FILM LAB NY shutting down

[Edward Herrera]

I felt this was big enough news to be placed in the general discussion forum.

 

Read the attachment...

 

Very sad news for all of us shooting film in New York (and the east coast).

Edited October 30, 2014 by Edward Herrera

[Carl Looper]

The "love we share for an image captured on celluloid" is somewhat contradictory to the claim that "standards demanded by the film and television industry have continued to rise".

 

That last line might have been better written as "the standards demanded by the film and television industry have continued to fall".

 

Or perhaps the first line rewritten as:

 

The "diminishing love we share for an image captured on celluloid".

 

Carl

[Bill DiPietra]

It's a business. If they're not making a profit, they aren't going to stick around for the love of it.

 

The ironic thing is that they put this out one day before the Ferrania Kickstarter campaign closed at over $322,000.

[David Cunningham]

It's a business. If they're not making a profit, they aren't going to stick around for the love of it.

 

The ironic thing is that they put this out one day before the Ferrania Kickstarter campaign closed at over $322,000.

 

The likes of Deluxe and Technicolor (Film Lab NY) have a much different market than Film Ferrania's. They are big budget big production companies. In fact, if you Google search for 16mm film lab, they don't even come up. The future of film is the low budget enthusiast like those of us shooting weddings or independent films... and even home movies.

 

Film Ferrania's future consumers are your average joe who wants to shoot his next short on color reversal, or his next wedding... or his son's next Birthday. It may happen to a handful of full-length motion pictures end up using Film Ferrania's products. But, it's unlikely. More likely any major motion picture appearances by Film Ferrania will be in vignettes, etc.

 

Despite their downsize to keep the Deluxe and Technicolor services running in the form of Film Lab NY, it was unlikely it could last forever as they still depended upon both volume and profit, not just breaking even.

 

Although bad for the NYC area and certainly those loosing their jobs, it's probably a good thing for those already on good footing at Cinelab in MA and ColorLab in Maryland.

[Kenny N Suleimanagich]

Pac-Lab just closed too. Not that I mourn the loss of them - have never had good results there - but I do think that this will only make Cinelab stronger. I have yet to use Colorlab, but in terms of working with small productions and having excellent results, you can't beat Cinelab for the East Coast.

[John Holland]

Here in UK we have I-dailies and Cinelab still up and running and very good labs so ship your neg stock over to London!

[Carl Looper]

It's a business. If they're not making a profit, they aren't going to stick around for the love of it.

 

The ironic thing is that they put this out one day before the Ferrania Kickstarter campaign closed at over $322,000.

 

Yes indeed. The expression of love is just pure fluff.

 

It's like saying in your divorce papers, "I'm so sad our marriage had to end. I love you very much, but unfortunately the woman I just met is better".

 

C

[John Rizzo]

This is Truly Sad News, Film lab NY is the last lab on the east coast the Studio Pictures would go to if they are shooting on film.

Last Week 2 major motion pictures shot on the east coast just wrapped The Cohen Brothers 'St James Place' and "Louder Than Bombs" Starring Jesse Eisenberg both done at NY Lab.

Sadly With Film Lab NY out of the equation even the filmmakers who want to shoot film will most likely be forced to shoot digital.

[David Cunningham]

This is Truly Sad News, Film lab NY is the last lab on the east coast the Studio Pictures would go to if they are shooting on film.

Last Week 2 major motion pictures shot on the east coast just wrapped The Cohen Brothers 'St James Place' and "Louder Than Bombs" Starring Jesse Eisenberg both done at NY Lab.

Sadly With Film Lab NY out of the equation even the filmmakers who want to shoot film will most likely be forced to shoot digital.

Jack,

 

Between Cinefilm (http://www.cinefilmlab.com - they do the walking dead), Movielab in MD and Cinelab in MA there should be plenty of professional processing available on the east coast.

[Bill DiPietra]

Film Ferrania's future consumers are your average joe who wants to shoot his next short on color reversal, or his next wedding... or his son's next Birthday. It may happen to a handful of full-length motion pictures end up using Film Ferrania's products. But, it's unlikely. More likely any major motion picture appearances by Film Ferrania will be in vignettes, etc.

 

They'd be very foolish to cater only to enthusiasts.

[David Cunningham]

 

They'd be very foolish to cater only to enthusiasts.

I'm not suggesting that they will intentionally cater primarily to enthusiast. I'm just suggesting that their primary consumer interest will be enthusiasts, not Hollywood

[Carl Looper]

The term "enthusiast" is a good term. I use it myself, on myself.

 

However, this doesn't mean enthusiasts do anything fundamentally different from what Hollywood does. Money (or economy) remains as important to an enthusiast as it does to anyone or anything else. Perhaps even more so because the enthusiast typically has limited resources. However the enthusiast differs somewhat in the sense that money is not primarily the ends, but the means. Hollywood might like to pretend they are enthusiasts as well, synthesising love for film etc, but when push comes to shove, the money as ends, wins out. If only because such huge sums involved, ie. perfectly understandable.

 

But we shouldn't understimate the economics of the enthusiast community. If the 20th century (as much as the new one) tells us anything it's that an enthusiast is not a single person as such, but a category. The "consumer" is an equivalent term. A huge population, the collective budget of which is reasonably significant. It's also a category that has been shaping technology for a long time. While a small quantity of "high end" technologies are created to service that particular caetgory known as Hollywood, a significantly vaster quantity of technology is created for the enthusiast category. There is an economy there. A significant one.

 

The invention of 16mm is an early example of interconnecting with this other economy. Looking at back issues of American Cinematographer from the 1930s, there is complete awareness of this other economy. And it's taken on board, if not without a certain elistism being maintained by the powers that be in Hollywood. However what wasn't fully grasped then is how much this other economy would become so powerful.

 

That all said the power of this other economy is, for the main part, expressed digitally. And Hollywood, if somewhat very late to the party, follows.

 

So what of film technology? What's to become of it? Well it's going to be enthusiasts that carry it on. Who do carry it on. Economics will play it's role as it always has, but it will obviously be a smaller economy. A niche economy. But no less an economy. And theres no reason Hollywood would refuse to interact with such an economy. Hollywood will have it's enthusiasts as well.

 

C

[Bill DiPietra]

I'm not suggesting that they will intentionally cater primarily to enthusiast. I'm just suggesting that their primary consumer interest will be enthusiasts, not Hollywood

 

I doubt they will cater to Holly wood either, but you never know. Look at the classics that were shot with it.