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Film Lab Close - Park Road Post


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The move to digital will soon see Sir Peter Jackson close an historic 35mm film processing laboratory at Park Road Post Production. Park Road's film processing lab dates back to 1941, when it was first established in Wellington as part of the government-owned National Film Unit.

 

Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh bought the unit in 1999. Staff have been told that the likely date of closure will be the end of June.

 

"We have always been incredibly proud of the quality of the Lab. Our rallying cry in recent years as been 'the last Lab standing' and this has been true over the past year or so," said head of marketing Vicki Jackways. "But unfortunately the shift in digital acquisition and exhibition has meant that this part of our business has now become commercially unsustainable.''

 

All other parts of the Park Rd business were "very much in operation," she said. Recent productions which have used the state-of-the-art facilities at Park Road Post Production include The Hobbit, The Adventures of Tin Tin, Cirque du Soleil, Emperor, The Orator, Two Little Boys, and Mr Pip. Ms Jackways said the lab wished to thank all the clients that had used the lab over the years.

 

Link One: http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/eastern-suburbs/8474663/Digital-move-sees-historic-film-lab-close

 

Link Two: http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/death-of-a-medium

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  • 1 year later...
Film Lab New York, opened in 2011, will shut down on December 19. It's the last motion-picture film processing and printing facility in New York City.
In announcing the impending closure, Technicolor-PostWorks New York, joint owner of the lab at 110 Leroy Street with Deluxe New York, noted that HBO's shot-on-35mm Boardwalk Empire, one of the last TV shows shooting film, wrapped a few months ago and aired its season finale last weekend. -
-
We are sad to say that the demand for that service is no longer sufficient to sustain the lab and still maintain a world-class standard for quality." -
 
 

http://www.studiodaily.com/2014/10/nycs-last-film-lab-is-closing/?hq_e=el&hq_m=2972773&hq_l=5&hq_v=325c7e0803

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Only time will tell. But for me having been a projectionist for 35mm and 16mm for 5 years right until digital cinema started even in small cinemas, seeing chemical film disceasing and with it the whole experience of cinema fading away, It feels like some sort of trauma to me but there is no magic in it anymore. The big cinemas feel like fast food chain restaurants, self check-in counter and a projection that is always the same; sharp, big but flat and characterless. It's the little imperfect things like the pops in the audio the scratches and shakiness of ads and trailers that got burned into my first memories of going to the movies. it sad to know that further generations of audiences will never experience that. they will only be given the "processed food" shit! I think we keep repeating history where a lot of great things already did disappear from the market, because they couldnt maximize profit as much as inferior products...sad world

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Roman: " a projection that is always the same; sharp, big but flat and characterless. It's the little imperfect things like the pops in the audio the scratches and shakiness of ads and trailers that got burned into my first memories of going to the movies "

While I like film, there is a lot of disagreement with this

Edited by studiomprd
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I agree Roman, 

35mm is magic.   Nothing shot on digital has the power and life of film.  Same with projection.  

 

Same with audio, But i won't go there, hehe,  the best we ever got soundwise for music is gone and done, tape is buried.  I think location sound is better on digital, but film is far superior.  Hobbit is a great example,  shot on red,  to sharp, to much detail, you can clearly see the makeup, you can clearly see the beards on the hobbits. It was very dissapointing.  Film created the illusion and mystique. 

 

All good though, can only hope digital film can be pushed to a point where it can look as good as film,  that is yet to be seen though

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