Will Kodak’s Filing for Chapter 11 have an effect on Super 8 film?

-A personal statement from Phil Vigeant, President of Pro8mm

When I first worked at Super 8 Sound in the early 1980‘s the problems were the same for Super 8 film as problems Kodak faces with 35mm film today. The market for super 8 film in the early 80’s had dropped so dramatically due to the overwhelming success of VHS that everything crashed. We are not talking about a little dip in sales. We are talking about a crash in sales that resulted in a 90% drop in business. http://www.dtvgroup.com/Super8Sound/


At that time all companies involved in the super 8 industry either went out of business, filed for bankruptcy, or were part of a larger company that could absorb their losses. In this predicament, you have to make a decision: Do you believe in the future of your product or it is just time to call it quits?


I believed that there was a future for Super 8 film and so I went through the pain of taking the company through bankruptcy so that I could re-start the business. If there was no Chapter 11 then Super 8 Sound ™ could not have been reorganized. There would be no Pro8mm, and at the risk of sounding boastful, there probably would be no Super 8 film today. This is the point of bankruptcy. It gives you a chance at life; a new beginning for those that believe in their product for future generations. For us, it gave us the opportunity to invent super 8 negative film, Max 8, and complete workflows so that Super 8 film could be used as a professional production medium.


There are risks to all this and there will not doubt be lots of changes at Kodak. Sometimes the people that take over are not interested in the future of the company and are only interested in disposing of the valuable parts of a business. If you have watched the movie Wall Street (the original) you know what I mean.


We are already feeling some of these changes, which we must intern, adjust to.


As for Super 8 film, Pro8mm has its own Super 8 film manufacturing process, and we have been making Super 8 film since 1992. Although Kodak is our premier supplier and we work very close together, we have other vendors. We have successfully been making super 8 films from Fuji film stocks as well as Kodak film stocks for 20 years now.

Since the big crash in the use of Super 8 film in the early 1980’s as a format for home movies and intro film classes, super 8 film has enjoyed a steady growth in other applications. Super 8 is not part of the crash of current 35mm film sales. It is in fact “it’s own thing.” We hope the leadership at Kodak has the right intentions for the future and will re-start the business, as we did at Pro8mm so generations in the future can enjoy their products.

List of Pro16mm Film Stocks

List of Available Super 16mm Film Stocks ...$45 for stock and processing.

All Pro16mm film are 100 foot daylight loads. Call us at 818-848-5522 to inquire about our all inclusive discounted pacakes of film, processing, prep and clean and scanning on one of our 3 scanning systems, Rank, Y Front or MMII HD!

Pro16/22 – ASA 64 Daylight Negative:
Latitude 5 -stops of saturated grain and color. Super F-64D repackaged to include Pro8mm award winning processing.

Pro16/53 – ASA 250 Tungsten Negative Film:
Latitude 7-stops of fine grain and saturated colors for full chrominance. Eterna 53 stock repackaged to include Pro8mm award winning processing.

Pro16/63 – ASA 250 Daylight Negative Film:
Latitude 7-stops of fine grain and saturated colors for full chrominance. Eterna 63 stock repackaged to include Pro8mm award winning processing.

Pro16/73 ASA 500 Tungsten Negative:
Latitude 7-stops of fine grain. Can easily achieve saturated colors while maintaining the subtle contrasts of skin tone. Eterna 73 stock repackaged to include Pro8mm award winning processing.

Pro16/92 ASA 500 Daylight Negative Film:
Latitude 5-stops of moderate grain. Very forgiving to mixed lighting situations. It is the perfect film for behind the scenes with uncontrolled light. Fuji Reala stock repackaged to include Pro8mm award winning processing.

Super16/65 – ASA 100 B&W Reversal Film:
Latitude 3-stops of fine grain structure. Repackaged from Plus-X reversal film to include Pro8mm award winning processing.

Super16/66 – ASA 200 B&W Reversal Film:
Latitude 3-stops of moderate grain structure. Repackaged from Tri-X reversal film to include Pro8mm award winning processing.

Pro16/Fuji 16mm Stocks are also available in 400’ spools. Other stocks can be ordered upon request based on availability. Additional lab services available, including cross processing, push, pull, and skip bleach. Our DVD demo has sample shots sample of many of the new stocks.