How Does Kodak Make Film? (Kodak Factory Tour Part 2 of 3) - Smarter Every Day 275
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2ND CHANNEL VIDEOS
Kodak's Film Quality Control Process - Smarter Every Day 275-B
• Kodak's Film Quality C...
The Chemistry of Kodak Film - Smarter Every Day 275-C
• The Chemistry of Kodak...
PART 1
How Does Kodak Make Film? (Kodak Factory Tour Part 1 of 3) - Smarter Every Day 271
• How Does Kodak Make Fi...
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The awesome people at Indie Film Lab is putting on a "Long Live Film Workshop" on October 17-20, 2022. It's a gathering of professionals, hobbyists, experts, and beginners alike, all with one thing in common - a love for the art of film photography. If you're interested, there's a FAQ and registration form here: www.longlivefi... .
Here's a video Jeff said did a good job explaining the chemistry of film:
• ADVANCED EMULSION: Sil...
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Warm Regards,
Destin
I work in this building at Kodak and do various types of testing. I am still a newer employee and this was so helpful for me to understand the whole process and how so many things might impact the final product. I heard supervisors saying they were going to have new employees to the building watch this video so that they can get a better understanding of what they are doing as well. Very awesome video. I can't wait until part 3.
I love this!!!
Sarah - what a great endorsement for Destin and his crew that Kodak would use his videos to help with employee orientation.
Who's Justin?
Wow, that's an unexpected new audience for Destin. He's pretty much a trusted expert.
I was going to make a comment to this effect (that this seems like a good onboarding instructional video). That's awesome that it's true.
This whole thing is an incredible display of the economies of scale. It’s such a wildly complex process, requiring a lot of space, machines, energy, and people to be involved, but yet film is relatively cheap. That’s really an amazing thing to see, thanks for sharing.
Man, film is not cheap 🥴
@@crazyirishman121 yes, film is cheap enough. I mean I grew up in a lower-middle-class family in a 3rd world country (Argentina) and we could afford a roll of film a month or every couple months, so we could have some photos. Maybe we had a crappy plasticky camera with only a flash as the only /flashy/ feature, but now we have a good amount of memories in print
@@coski87 Print is superior to digital.
@@joekenorer what is print? Is that just all physical forms of photography and video? Also I am curious as to why you think so?
@@joekenorer sorry lot of questions, but I am interested : )
This dude explaining everything, I love him. He knows what he's doing, knows how to explain it in a not super simple but very understandable way. Could listen to him all day about his work.
i find it wholesome how nervous he is and how exhausted he gets while talking because of it
@@H4RD That's probably caused by his weight. Not his nervousness.
He looks like John Goodman
It is great to see people so passionate about what they do for a living.
@@H4RD yea, poor guy was just out of breath doing his best to show everything in a timely fashion I'd say. I don't think it was nerves, he was well spoken and level headed.
I worked at Kodak from 1976 to 2006 in Rochester. I was fortunate to have worked in support of film manufacturing all those years and spent 12 years in the Film Sensitizing area as a conveyance engineer responsible for a variety of process equipment. I worked in the older coating machines that were built before that machine shown in this video, which weren't quite as sophisticated as this machine. But, the older machine were just as thoughtflly designed, constructed and operated as this one, since that excellence is what enabled Kodak to make world class products affordably and reliably. Kodak was always about quality and excellence. I want to thank Kodak for allowing this tour and documentation because it illustrates the character and ability of the people who made the company great.
Those machines were 2 stories tall. I used to clean them on the inside with solvents.
Big thanks to Kodak for an extensive tour. They were really generous with their time and details they shared. The thing is 20 years ago, it would be impossible, as there is so many proprietary tech and engineering tricks shown here, but as now there is basically no competition in the field, it can be finally reveled. You are looking at combined million hours of engineering efforts and improvements.
The laminar flow layering and curtain is super smart and mind blowing.
if i would need to build that machine I would never ever think to use mix three liquid layers together in once (avoid mixing). I would appllied one layer and dry it, secod layer and again dry it, and so on to many layers. I am very surprise what they (KODAK) invented and it works well
It would be interesting to know how the competitors did it in the day? I imagine the theroy of the process at least got out but if the others copied it or not would be interesting to know. There were a lot of film manufacturers back in the day, not just in the west but in europe, russia, asia and the baltic states. I wonder if any of them had this level of tech?
I was having the same thought - how on earth are they disclosing all these trade secrets, the results of literally a century of massive investment in research and development... and then I was like, oh yeah - it's film. Who would care any more? (In a business sense).
I had no idea Kodak uses LAMINAR FLOW to make film. Imagine my surprise when I walked in and saw this beautiful waterfall and realized what was happening! If you feel like this content is worth your time and you'd like to enable me to keep making stuff like this, please consider supporting on Patreon. www.patreon.com/smartereveryday . If you enjoy the channel, that's the single best way to help. Thank you!
Love your Channel. so happy the second part is finally here.
@@平和-v1z We're still working on it! Beta testers are testing early versions of screens now.
Why are the posters in the main control room blurred out? They don't look particularly inappropriate, nor would i expect them to be in a workplace.
I had no idea Kodak is alive
Who knew that film is not vegan!
Wow this was amazing. Had no idea it was on that scale and have been near that plant many times.
These videos make me feel dumber every minute.
