The sale of Kodak motion picture film products has seen a very sharp decline in the last 10 years, over 90%. Kodak discontinued the production of Kodachrome on June 22, 2009. In 2012 Kodak filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The home of the Academy Awards in Hollywood was known as the Kodak Theater until the bankruptcy. It's now known as the Dolby Theater. Kodak has attempted to reduce costs by closing plants and consolidated production.
FujiFilm stopped producing nearly all motion picture film products in March 2013. Kodak was close to stopping production of all motion picture film so in an effort to keep film products available to film makers several Hollywood studios have made an agreement that will enable the manufacturer to continue production of motion picture film for at least for the next few years. It involves guaranteed minimum purchases made by some of the major studios. Many prominent film makers such as Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino lobbied the studios on behalf of Kodak to make this deal happen. It is sad but inevitable that the time is coming when photo chemical image acquisition will become a thing of the past. Most audience members don't notice or care about this and can't tell the differences between digital and film projection at their local movie theaters. Digital production has gradually become far cheaper than its traditional analog counterparts and film is no longer required at any stage of the production pipeline. It's an historical time in motion picture history.
There is an interesting documentary produced by Keanu Reeves that explores this ongoing transition from film to digital imaging. It's available to watch on Netflix. Check out the trailer.
Read the interesting details here @
WSJ.com
Updated Feb. 9, 2015:
News regarding Kodak's commitment to providing film @
Red Shark News
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