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Essentials

Get Excited to Party! BIFI Confetti Film 35mm Review

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/26/2021
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Brooklyn Instant Film Initiative Confetti Film Review images 28

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It’s always the best idea to try something new. New experiences open us up and make us change our minds about how we think about things. That’s why the film renaissance has really solidified in the past year. But rather than using the same old film over and over again, it’s great to try something new. So I bought some Brooklyn Instant Film Initiative Confetti Film. Here in the USA, things are finally starting to look up after a super difficult time. At least here in New York, we’ve got the virus much more under control. That’s why I think that Confetti Film by the Brooklyn Instant Film Initiative is the perfect film to get your hands on right now.

Essentials is a series featuring products we’re currently lusting over in quick, easy-to-digest posts.

The Brooklyn Instant Film Initiative is located in Brooklyn, NY. When they first launched a few years ago, they used to literally drop film off to you where ever you lived. It was awesome, and I’d like to think my old apartment in Williamsburg was one of their first-ever drop-offs. There’s so much to adore about this company. They’re Black-owned and operated. More specifically, they’re black-woman-owned. Being a POC myself and all the work that I’ve spearheaded to champion women and POCs here at Phoblographer, that’s works for me. And if that’s not enough for you, they’re doing something pretty unique.

Confetti film isn’t anything specifically new per se, but it’s a new take on something old. It’s specifically an ISO 400 35mm film that costs around $15 a roll. This film has been pre-exposed with confetti all over the images. When you run it through the camera, that confetti will appear all over your photos. Now let’s get this straight here, you’re not going to be shooting with Kodak Portra 400. No, this is probably Kodak Gold or Fujifilm Superia 400. The problem is that I couldn’t totally figure it out without undoing the outside wrapper. Nor could I tell by the 24 images I was getting per roll. In fact, you have to expose Confetti film at box speed. If you underexpose, it intensifies the confetti effect. If you overexpose it, you’ll lose the confetti effect a bit. 

Underexposed
Balanced exposure
Overexposed

Then you need to develop it. For those of you looking for a film developer in North Queens, I’m in love with 37th Ave Photo Studio. It’s run by an old-school elder gentleman that does an incredible job with both developing and scans. If you like Luster Photo in the East Village, you’ll love this spot. 

Confetti film is enjoyable. During my time with it, I shot anything and everything. There were celebrations of Biden being elected, random things, times with friends, and food exploration journies. And here’s where I found Confetti film to be best:

  • Literal parties
  • Anything in low light with neons
  • Celebrations of any kind

Of course, I was only figuring this out as I was shooting with it. And thankfully, I’ve got another roll in my fridge for the next party I go to. Otherwise, it’s a well-done effect that just doesn’t make sense all across the board. At least, that’s how I feel. I’ve been doing some work on myself to deep dive into my own emotions and feelings. With that said, I’ll fully admit that it might not matter to me now. But in the future, these images probably will have a different effect on me. They’ll show a celebratory time and transport me to a trauma that I survived. And hopefully, all my friends would have survived it too.

Of course, I strongly recommend following local pandemic regulations, get vaccinated, and be safe, not stupid. When the world opens back up around you, make sure your film camera is loaded up with some of this stuff.

Brooklyn Instant Film Initiative is selling this film for a bit under $15 a roll. Go grab some.

black owned Brooklyn instant film brooklyn instant film initiative confetti film double exposed film fujifilm kodak
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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