That's only a small portion of the original plant that's being used today. Can you imagine the size and scope of the operation when literally everyone shot film back in the day? It would have been many times bigger in scale and many more employees involved and round the clock operation. Even at this level, it seems overwhelming and it's amazing what they accomplish.
It's sad to think of what Kodak and rochester used to be, I wish I could have worked there with my grandfather back in the day
I'm Kodak's scanner tech for this coating machine but somehow I missed Destin coming through, ugh! Wish I could've talked to him and shown how we scan our products for defects!
If anyone has any questions about the process, just let me know!
There's a little wobble you can see at 18:34 at the lower edge, where the "waterfall" hits the slanted cover - is that the vaccum that Jeff mentioned at 26:04 starting up or settling in?
Oh, and I don't think they mentioned the speed of the process - how fast is the film running through? How long is a complete roll? At how many points is something actually touching the web - even with the low friction air cushioning, somehow you must pull the whole thing through the machine? How long does it take to re-thread a new web if the web fails? Does that ever happen?
How has Kodak's process for scanning for defects changed over the years? (And where is the process now?)
I'd be pissed if Destin came to my work and nobody came and told me! 🤣
How often do you find defects in the film? Is the whole roll scrapped or what? Can you give us a brief rundown of the process? If you can turn it into a brief rundown, that is.
@@arghgrmbl that's a very good question and I honestly don't know! I would imagine that's what it is because the coater should be static at that point. We coat rolls anywhere from 275fpm to 950fpm, depending on the product. Our quickest roll cycles are about 8 minutes while our slowest could be 25 or so.
Another thing about this is that Kodak is probably going to get more business from this than they think... Showing exactly how you make your products and all this stuff is so refreshing for a company to do. Showing us and educating us lets us really appreciate their product even more. Especially from those of us who are not photographers.
Yeah except they are gonna lose the vegan customers lol. I'm not vegan but learning that film contains animals products was a shock to me and I'd bet most vegans have no idea either.
@@mikedrop4421 I'm pretty sure vegans know that gelatine is in almost everything... also, I would be more worried about Muslims not some tweekers who only eat mashedpaper
I want Film for my 45 year old 35mmcamera , I also want 120mm film for my dad's 70 year old camera. Thanks Kodak ❤️👍😃
It made me appreciate it so much more.
I'm looking into buying a camera, I'm adding a film camera to the list. Just because of the technology and human innovation behind each picture.
@@OnceUponReddit minolta. Never fails reliable as an ak. Cheap lenses. A goody of a camera. A surgeon of a camera would be a nikon. But pricey. A capitalist camera that works fine is a canon.
When is part 3 coming?? I check every week!
I'm starting to think it will never come out :(
I was wondering when this episode would be published. And now I have something to look forward to when I'm done at work. 😊
Same
Totally I was just wondering the other if he had to pull the video, or what ever happened - since so much else came out in the mean time !
Same!
Eehhhh. Watch it on the clock. :)
What keeps me coming back to this channel, time after time (and paying a few bucks, month after month), is your deeply infectious curiosity on how literally everything works. I would NEVER have thought film was interesting, but I've been waiting (impatiently) since the "accumulator" video for the rest of the process. Thanks for sharing all of this ... very cool.
2:59 Huh…so the “3D pipes” screen saver we all ran in the 90s was really Kodak crowd-sourcing optimized factory layouts? Neat!
Best comment!
Thom my dad and I worked at Kodak. I did a couple summers in college and he did almost 30 years. I’m totally sharing your comment with him!
Of course, you just unveiled a massive conspiracy!
This series is fantastic! love your work, but where is the 3rd video? I can't find it
When is part 3 coming? Part 2 was so Interesting, thanks for creating this series!
I would also really like to see it.
Also waiting for it, hopefully Destin didn't forget about it... 😅
I feel like part 3 got swept under the rug 😢
Still eagerly awaiting part 3 as well!!
Part 3 link ?
This is an incredible process. Looking at it from the outside I can see a LOT of steps that look like they would need to be tuned one by one that are pretty much total failure points. Did you get any info about how they tension the support as it goes through the dryer? I'd imagine that even with all the air-hockey rollers and supports and whatnot, you can't just pull from the end - maybe just for the drying though that's ok? do the air "supports" have angled outputs to propel the substrate forwards? would that need to be regulatable by tilting, or by turning some of the angled jets off? seems like a lot to think about.
Thanks for all the videos like this that take something presumably mundane and show there's fantastic science underneath it all!
In your cyanotype camera project, have you considered making your own photographic paper for visible light?
There's a few decent papers on float ovens, using the input hot air to float the strip. Its used in the metal painting industry pretty commonly
When they were looking at the film in a line of air-rollers slightly overhead it looked like the line doesn't just blow air but also pulls air in between every two blower rows, and the film looked tensed. If they were using conventional rollers, the film would probably be going over-under the rollers, with adjustable rollers here and there to tension it. So I think that in the air-conveyor, the blower rows create the 'over' and the vacuum rows create the 'under'. By adjusting the positive or negative pressure they can tension the moving film and it could theoretically work the same to hold it suspended place but still under tension.
Love the channel btw!
