MetaFilter posts tagged with 35mm

"You're no longer in the film business—you're in the Fabergé egg business."

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:31:06 -0800

With 35mm Film Dead, Will Classic Movies Ever Look the Same Again?

"An obscure world of celluloid intrigue"

bubukaba — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:02:53 -0800

"At a time when most old films were still protected by copyright and studios were urging the FBI to prosecute individuals owning copyrighted films, movie collecting was a largely underground and somewhat dangerous activity." In 1977, for example, a 20 year old film collector was visited by the FBI. The agents, posing as fellow collectors, entered his home and seized his collection. His case wasn't unique. Even the stars — most famously, Roddy McDowall — were subject to the legal wrath of the very studios they worked for. Still, some collectors got away with it (including one J. D. Salinger). Though the FBI raids still haunt the collective memory of the hobby, the world has become much safer for film collectors, perhaps because the industry realized — as early as the late '70s — that "as tape and other systems of recording proliferate, film companies will gradually lose control over their product". Today, celebrity collectors like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are known publicly as such (and non-celebrity collectors with colorful personalities get profiled by The Guardian). Collector-oriented festivals like Cinecon, Cinevent, Cinesation, and Cinefest are thriving. Film archivists — notably, Harvard Film Archive, home of the Doc Burr Collection — are interested in them. And some young collectors [previously] have styled themselves as archivists, complete with home preservation projects [previously]. And of course, they're all over the internet, showing off their collections on YouTube, posting pictures of their sweet set-ups, writing how-to websites, and buying and selling on Ebay and assorted private forums.

And we know that everything falls to dust...

bubukaba — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:44:02 -0800

Are small theaters punching a ticket to oblivion? Radical changes in the traditional structure of the lab processing and exhibition sides of the film industry have been filling the lives of small theater operators with uncertainty and worry for the last few years. Will filmstock be the next Kodachrome? (And what will that mean for the future of film preservation?) From the address by Jonas Mekas - Lithuanian survivor of World War II, ebullient émigré to New York City, and groundbreaking maker of films and videos - in the last link. The sound of his voice adds a great deal to it, but some may appreciate a transcription of part of it: "Cinema, filmstocks will disappear - fading out within five.. maybe a little bit longer. But whatever has been made on film should remain and be screened in certain, special places - institutions, museums - only as film. Therefore, every country should build a lab.... Labs made, sponsored by their governements that should continue production of film stocks. All the necessary equipment to develop, to produce prints and projection methods and technology so that films can be projected as films. I'm not [saying] that there should be labs and filmstocks produced for continuation of making films on film. I know that that is not going to happen. But whatever has been produced as film should be always projected, shown, and seen as film. Not as videos. It's completely different. There is a different energy - a different medium. That will have to happen, because what's recorded on film has been recorded during [the] last hundred and some - decades. It's part of our history, of our culture, of our memory. It just cannot be replaced. We have to experience it, see it, live with it. I realize - [this] human obsession to keep everything into eternity. Everything has to survive, everything has to be seen 500 years from now, 1000 years from now. It is a beautiful obsession. And we know that everything falls to dust. Dust. What remains - the whole history of art - is just what is left after all the armies when through, all the disasters, all the dictators, all the fanatics. So whatever is left from past centuries, we treasure, we keep in the museums, and protect, we write dissertations about them. It's only fragments of what humans have left. The same will be with film, the same will be with cinema. Because it's so rare, what is still left. And so many films have disappeared. And it's so precious, what we still have, that we have to do everything to protect it as long as we can."

a shortfilm about cinema itself

andoatnp — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:58:59 -0800

35mm by Pascal Monaco. "»35mm« is a shortfilm about cinema itself. We picked 35 of our favorite movies and tried to simplifly them as far as possible. The outcome is a 2 minute journey through the history of film."

The Secret Police and the 35mm Camera

katillathehun — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:15:44 -0800

In 1934, the FE Dzerzhinsky labor commune in Kharkiv began manufacturing a rangefinder camera that copied the German Leica. Though production has long ceased, FED rangefinders are still widely used and collected today. But the FED and its manufacturer have a tarnished history - some of which is due to a work force comprised of children and criminals, and some owed to its namesake: Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police (NSFW).

Nikon to discontinue some 35mm camera models

atavistech — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 14:06:23 -0800

I've been hearing rumors for a few days that Nikon was planning to stop manufacturing 35mm film cameras. Apparently there is some truth to this, although it does appear that they will continue making their professional F6 and student-oriented FM10 models, as well as some 35mm point-and-shoots for the consumer market.