Seattle FilmWorks

Last updated

SeattlefilmworksS1360001.jpg

Seattle FilmWorks, Inc., was a mail order photographic film processing company that sold re-spooled 35mm motion picture film. It was founded in 1976 as American Passage Marketing by Gilbert Scherer. [1] At its peak in 1997, Seattle FilmWorks employed approximately 800 people and processed about 20 miles (32,000 metres) of film a day in a 65,000 sq ft (6,000 square metre) lab. [2] In 1978, Seattle FilmWorks started selling motion picture film that is processed using Kodak's ECN-2 process. [3] The film was loaded into 35mm film canisters for still photography use, and the company returned an unexposed roll with each order. In the 1980s, Seattle FilmWorks aggressively marketed its products and services and offered two rolls of Seattle FilmWorks film for US$2.00. It advertised in newspapers, magazines, and package inserts. [4] [5] Seattle FilmWorks was sold and renamed PhotoWorks in 1999. Its marketing practices led to a lawsuit against the company in 2000, which was settled a year later, and the company was later closed. [6] [7]

Contents

35mm motion picture film roll 35mm blank film (6498625859) (cropped version).jpg
35mm motion picture film roll

Products and services

Seattle FilmWorks sold movie film stock that cannot be developed at standard retail processing facilities because it must be processed in ECN-2 chemistry. Color movie film stock incorporates rem-jet, a black carbon backing on the film base that must be removed before the film is developed. [8] ECN-2 also differs from C-41, the standard color negative stock for stills photography, because it uses a different color developing agent. Seattle FilmWorks designated the process as SFW-XL.

In the mid '90s, Seattle FilmWorks began to re-package standard C-41 processed films while keeping the SFW-XL process designation—these films were able to be processed at all C-41 capable photo labs; however because of the SFW-XL designation many would not unless they were willing to inspect the film and verify that it did not have the ECN-2 rem-jet backing (which cannot be processed on C-41 equipment without damaging the entire batch of film in the machines). Seattle FilmWorks also offered "prints and slides from the same roll", using cinema print film to create slides from the original negatives. These slides fade quickly when not properly stored, and are generally of inferior quality when compared to standard E6 or K-14 processed slides.

Seattle FilmWorks offered the option of digitizing images at the time of processing, the files being in proprietary file formats; a *.sfw format for pictures returned on floppy disk and *.pwp format if downloaded on the Internet. In January 2000, the company entered an agreement with AT&T WorldNet Services that allowed 1.8 million AT&T customers to access Seattle FilmWorks' website, called PhotoWorks. Customers could view personal photographs, send them by e-mail and add them to websites. AT&T WorldNet's customers were also offered free processing of their first roll of film and free archiving of digital images on the PhotoWorks' website when ordering prints. [9]

Other companies continue to offer full-service ECN-2 processing and positive services; some use ECN-2 chemistry, but others develop in C-41. Motion picture processing labs all use ECN-2 chemistry compatible with this film.[ citation needed ]

The company was known for running their computer operations on a main frame computer system that utilized an Ultimate operating system (also known as PICK), an early computer system similar to typical SQL database server systems that operate today. As was the case with the Seattle First National Bank Capital Management Project (using the same operating system) during the mid to late 1980s, this computer system was known to be very unreliable, with hard drive crashes and various indexing problems during downtime (as a result of lengthy recovery procedures) that resulted in database management and I.T. management problems (see Oregon State University case study on the Seattle First National Bank Capital Management Project for details), but the company was more successful in its applications than Seafirst before the system was discontinued in 1999.

Fate

Seattle FilmWorks was renamed PhotoWorks.com. In 2000, six plaintiffs took legal action against PhotoWorks at King County Superior Court, Seattle. The action alleged that FilmWorks had engaged in deceptive practices as its film could only be developed by the company and that 'free' rolls of film were actually charged for. The company settled the claims out-of-court, and promised to give 900,000 free rolls of C-41 film to its customers within one year and 300,000 rolls to customers that did not qualify as part of the first group but who requested a roll in the following six months. PhotoWorks also agreed to stop claiming its film could only be developed by PhotoWorks. [10] In 2001, PhotoWorks operated 35 retail outlets, but began closing them as it concentrated upon its mail order and internet business. By August 2003, only eight of these outlets remained when the company announced that these would be closed by the end of September 2003. [11] PhotoWorks discontinued all film processing in 2010 after it was purchased by American Greetings. PhotoWorks ceased operations in all forms in early 2011 and sold its customer list to Shutterfly.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Film stock</span> Medium used for recording motion pictures

Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film base coated on one side with a gelatin emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of the crystals determine the sensitivity, contrast and resolution of the film. The emulsion will gradually darken if left exposed to light, but the process is too slow and incomplete to be of any practical use. Instead, a very short exposure to the image formed by a camera lens is used to produce only a very slight chemical change, proportional to the amount of light absorbed by each crystal. This creates an invisible latent image in the emulsion, which can be chemically developed into a visible photograph. In addition to visible light, all films are sensitive to X-rays and high-energy particles. Most are at least slightly sensitive to invisible ultraviolet (UV) light. Some special-purpose films are sensitive into the infrared (IR) region of the spectrum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keykode</span> Barcode-based film markings developed by Eastman Kodak

Keykode is an Eastman Kodak Company advancement on edge numbers, which are letters, numbers and symbols placed at regular intervals along the edge of 35 mm and 16 mm film to allow for frame-by-frame specific identification. It was introduced in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kodak</span> American photographic and film company

The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak, is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated in New Jersey. It is best known for photographic film products, which it brought to a mass market for the first time.