Brian, I used to work for Kodak so I can answer your questions. Kodak has been improving those steps for over 100 years. Yes, any one of those processes can cause a problem, but they have evolved over those years with trial and error/research to get to where they are now. It is incredible. Their film lines do have multiple tension zones as you surmised. They generally are isolated into sections of the machine, i.e. unwind to just before coating, then just after coating to keep the tension consistent in the coater, there might be multiple zones in the dryer sections because they are so long, etc. down the line. The control systems are amazing to keep the speed/tension in sync throughout the machine. The air supports are not angled as far as I am aware. I'm not sure if Kodak has any, but there are air bars called airfoils that use strategically placed slots where the air comes out and can hold the moving film very close to the air bar and keep the film from flopping around. Have a good one. Love your channel too!
They had tension rollers in strategic locations, but they usually only touched one side. The whole place was amazing and there was a lot we didn’t have time to get into. The final accumulator for example… it was all in the dark so I didn’t get to see it while I was in that building.
I work as a coating process engineer and i love this series, so cool to see other companies coatings
Is it different then what you're used to?
@@sonman3694 yes, this is curtain coating, I do slot die and comma roll coatings. But the web i use now is copper and aluminum foil so the web handling is a bit different because it requires much higher tensions and i can touch my coating without worrying about scratching, drying is similar but much much shorter in length.
@@PascalLiddane Batteries?
@@PascalLiddane What's the difference between the kinds of coating?
Destin thank you so much for this series. My dad spent 34 years at Kodak in these very same buildings and never quite understood exactly what he did. Tomorrow we are going to sit down and watch these first two episodes and I cannot wait to hear his input. My dad is my hero and a man that I have so much respect for. My grandma, Grandpa and many other family and friends made their entire careers in these same buildings. It's a huge part of Rochester New York and it makes me very sad what happened to this company and how many people's lives were destroyed when they did what all corporations do but we won't go into that. I'm just glad that you are preserving what's left of a icon in the film industry. Thank you from the bottom of my heart you're a good man and I always look forward to your next videos. I have three old Kodak cameras in my grandparents basement (now my dad's house) that I plan on reviving and using and I thank you for recommending this idea. I can't wait to get started
That's great, wish we could all hear his input too!
I'm curious about your dad's input!
Am interested to hear what your dad actually did in there!
@@nzoomed most of his career he ran and worked on the machines that put the small holes on the edges of the film called perforations. Towards the end of his career things started moving towards the digital end
@@ryanshadders750 ok, looks like he was involved in the conversion process mostly, still would have been an interesting job. I'm assuming he would have got to see how the film was coated like Destin has been taken around the facility?
Loved this Destin. Glad you're doing long-form content despite potential algorithmic disadvantages.
Currently it is at a disadvantage, but you never know when the algorithm will change. Videos that he invested a lot of time into like this will be the thing that keeps him on top of his niche! The algorithm changes because of content creators actions. You never know if this video is part of what makes it change in the future to go back to favoring long form videos in the suggested content portion of TH-cam.
@@SomeDumbTrucker 2 months later and Im coming back to watch again and noticing things I hadn't before - heres hoping the algorithm starts preferring longer form videos!
If you're at this level you don't have to care about such things. No hate tho, Destin is super cool and I appreciate the amount of work he put in this film.
Destin, I just hope you can step back and see what you're doing with in depth videos like this. Sure, they're entertaining and fun, but you're creating historical artifacts. You're making certain that people like Jeff, and the systems they create and caretake have a little place recorded in history.
Truly a worthwhile endeavor. Thank you.
Yep!!!!! And the viewers are so thankful. Let's keep enjoying this for as long as possible so it remains in the light.
When your process by itself prevents competitors from even trying... then there is no more secrets of manufacturing to hide... just love it
WOW, what about AGFA and Fuji?
@@ErikVangeel Those companies already exist and are probably also using mostly equipment from the same era. NEW competitors, however, might be locked out for the foreseeable future by the steep wall of the initial investment required to play the game.
@@EisenFeuer Kodak actually takes a loss on their film. Most of their business comes from helping other businesses stuff, and mostly in the digital space.
Nobody would start making film because of this.
It's like ink for your printer. They sell you the printer at a loss, and making all the profit on the ink. Nobody would start just a printer business without selling the ink, unless you were making specialized printers
@@EisenFeuer theres been a decline of film ever since the rise of the digital era
Shamalama Dingleberry they take a loss on all film or just consumer photographic film? PCB masks for electronics and X-ray film probably bigger?
Stuff like this always makes me wonder "how does a roll of film not cost $100". The amount of engineering is crazy.
Cost over quantity over time. 60,000 rolls of film at avg $8 a roll. $480,000 grossed in that time frame to make a master roll!
@@lancemccoy237 Well the quantity isn't like it used to be. These Kodak machines probably were build at a time where nearly a billion rolls of film were sold per year (ofc not only Kodak but they had a huge share of that market. For example Adox got many of the medium to small sized machines from Ilford because the big ones are hard to run economically. If you compare the prices of film over time especially looking at the cost of materials it's insane that they are this "cheap".
think about the engineering and machining skills needed for all this - used to live in Rochester - need to see if they offer tours
Kodak aerochrome😳
Because 1 massive roll = 60,000 canisters of 36 exposures.
1 Roll can make 2.1 million photos.
Even if it cost $1 million per roll to make, each photo would cost $0.50 so they need to sell at least $18 to break even on a roll.
Thanks KODAK for allowing this visit. Absolutely fascinating and mind boggling more involved than one could ever imagine. Well done to the team for capturing this and sharing. I will NEVER look at a roll of film the same way again!
