Founded in 1892 by George Eastman, Kodak led the photographic film market for most of the last century.
The American company began to struggle financially in the 1990s, partly due to a reluctance to embrace digital photography – despite Kodak inventing it in 1975.
In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. It re-emerged the following year with a new focus on digital printing, enterprise and graphics, still retaining its role as provider of film for the Hollywood motion picture industry.
Here, we share a “Kodak moment” with Lois Lebegue, the vice president of the brand. The 47-year-old Frenchman heads operations for Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa from his Singapore base and was in the UAE recently for discussions with a Dubai-based company to pioneer Kodak’s latest print technology in newspapers.
The latest Star Wars movie, which features sequences filmed in Abu Dhabi, was shot using Kodak film. Given the emergence of digital technology, why is Kodak film still being used to produce Hollywood blockbusters?
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was shot on Kodak film because J J Abrahams wanted to have natural control, and the kind of look, feel, depth and colour rendering that you cannot always attain on digital formats. With Kodak, you have the capacity to have a rendering that is very close to human eyes “see”, and is usually thought of as being more human and, therefore, closer to the sensitivity of the film director. There are also some visual effects you can’t create on digital.
An example of the look and feel of the images in The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson (2014). Only film can give you the ambience required in such a movie. Boyhood (2014) from Richard Linklater depicts a boy growing up and was shot over a period of 10 years. Linklater could not portray the continuity he needed without using Kodak film technology.
Is it a very different process filmmakers go through when using Kodak as opposed to digital?
You need to not only shoot the film but then process it, and the way you process it can be worked on to give the right look, feel, colours, depth and sensitivity. Shooting on film offers wider possibilities.
Is it just Hollywood movies being shot on Kodak?
It’s very popular in the US. We also have companies shooting in Bollywood and we are seeing an increase of volumes in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. These are places where they are revamping their productions because they want to shoot on film.
Will this trend continue?
Very much so. Major Hollywood companies have just signed new long-term agreements to continue using Kodak film – 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros, Entertainment Inc, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures. These majors were very interested to know that Kodak would continue to manufacture film, because their big-name directors were advocating for it. It’s a win-win agreement that allows us to continue this part of the business, which is not massive oday – a bit less than 10 per cent of our total revenue of about US$2billion is made on film – but this sector of our business is the most visible to the public eye.
What makes up the other 90 per cent of the business?
We are now using the same core technology we used to develop film to develop many new segments of activity. We are driving very strong positions in the print market. A lot of newspapers are printed with Kodak technology. When you buy a product in the supermarket, its packaging will probably be touched by Kodak technology, and also its users’ guide and brochures. Bank statements and phone bills are also applications developed using Kodak’s printing technology.
What about future projects?
We are using our core technology of very high-resolution print and imaging to create new ways of producing touchscreens in smart phones, tablets and, in the future, TVs. A lot of the business is going into touchscreen technologies. Until very recently, touchscreens have been made with quite rare, expensive materials, but we can now manufacture them with materials that are easier to find and cheaper. And we can bend touchscreens, make them lighter, use less energy to operate them and make them brighter. It’s a very attractive proposition in a very big market.
What were you doing in Dubai recently?
We are installing a system with Masar Printing and publishing company, part of Dubai media group, to print a “smart newspaper” that a person subscribing to can personalise. Part of the newspaper will be the same for everyone, then there will be a section that is your newspaper that you will receive every day. We are trying to do that with a strong respect for the environment, with technologies using minimal chemicals and water. Everything is going digital right now, and people are selecting what they want to read. This system enables people to have that digital look and feel in the newspaper they receive. It doesn’t exist today anywhere else in the world and I am quite proud we are doing it in the UAE. The first one should start before the end of the year and once its running in the UAE, we can extend it. We are looking forward to taking this to Expo 2020.
business@thenational.ae
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