The following list comprises significant milestones in the development of photography technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kodachrome</span> Brand name of an Eastman Kodak film

Kodachrome is the brand name for a color reversal film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1935. It was one of the first successful color materials and was used for both cinematography and still photography. For many years, Kodachrome was widely used for professional color photography, especially for images intended for publication in print media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reversal film</span> Type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base

In photography, reversal film or slide film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. Instead of negatives and prints, reversal film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives. Reversal film is produced in various sizes, from 35 mm to roll film to 8×10 inch sheet film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Instant film</span> Photographic film which develops in minutes

Instant film is a type of photographic film that was introduced by Polaroid Corporation to produce a visible image within minutes or seconds of the photograph's exposure. The film contains the chemicals needed for developing and fixing the photograph, and the camera exposes and initiates the developing process after a photo has been taken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agfacolor</span> Trademark for a series of color film products

Agfacolor was the name of a series of color film products made by Agfa of Germany. The first Agfacolor, introduced in 1932, was a film-based version of their Agfa-Farbenplatte, a "screen plate" product similar to the French Autochrome. In late 1936, Agfa introduced Agfacolor Neu, a pioneering color film of the general type still in use today. The new Agfacolor was originally a reversal film used for making "slides", home movies and short documentaries. By 1939, it had also been adapted into a negative film and a print film for use by the German motion picture industry. After World War II, the Agfacolor brand was applied to several varieties of color negative film for still photography, in which the negatives were used to make color prints on paper. The reversal film was then marketed as Agfachrome. These films use Color Developing Agent 1 in their color developer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ektachrome</span> Brand name of a Kodak film

Ektachrome is a brand name owned by Kodak for a range of transparency, still and motion picture films previously available in many formats, including 35 mm and sheet sizes to 11 × 14 inch size. Ektachrome has a distinctive look that became familiar to many readers of National Geographic, which used it extensively for color photographs for decades in settings where Kodachrome was too slow. In terms of reciprocity characteristics, Ektachrome is stable at shutter speeds between ten seconds and 1/10,000 of a second.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross processing</span>

Cross processing is the deliberate processing of photographic film in a chemical solution intended for a different type of film. The effect was discovered independently by many different photographers often by mistake in the days of C-22 and E-4. Color cross processed photographs are often characterized by unnatural colors and high contrast. The results of cross processing differ from case to case, as the results are determined by many factors such as the make and type of the film used, the amount of light exposed onto the film and the chemical used to develop the film. Cross processing has been used in a variety of photographic and cinematographic practices, most notably rising in popularity during the 1990s. Similar effects can also be achieved with digital filter effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital photography</span> Photography with a digital camera

Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is stored as a computer file ready for further digital processing, viewing, electronic publishing, or digital printing. It is a form of digital imaging based on gathering visible light.

Eastman Color Negative (ECN) is a photographic processing system created by Kodak in the 1950s for the development of monopack color negative motion picture film stock. It is part of the Eastmancolor family of products sold by Eastman Kodak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color motion picture film</span> Photographic film type

Color motion picture film refers both to unexposed color photographic film in a format suitable for use in a motion picture camera, and to finished motion picture film, ready for use in a projector, which bears images in color.

Eastmancolor is a trade name used by Eastman Kodak for a number of related film and processing technologies associated with color motion picture production and referring to George Eastman, founder of Kodak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analog photography</span> Non-digital photography that uses film or chemical emulsions

Analog photography, also known as film photography, is a term usually applied to photography that uses chemical processes to capture an image, typically on paper, film or a hard plate. These processes were the only methods available to photographers for more than a century prior to the invention of digital photography, which uses electronic sensors to record images to digital media. Analog electronic photography was sometimes used in the late 20th century but soon died out.

Dwayne's Photo is a film processing facility in Parsons, Kansas founded in 1956. It processes film, slides and certain movie films, and offers photo services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Test film</span>

Test film are rolls or loops or slides of photographic film used for testing the quality of equipment. Equipment to be tested could include: telecine, motion picture film scanner, Movie projectors, Image scanners, film-out gear, Film recorders and Film scanners.

Eastman Color Positive (ECP) is a photographic processing system created by Kodak in the 1950s for the development of monopack color positive print for direct projection motion picture film stock. It is part of the Eastmancolor family of products sold by Kodak.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinestill</span>

Cinestill Film is a Los Angeles-based company selling photographic film for analog cameras in collaboration with Kodak motion picture cinema film stock. The two brothers who founded the company started as a small business shooting music and wedding photography, hacking cameras and lenses, then moved on to chemically adapting cinema film so it could be processed at photo labs.

References

  1. ISA = Instrument Society of America, Tour Seattle FilmWorks, November 12, 1997
  2. Seattle FilmWorks lab tour, 1997 Seattle FilmWorks, Inc.
  3. Seattle Film Works · Mar 28, 11:55 AM by Dylan Doxey
  4. latimes.com LA Times Photo Processor Using Net to Enlarge Its Base Technology: Analysts say Seattle Filmworks' offering of pictures on disk shows its savvy marketing, April 7, 1997, by CYNTHIA FLASH with ASSOCIATED PRESS
  5. The Rotarian Jun 1986, Seattle FilmWorks ad
  6. Seattle Times At CameraTechs, it's still all about film, By Bibeka Shrestha, Seattle Times business reporter, September 8, 2006
  7. Seattle Times PhotoWorks cropping half its work force By Brier Dudley Seattle Times technology reporter, January 22, 2005
  8. "Processing Kodak Motion Picture Films, Module 7: Process ECN-2 Specifications" (PDF). Eastman Kodak Company. July 2006. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  9. "FilmWorks, WorldNet reach deal". The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company. January 12, 2000. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  10. "Business Digest: Seattle FilmWorks stores to close". The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company. August 13, 2003. Retrieved March 1, 2012.