Working at Agfa-Gevaert for 37 years as coating technologist it's amazing to see how Kodak approached the coating and drying of film.
Although mainly the same technology as Agfa uses, there are differences interesting to see. Years ago what is shown here would be TOP SECRET and we would have been looking and analyzing this video with lots of managers, technologists and technicians. As classic silver based photography is in a decline for some years, interest nowadays disappeared dramatically. Most interesting for me was the set-up of curtain coating as it was my speciality for many years. Well done!
Tell us! How did Agfa do it different?
Wow! That would be awesome! I wanna know the details!
Honestly I’ve given up on part 3. There are numerous replies in the comments asking about it and neither he or someone from his team ever replies that I have seen. Just make a statement and put it to rest already. Yes there is a part 3 or no there won’t be a part 3. Is it in limbo due to technical issues or legalities, just say so. If it’s never coming out, just say so. I applaud the work on first two undoubtedly, but a cliffhanger without an ending is lame without explanation saying why.
my grandmother worked for Kodak in the 1920's, my father in the late 1930's up until WWII.. Imagine what ti took to create the film before all the robots, titanium plates, etc, thank you so much for connecting me with a part of my family history.
I was thinking about that. I imagine they had teams of workers who were very skilled at moving things around and getting processes done in total darkness.
This is genius. I'm so happy that I get to live in an age where a smart inquisitive person gets to go to really interesting places, talk with knowledgeable and dedicated people, then bring everything learned to the masses. Cheers, mate. 👍
I completely agree. I am amazed an feel blessed each time we get to see such a video! Thank you Destin! & Kodak
I agree 100%. Destin, we are all lucky to have you in our lives and are lucky that you garner the respect of folks who let you into these situations (Rocket factories, Submarines and now Kodak!)
Free for the end viewer as well, truly spectacular.
i cant wrap my head around how someone would even start developing such a production process. this is incredible
It didn't happen overnight. It started with a single wet layer, moved to gel, then moved to multi-layer.
And they started in the 40s
Not the work on one dude.
It's a cooperative and iterative process.
Human progress upon human progress
Things happened over years if not decades
You start with a simple idea, you make it, it works, you then wanna make it better, it works and so on.
@@MichaelSteeves I always have to remind myself when seeing massive production lines or factories that one person didn't just figure it out and build it in a few months.
Thank you for this great video. I worked 33 years in the Research Labs at Kodak and was always told that coating and emulsion prepartaion was proprietary and hidden behind the "silver curtain." I was never able to get behind that door, in spite of the fact that I was a "film builder." I can now look at what I was able to accomplish there in the Research Labs with a sense of awe considering all of the coatings and chemicals we tested while building films.
This is one of those things that is truly mind blowing.
I can see why it was proprietary then, I applaud Kodak for being so open now.
I hope it bring appreciation and new interest in film
@@OnceUponReddit I just hope it'll bring China to produce Kodak-quality film at a ⅒ of the price cause goddamn
@@GuillaumeishThere’s a good reason it should be made here too. In China when a command comes from up top they can scrap the whole factory if they decide not to mess with film anymore as a strategic decision of some sort. If the last factory that does this process drops offline, a good chunk of a billion dollars worth of knowledge will evaporate within months. And if for whatever reason we’ll need to go back, we’ll have to pay for Al this again. That would be a big waste.
@@Guillaumeish Sadly no way.Though China owns millions of cheap laborer and many chemical manufacturers,the whole suppy chain of photography industry had already been distroyed since 2012,that Lucky stopped producing their last color film.Several months ago,some managers of Lucky told that they even cannot find all dyes and other chemicals color film needs.
Nowadays,only B&W film can be easily re-manufacture again like what Lucky does.Just because they keep making film for military usage.But for them,making metal cans can be a problem,so don't keep an incredible expectation.Btw,ALL Chinese enterprises that made high-quality photography material had died for more than 10years.Not only Shanghai but also ERA.
This is the best factory walkthrough I have ever seen. One of my favorite things that's popular on youtube currently, and you just absolutely set a new bar.
ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴇᴇᴅʙᴀᴄᴋ sᴇɴᴅ ᴍᴇ ᴀ ᴅɪʀᴇᴄᴛ ᴍsɢ ɪ ʜᴀᴠᴇ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ sʜᴀʀᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜ🔝✍️❤️....ʷʰᵃᵗ’ˢ ᵃᵖᵖ┼¹⁵⁰²²⁰⁹⁹⁵¹⁹
A year ago a certain video was posted on this channel that led to a severe and debilitating addiction in my life. I have so far collected 14 camera's in 3 formats, a large format camera is on the way, and I have to keep a second refrigerator for my film. Most of the storage space in my house is now taken up by chemistry for color, black and white and paper. A whole room of my house has now been taken over by my darkroom requirements.
Destin is responsible... There must be justice...
Kidding aside, these videos have without a doubt played a significant part in bringing back analog photography. Huge thanks, the hobby and learning more about it is awesome.
Also, when is the video coming about escapements?
Film photography is on it's way back? Good! But, someone might want to let Kodak know. It's near impossible to find any information about their photo film offerings on their company website.
I wonder if I go to Apple's website if I'll have any difficulty finding information about the iPhone?
I've spent 12 years in eCommerce and marketing. These are mistakes that the local dentist makes with their website, not mistakes large publicly traded companies should be making.
