Kodak plans to revive film infrastructure in country

Pune: After setting up a film processing laboratory in New York, where all the laboratories had shut down, and acquiring another one in London, Kodak is all set to revive the infrastructure around film stock in India. Christian Richter, director (sales and marketing), Asia-Pacific, talks to TOI:

What brings you to India?
We see an analogue resurgence, which we call analogue renaissance, around the world. The climb of films that we have sold has reverted the trend and that is the trend that we want to bring to India. I have come here to study the market and talk to the stakeholders so that we can build required infrastructure around film and provide filmmakers with options that if there is digital cinematography, they can also go back to shooting on film. We already have a distributor in Mumbai. I am also here to see how film can be used as an archival medium.

Why promote film after Kodak was dissolved in 2012?
Kodak went through quite challenging times as an overall company. The motion pictures part as well. It went into a chapter 11 in 2012 in the US. We had to reorganize and reshape the company. At that point in time, we saw a decline in films and we weren't quite sure where the decline stopped. So, at one point around 2013 and 2014, we were not sure if we can keep the factory going and if it will have enough use. What we have done is we have consolidated our footprint.

In India, we think we pulled out prematurely which sent a wrong message into the market. While in the background, when we reached out to the filmmakers in the world, we realised there is a big demand for film which gives us the option to provide a sustainable model. But this decision as far as India is concerned was wrong. So, now we have to reverse this process. We have to make sure that we can prepare an infrastructure that works for us and the filmmakers. We are going to have film laboratories and facilities you need. Film stock will be available at your fingertips.

What is the status of Kodak at present?
Kodak never stopped producing film stock and we have actually sold more film stock this year, so far, than last year. I cannot give you the exact number but in Europe, for instance, in the first quarter of this year we sold twice as much 35mm camera negative film compared to the year before. So, we have doubled our sales and there is global growth right there and we will multiply that by increasing our footprint globally. We are launching a Super 8 camera, which is an analogue film camera. I hope the Super 8 film camera finds great friends among young filmmakers, hobby filmmakers who love to shoot on their smartphones. It will be launched this year.

On recent films shot on film

"Despite the fact that filmmaking has gone digital, there are some film advocates and we are supported by them. Filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, J J Abrams and Alexander Payne are massive supporters of the film format. Martin Scorsese too opts for the medium, to a certain extent."

"The James Bond film 'Spectre' was shot on film, 'Skyfall' was impacted from digital to film quite successfully. Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight' was shot on 35mm film as well as 65mm brought down to 70mm to cinemas for the analogue cinema experience, film on film. We have Christopher Nolan with all his Batman films and Interstellar also shot on film. Star Wars was acquired on 35mm and 65mm. The production just finished shooting in London again. The next episode 8 is again shot on film. The movies will be out end of this year or next year. To add to the list, there is Jurrasic World, Hungarian film Son of Saul which won the Academy Award for foreign film was also shot on 35mm. We have a very high usage in Japan."