Last Updated on 02/01/2017 by Chris Gampat
It’s yet another exciting day for film photography as Film Ferrania has introduced a brand new black and white panchromatic film rated at ISO 80. It’s called P30 Alpha and they’re claiming that it produces results that made the company famous more than 50 years ago. Indeed, if you’re a lover of high contrast black and white film, then you’re going to be awestruck. According to Emulsive, this could be very difficult to do simply because making a chrome film is tough. Indeed, we’ve known this and Kodak made us very aware. But we’ve also been seeing the rise of Analog come back.
The company’s press release is after the jump. I’m excited to try this in a studio.
Cairo Montenotte (SV), Italy – FILM Ferrania is proud to announce its first product, FERRANIA P30®, in a limited ALPHA edition.
FERRANIA P30® ALPHA reproduces, with modern techniques developed by FILM Ferrania scientists, the exact film that made Ferrania world-famous more than 50 years ago.
With its cinema pedigree, ultra fine grain, and very high silver content, FERRANIA P30® ALPHA has no peers in the modern analog film market.
Pre-sales of FERRANIA P30® ALPHA in 35mm still format, with 36 exposures, will begin mid-February 2017 at www.filmferrania.it/shop.
A JEWEL FROM THE AGE OF THE ITALIAN CINEMA MASTERS
FERRANIA P30® ALPHA is an 80 ISO panchromatic black & white motion picture film for still photography, and reintroduces the legendary P30 film produced by Ferrania during the 1960s. FERRANIA P30® ALPHA is coated on triacetate base and features an incredibly high silver content of 5 grams per square meter.
Speaking about this silver-rich film, FILM Ferrania CEO Nicola Baldini states, “Each frame is like a piece of jewellery.”
Pasolini, Rossellini, Visconti and many other Italian directors powered their masterpieces with P30 film. In 1961, Sophia Loren won the Academy Award for “La Cio ciara” ( Two Women) by Vittorio De Sica and the entire world started to appreciate the beauty of FERRANIA P30® . In 1963, the legendary film 8 ½ by Federico Fellini was shot on FERRANIA P30® stock, cementing its place in cinema history.
BUILDING A VIABLE FUTURE FOR ANALOG FILM
The original Ferrania company began making still and cinema film products in 1917 and quickly became the “Kodak of Italy”. In 1964, Ferrania was purchased by the 3M Corporation and the research facility, Laboratori Ricerche Fotografiche (or “LRF”) was built. Under 3M’s ownership, Ferrania grew to be the fourth largest film manufacturer in the world. All film production operations ended in 2009.
In 2013, FILM Ferrania was born when co-founders Nicola Baldini and Marco Pagni visited Ferrania. They recognized the raw potential of the old factory and began a challenging industrial downscaling project designed to match the needs of the modern analog film market by using the LRF as the primary facility. Inside this single building is a color film factory “in miniature.” Its overall footprint and resource demands, as well as production capacity, are a small fraction of existing manufacturers – but it is capable of producing, in a sustainable way, professional-quality motion picture and still film products that rival any in the market.
In addition to the LRF, FILM Ferrania has secured hundreds of tons of equipment from the former campus that will be essential for expansion efforts, and has saved more than 90 years worth of unique documentation containing the entire film manufacturing knowledge of Ferrania. Key to this salvage effort was a highly-successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, launched in October 2014. Over 5500 backers from around the world pledged $322,420 USD to save “Trixie”, “Walter” and “Big Boy”.
With these elements in hand, FILM Ferrania is creating the world’s first color film manufacturing base that is expressly designed for the 21st century market.
Via Emulsive