Feel like you should touch on how Kodak discovered that the US government was doing nuclear testing because the radiation was pre-exposing the film across the US. And then how the US then paid off film production companies for any exposed film and to keep quiet
Not to mention, the nuclear reactor Kodak ran in the basement of one of their buildings in Rochester with the government supposedly not aware of it.
There’s a Veritasium episode on this topic.
@@jstreutker except it wasn't a nuclear reactor, just a neutron source. Sure, you could argue there isn't much of a difference, but there is. For starters, there aren't too many nuclear reactors that are the size of a typical single door, household refrigerator.
Veritasium and SED are buds, and Veritasium already made the quintessential video on this subject.
@@EisenFeuer I know, but a lot of people don't know about it and it would greatly illustrate how sensitive film is.
I started photography and filmmaking in 1982 at the age of 12, and have never stopped. Digital just never did it for me. I've also worked in film archiving and preservation and can identify almost any Kodak stock made since the 1950s. Seeing this video is very emotional for me. To finally see a process I tried to imagine but was never really sure about. To know the faces and voices involved--it's like I already knew them in some way. How very small one's individual perspective can be. This video is really important--expansively important! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for it, and especially I wish I could shake the hand of every one of the kind and very real people at Kodak who have played such big role in my life for these 40 years.
You can always pay yourself a trip and visit. I would do that.
As a Photographer, I have used literally 10's of thousands of rolls of film in the day before everything went Digital. I worked for Kodak in 1988 for a few years and never did I ever realise how intricate and high tech making film was.
I am truly moved by this vid. I'm going to go and dust off some of the old camera's I kept, go get some film and enjoy and remember where I started. Thanks for the best vid I have seen in a VERY long time.
Once again you make a video that feels like the most interesting thing you've ever shown. Jeff is something else, this video wouldn't have been the same without him. Did anyone notice how the film caskets in storage kind of looked like a bunch of giant film canisters? I love how they go from giant rolls to little rolls.
matryoshka canisters (Russian dolls)
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It's just really big film.
I find the storage really intriguing - the fact that it can be rolled up, unrolled, and rolled up again without the material (film) sticking to its self. Also, let's be realistic, this entire process is mind blowing. Kudos to the folks who pioneered this in the very beginning.
I was thinking the same thing, but I guess at this stage the drying process stabilized the layers such that the film won't stick onto itself. I'm thinking the rolling tension is monitored aswell, to avoid excessive friction between layers during the rolling/unrolling processes.
@@xJingZz Very true. The rolling tension would need to be varied/adjusted and balanced with the air pressures in order to maintain the gap between the turning bars and entire conveyance system, not just the roll itself. Assuming there isn't some sort of drive rollers on the sides of the support, outside of the boundaries of the product.
There's some mind blowing enginerding in that machine. A true work of mechanical art, really.
Everything has to do with the drying process and how the edges of each roll are done. Makes it easy!
We have a totally separate machine that also rewinds some of the rolls of film after they have been coated. Alot smaller but awesome machine
Yeah, that must have been A LOT of trial and error.
A 1 mile long air bearing. Incredible. I want to see the air plant that makes all of that conditioned air.
There's a mile long compressor next door.
Where is part 3 I'm waiting to see it?
The floating on air part, hocky-pucking the film, is just fascinating. Especially since you have to keep tension on the entire mile long process, while turning it multiple times. Just amazing.
As an economics student I'm interested on the process that made this massive system happen. Jeff told at around 32 minutes that the reason why the hopper sits on the bed rock is that the motion pictures film needed that uniformity. Film industry is massive, but it's still remarkable that they went into such detail to build the facility. The economics and the designing process of that facility would be a fantastic read/video. I would be really interested in the designing process where a group decided that "yeah, this is financially feasible solution."
Thank you Destin and everyone at Kodak. Really interesting video even though most of it is way over my head lol.
The economics of bulk manufacture. Amazing.
Also have to remember that for most of history film was the only option to record an image so millions of people had no choice but to buy it. Digital recording is relatively new.
I'm guessing that it would be cost prohibitive to build this plant these days. It's only because Kodak built it decades ago that it still exists. The scary part is if it burnt down, would it make sense to rebuild it? I highly doubt it.
@@tbillington The complexity of rebuilding that is mind blowing.
You have to understand the buildings weren’t fully designed and built from scratch as it exists today. Its years and years of buldings and redesigns and renovations etc. As processes change and advance the infrastructure is modified and retrofited with some new buildings added etc. In some ways its easier as youre breaking these down into smaller engineering problems, in otherways its harder as making new techniques and process work with older things and bulidings designed for older processes. Im sure if today they were designing a factory from scratch to produce film it would in many ways be totally different than whats there
I suspected film creations was tricky... After seeing part to and having my mind blown by this "spinning cylinder" that was made just to press out the material in a very precise way i was stunned. But this one shocked my world once again. First thing was the "hopper". The more they talked about the laminar flow, the spacing of each section and such i was getting more and more amazed. Then the "waterfall" and the speeding film. Marvelous! But i laughed hard when i realised that i took it for granted they used the air on the "flipping cylinder" most likely to avoid scratching and transferring dust. And then Justin realized that it as well that its not rotating at all. The level of engneering there was just stunning. That is also proof that a good engneer is worth every penny.
