Well, it’s certainly a sad day for celluloid. Yes, Fujifilm has officially stopped production on motion picture film stock.
In a statement released yesterday the company went on to say:
We would like to thank you very much for your patronage during the long history of manufacture, sales and marketing of these products which will continue to be available until the inventory is exhausted. Please contact our worldwide distributors for availability information.
Fujifilm will continue to provide products and services designed for digital workflow of motion picture production and exhibition such as Recording film for Digital Separation [ETERNA-RDS] for long-term archiving, Imaging processing system [IS-100], and high-performance Fujinon lens for digital motion picture camera and projectors.With an expertise in optics, image processing, storage and archiving, Fujifilm will continue to provide new and innovative products and services to contribute to the creative entertainment and broadcast industry.
This certainly opens up the floor to discussion on how film’s decline will effect cinema, the topic Chris Kenneally explored in his documentary Side By Side—which happens to now be streaming on Netflix. In the doc, speaking to the archival possibilites of film vs. digital, Christopher Nolan noted, "There are no archival formats worth anything in the digital realm that you would put any stock in." In addition, Martin Scorese went on to say, "The only way you can make sure that a film or anything on the moving image is going to be around sixty or seventy years from now, interestingly enough, ironically enough, is celluloid." But on the other hand, George Lucas noted that "there’s too much digital information out there not to figure out a fool proof way to store it forever," with Joel Schumacher adding that "the people who’ve come before us gave the world new ways to dream. I think it’s our job to continue that and to try to give people new ways to dream."
So while you mourn the end of film stock, check out his illuminating doc and peruse our interview with Kenneally from back in September HERE.
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