Not long before watching it, I saw Red's "700 Reel" in 4K at Red Studios. I have to say that the images were stupendous and the resolution advantage readily apparent.

While watching "Tree of Life," I thought on more than a few occasions that I'd like more resolution.
 
Martin Weiss said:
Kodak put up a website with more info about the impacts of their filing for chapter 13: http://www.kodaktransforms.com/
Click to expand...

Yep. But eventually... Now, again just to be clear, I am not being disrespectful. I know what film is, what it did, how far it came... I value Kodak and think of it as an icon. Still, the inevitable truth is that film is on it's way out. There is nothing anyone can do about that. It is just a matter of time and all Kodak can do about that is make the transition gentle for all involved; productions, employees and hopefully the Kodak name.

It will be sad if the name disappears. I know they have tons of patents, but what I'd like is to see someone like Jim buy the bulk of them along with the name, so it can be kept alive in some way, somewhere where it fits and belongs, somewhere where gorgeous image acquisition can continue under the Kodak name. Imagine giving Graeme unrestrained access to Kodak's century of research... Imagine little settings on your Epic and Scarlet like Kodak-5219, Kodak-5213... And knowing these were not reverse-engineered, but Gram-coded to spec... Just sayin'
 
Peter Moretti said:
Sanjin,

It's funny, "Tree of Life" illustrated to me a film worlkflow that was lacking in some regards (when compared to the best digital ones). Not long before watching it, I saw Red's "700 Reel" in 4K at Red Studios. I have to say that the images were stupendous and the resolution advantage readily apparent.

While watching "Tree of Life," I thought on more than a few occasions that I'd like more resolution.
Click to expand...

Already I've got TTOL at Blu-ray and will analyze together with TTSS (getting BDR new week and TGWDT soon).
 
Film remains the bench mark against which we measure images for now at least. I think this is a very sad moment and I say that as an owner of Red and other cameras. I don't know the issues Eastman Kodak have suffered just its not a good moment for our industry. I hope Eastman continue in some form, they certainly have enough patents in imaging technoligy and hope these are put to good use.
 
Sorry if this has already been posted. Just came across this. Make sure you get at least to a minute in. :-)
 
Steve Sherrick said:
Sorry if this has already been posted. Just came across this. Make sure you get at least to a minute in. :-)
Click to expand...

If only the sacked the idiots running the place... and actually watched there own marketing material.

I so feel sorry for the poeple of Rochester.
Upper management should be jailed for the crime of stupidity.
 
One of the biggest projects I have been involved in - if not the biggest - was designing and developing from scratch a film-restoration system for Kurosawa family here in Japan as the Head of R&D and Special Projects for EYEdentify Inc.
This was back in 2005 and I have managed to pull together some of the largest companies in the industry to assist with this project - KODAK including. We had few meetings with the top brass and personally visited the GEH, the museum (including access to non-public areas) and their film lab and R&D center. It was one of the most memorable moments of my life. I felt like I came to the origin, a birth-place of sort for our industry. We saw their camera archive collection (I believe second only to that of Jim). And we brought with us an original camera negative from an unreleased Akira Kurosawa's project - you should have seen how that turned all the senior gentlemen and engineers into teenage boys on a Christmas day. You could feel the passion in every single person we have met - they truly love what they do...

One interesting aspect of my research was an "OPTOARCHIVE" - an archival alternative for digital masters to protect them for 100+ years (KODAK was actually confident about 300+ years figure) - something that is still missing today. It was ironical to us that the true future of film is to preserve digitally shot and finished movies...

I believe that KODAK will get through this difficult time and emerge with new face and strategy. There is very much still a place for KODAK in our industry and will be there for some time to come. Let's hope they can see it before is too late...

KODAK ain't dead...

Peter
 
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