I've been working for kodak for 7 months now and my mind still gets blown every shift at how much goes on, and this is just my building, there are so many others
I'm an engineer and despite that, these two episodes are not only my favorite from you Destin, but the amount of times I yelled "HOW DO WE HUMANS DESIGN STUFF LIKE THIS ONLY ALIENS COULD FIGURE THIS OUT" is too darn high 😅. Also Jeff is amazing, it's honestly so good to see people who truly love their job, their passion towards it and extreme understanding is heartwarming to see these days.
This is what gets me the most. Someone actually sat down and actually designed those machines. Each at their time, and improving over time, but at the very beginning, some mind had to have that all figured out in his/her mind.
I'm a production engineer at an automotive supplier... this is a whole different level of tech and attention to detail. As "low tech" as film seems, it takes an awful lot of tech to make it with good quality. Makes the robots, welders, stamping presses, etc. that I work with seem like sticks and stones.
@@ratdude747 lol, same here dude. I'm an engineer in aircraft production. When he said that the troughs have to be parallel within 0.00005", my jaw about hit the floor. That's so crazy.
@@iluomopeloso precisely…
@@ratdude747 i was thinking the same... and i can just imagine what a push the whole thing was to integrate... just insane.
Where is PART 3?????????
Hi, when will part 3 available?
As impressive as the process is, I am just as impressed by the engineering and machining of each equipment piece.
The machining, the planning, the execution. Unbelievable.
Industrial engineering is incredible.
I am actually in the process of rolling my own 120/220 film, from aerial surveillance film made in Germany. So I have my own darkroom, and it’s definitely interesting learning how to do everything that needs to be done in the dark. Earlier this year, Kodak started making Ektachrome 100 in large 400 and 1000 foot rolls of 35mm for shooting in movie cameras. I also coordinated an effort to buy that film, and package it into 3 100 foot rolls and 18 36 exposure cassettes. All of that had to be done in the dark. It is super weird not being able to see what you are doing, and it is definitely not for everyone. Definitely nice to know I’m helping keep film alive.
Would you be willing to sell one or two 35mm cassettes? Would be nice to experiment!
No, sorry. It was all pre paid for. I think that some others might be doing similar buts though, I would look on Photorio and Reddit.
The amount of science and engineering that went into this proces is absolutely astonishing... Thanks for sharing Destin!
Where is part 3 of 3?
Kodak was also the first company to know about the Trinity atomic bomb test. Because of the sensitivity of film processing. Very interesting.
curtain coaters are also used in the paper industry, we have one that can coat paint at 60km/h or 37mp/h but there are faster ones! I bet you could find paper machines very interesting too
This is one of your best videos, this process is jaw-dropping as an engineer. Gives me a massive respect for film that I didn’t really have before. The engineering behind everyday objects is something most people don’t know or appreciate enough.
TH-cam: “make more shorts”
Devin: “HOLD MY HARD DRIVES”
Basically
Hey Destin, great job on this series. I worked for another film maker for 24 years (Fujifilm) and was always amazed how all this worked. You might appreciate their unique non-contact helical dryer as opposed to Kodak’s linear dryer. Their method avoids turning the material at all. Anyway, long live film!
Still waiting for part 3 btw.
Great videos on this whole process! I’ve spent my career in the ‘air moving, handling, equipment’ business and mostly on centrifugal and multi stage variable pitch axial fans up to 20,000hp for the coal fired, gas fired and nuclear power industry but the company I work for has also always supplied and supported the ‘fans’ for Kodak as well, from down the road in Buffalo. While I’m a fan, vibration and aerodynamic ‘expert’, I never knew how crazy the whole film producing process really was. Fascinating and greatly appreciate this series from an engineering/engineers perspective.
I've been in the movie business for decades, and I was an amateur photographer for decades before that, and I had no idea of the scale of this manufacturing process. Film was just something you bought by the roll, whether 36 exposures or a 1000 foot load, and you took it for granted that there would be no imperfections in the the roll, ever. Those boys in Rochester sure do an amazing job.
I have been using roll film since i was 3 ( now 60 years!) and that is the first time I have had a satisfactory explanation of how the film is made, Thankyou for taking this so seriously and getting access to the is incredible process. The science, engineering and production control is outstanding and real ( un sensational) explanations by people who are rightly proud of their jobs is a pleasure to watch. Destin, Kodak - outstanding work.
I used to give these tours in the late 90's. It's so funny, we would have absolutely never have allowed anybody to photograph inside the machine. Curtain Coating was state of the art then. B-38 is an awesome machine, I think it's the last coating machine in existence (Kodak)
Still waiting for part #3!
Destin,
I am a career focus puller (1st AC), who works on film still consistently! Ive speed my whole career learning about this process and talking to the techs and engineers at Kodak to learn more. Ive read countless books and looked at documentation online. Ive spoken to countless directors of photography and color scientist in my career to understand how film works.
This video series is the most thorough and easily accessible source of information on the process that I have ever seen. The attention to detail on so many small things made me really really impressed. How you managed to gain such a deep understanding and in turn, present it in such a lovely way is incredible! I learned many many things. I got smarter today!
This world is rapidly passing away and I hope that you repent and take time to change before all out disaster occurs! Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36) if you believed in Messiah you would be following His commands as best as you could. If you are not a follower of Messiah I would highly recommend becoming one. Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life - Revelation 3:20.
Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God.
Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc. Have a blessed day!
The fluid dynamics is so interesting! It's really fascinating how the hopper thins out the liquid chemicals twice, as it falls onto the roller and with the rollers' velocity. Great animation!
I recently asked my year 8 students if they knew what Kodak is. Not a single one knew, which is pretty incredible given that not that long ago it was one of the biggest companies in the world.
Any hope for Part 3? I'm hanging here, hoping and hoping! :)
so when is part 3?
I absolutely love this. It's nearly impossible to conceive the likely tens of thousands of man hours to engineer these incredibly sophisticated and accurate machines.
I love the folks working over at Kodak. They all seem very professional and passionate about the work they're doing. I did not think I would be fascinated by this process, but it's quite incredibly how they managed to make all of this work so well.
I can't wait for what's to come.
Still looking forward to part 3!
Destin... These 2 videos are by far some of the most interesting videos you have made. But... part 3? It's like telling a joke and forget the punchline..
I'd wager he is having a challenge trying to fit into a sequence all the various ways film gets sliced, punched and chopped.
Hello, I was thrilled to see this Kodak searies. I was a member of the process air engineering design team for all of the air handling units that provided air at the coating stations, chill box sections and the drier section. I worked on the conceptual design, assisted in construction and sensor placement for controlling air balance, temperature control, humidity control, and pressure control. After construction was completed I worked on calibrating the pressure tranducers, temperature thermocouples, dew point sensors, variable frequency drive and verified that the signals were accurate back at the PLC's and the distributed process controller.
After the calibration were the individual loops with in the Allen Bradly PLC
ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴇᴇᴅʙᴀᴄᴋ sᴇɴᴅ ᴍᴇ ᴀ ᴅɪʀᴇᴄᴛ ᴍsɢ ɪ ʜᴀᴠᴇ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ sʜᴀʀᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʏᴏᴜ🔝✍️❤️..ʷʰᵃᵗ’ˢ ᵃᵖᵖ┼¹⁵⁰²²⁰⁹⁹⁵¹⁹
It's amazing how much access Kodak was willing to give to their manufacturing processes. I feel like a lot of factory tour videos have at least a few things that can't be shown or a few questions that can't be answered because of trade secrets. I guess at this point they have nothing to hide since even with all the secrets nobody's going to spend billions of dollars to replicate their production line.
Given these processes, its absolutely MINDBENDING how inexpensive film is, even in these days. I have a whole new appreciation for the hundreds of rolls of B&W and color film that I've shot over the decades.
This is freaking amazing. I wonder if Kodak was designing this process from scratch, today, would it look very different? My first instinct is "of course it would" but then I have a sobering intrusive thought: perhaps this kind of industrial process would simply be unimaginable to a present-day domestic engineer (or the bean-counters such an engineer answered to), regardless of the demand for the product -- that is, perhaps it would only ever be outsourced, unless, perhaps, it was envisioned as part of an RFP to a customer willing to burn large amounts of money in pursuit of an autarkic supply chain.
Yep this industrial process would absolutely exist today had they just decided to start doing it. The difference is that it would be in China and not New York...
@@scythelord but it's organically, it didn't day one full factory, it started black &white film, and new things, process, come about, they are been botted on to the basic process, but if the hole was made from day one, unless it uses the amazon business model not make 1$ for like 7 plus years, and then taking over the world, in year 8
Been waiting patiently for part 2! Especially as someone who lives down the road from the facilities you toured. You passed my house!
I’ve been watching your videos for awhile now, and it’s driving me mad. When you’re in your office. WHAT IS THAT BLUE BLINKING REMOTE LOOKING THING HANGING NEXT TO THE MAP? It’s intrigued me for ages.
Just wondering when we can expect part 3 to land? 8 months seems like a long time!
Is there the part 3 yet?❤
This is absolutely fascinating! Thanks so much Destin. Very cool to see them making Ektar 100, my all time favorite color film.
Maybe it is the engineer in me, but this video of Kodak's awesome production process makes me curious as to the similarities and differences in how Fujifilm makes/made batches of their film. I suspect the order of operations is very similar and perhaps some of the piece parts may even be from the same manufacturer but have different dimensions and tolerances. The pedestal for seismic stability also makes me curious how Fujifilm would have solved this issue in Japan where conditions are more active. (The easy answer would be to make the film in another country.) It sounds like a walkdown of a Fujifilm plant is now in order.
Just imagine the amount of air they used and how it needs to be prepared and blow at a specific pressure. And I can't realize how it is possible to keep tension on such a long film, it doesn't seem easy.
The size of the Air handling units must be massive, or air intake in general
I've seen a lot of posts regarding the contemporary cost of building the same factory today.
just the HVAC systems would be prohibitive!!
this is one of the most complicated industrial process I have ever seen! wow!! so much work and study behind!
I would have never imagined the process to be such complicated !
This was so fascinating !
Can you help us bring back Kodachrome!?
It’ll never happen. The chemistry to process Kodachrome was apparently nasty stuff. Only a handful of labs worldwide were allowed to develop Kodachrome. In the end, only one lab was left and of course now it’s gone too. Compare that to Ektachrome and it’s E-6 process. I processed hundreds of rolls of Ektachrome (and some Fujichrome) myself. You can get Kodachrome-like images from digital cameras.
wheres the part 3 man
oh man I cannot describe how much I wish this never stops, and vinyls, and owning all these stuff and holding them, smelling them, stimulating all the human senses at once to recall the memory and the feeling. I hope they just never stop making analogue mediums
This is literally the series I've been waiting for my entire life. Information like this, presented in this manner and in this much depth literally does not exist anywhere else on the internet. I thank you a million times over for presenting this here.
I have to ask how you manage to assess every single piece of science correspondence on the entire internet. I don't know why people can't say something is great without making extremely grandiose claims. It would be unrealistic to claim to be aware of everything on the internet even in the 90's when it was in its infancy.
@@BlueZirnitra it's all in one place here, you don't have to sift through technical manuals or papers data sheets or try to consolidate all the rest of the information to put it in an easily viewable and understandable format and package presented by the very people who design make and quality assurance the very same product that you're looking for. Are there other videos out there? Yes there are but none of them are as in depth as this series with very recent information. For example in one of the videos he goes into how they had to redesign ectochrome film because some of the processes that they used in the discontinued film work viable anymore or they wanted to adjust and improve the product. Other than a simple statement on kodak's website saying "new and improved" we wouldn't know what they went through and redesigned to make the product better we wouldn't know that they built new machines tools processes and facilities to get things to us we wouldn't have a complete understanding of the flow process and characteristics of the flow machine are there other references out there on the internet yes are they easily presentable and easily found not that I've been able to find if you can find a link or reference another video that explains everything that this series and its second channel offshoots have explained please do so I'd like to see it.
Seeing these people talk about what they do is so cool. It feels like one of those things where grandpa loves what he does but none of the grandchildren care about it. Then all of a sudden one of the grandchildren friends comes over and is very interested and grandpa lights up with joy.
That is they way I feel when my grand kids friends ask me questions
👍😊👍
Whenever I see giant factory tours like this I can’t help but think about the equally complex process of manufacturing the manufacturing equipment. Like who made the turning bar. How long did it take to build all this and perfect the tolerance of everything. There’s so many little parts it boggles my mind how humans even figured out how to do all this.
That's what I used to think while watching How It's Made. I wanted to see how they made how it's made.
What you mentioned called an accumulator, in printing we call it a festooner its a tower of rollers that expands to store extra material to splice a new roll into the spent roll.
One of the best TH-camrs on the platform! Good stuff!
Destin probably asks a lot better questions than the average content creator. I can imagine he surprises the experts regularly. I learn something too which is why I love all the videos from Smarter Every Day.
How is part 3 coming along?
Yeah I was wondering if part 3 is around?
Destin where is part 3 it’s been 8 months 😩😭
it's been Three Months..where is part 3?!
1:40 Yes, that is precisely why the product is called “film”. The active product is in fact just the photosensitive coating, which used to be put onto plates. A backing for that film that could be rolled up and fed through a camera for repeated exposures was a later invention.
I am curious which dead animals Kodak uses for their gelatin. Cow bones from slaughterhouses? Wonder how hipster vegan photographers would feel about that. 😂
Edit: also, what was blurred out there on the wall in the “mothership” room?
I was thinking the exact same thing, how many photographs taken for vegetarian/vegan publications and such have actually been taken on film that uses gelatine from the very same animals? The irony! 😅
@@pistol0grip0pump I know that PETA exclusively uses digital cameras for its work, but it has a disclaimer on its site saying it uses photos from media outfits like Reuters, etc, and that it can’t vouch for an animal-free origin for every photo it uses.
@@AvanaVana Well I wouldn't be shocked, PETA are responsible for a lot of animal deaths and other things that go directly against what they're supposed to be about.
Looked like movie posters, So probably standard issue thing like how non fiction TV shows often blur out corporate logos when shooting out on the street. Would see it a few times on Mythbusters.
it seems odd to just drop in the fact it's made from animals into the video and emphasize it, but then not follow up with mentioning any possible apprehensions people may about that.
Stoked for part 3. I absolutely love seeing these multi-parters.
I have lived in Rochester all my life, and grew up not far from where you filmed this. Before Kodak had its long slow decline to where they are now, they were everything to this city. They were the largest employer and it was rare to find someone who didn't have family that worked there. Industrial processes are always fascinating because of the engineering challenges that are solved, but when I watched your video, I saw more the generations behind the processes that led to where they are now. Rochester isn't just Kodak of course, but it (was) a big part.
Can’t find 3
When will the 3rd part come ?
No joke! Almost HALF A YEAR waiting. dang
Dear Smarter Every Day
A couple weeks ago I came up with this question. If you have a flashlight, and a slow motion camera and if the camera was pointing at the end of light I was wondering if you could see the light beam build up. I dont know if this is possible but please let me know what you think.
How do you mean? If the light-source is "slow" to illuminate, we could probably see that process. But it'd be unlikely to see light travelling.
@@eccentricOrange I don't believe it would be unlikely because sure nothing is faster than the speed of light but your not racing the speed of light your watching it.
What do you mean with "build up"?
If you want to see how light travels and reflects in slow motion, i suggest you search for "trilion fps" on TH-cam.
For you to see the light travel the camera would have to operate Faster than the speed of light to catch the light in a different place on each frame.....slow motion actually uses high speed cameras, often thousands or more frames per second, which is then payed back at a slower speed giving the appearance of whatever you filmed moving slow
AWESOME! I love how Kodak (which is just people) are trusting you with their brand’s heart and soul. I also love how you have slowly and surely proved your self trustworthy to the world, and are reaping opportunities like this. You are such a national treasure! Such an ambassador of honesty and truth. Keep up the awesome work!