FILM Ferrania s.r.l. is a

photographic film Photographic film is a strip or sheet of transparent film base coated on one side with a gelatin photographic emulsion, emulsion containing microscopically small light-sensitive silver halide crystals. The sizes and other characteristics of th ...

manufacturing company located in Ferrania (

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. Ferrania was founded in 1923 as a maker of

, papers, and photographic equipment, including cameras. The company was purchased in 1964 by the 3M company to become Ferrania 3M, until it was spun off in 1996 to 3M's Imation division. In 1999, Ferrania was acquired by

Schroder Ventures Permira is a global investment firm. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with assets under management of €60+ billion. The Permira funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Ser ...

and then spun off as a separate company. Subsequently, it was acquired by a Genoese shipping company, Gruppo Messina (Ignazio Messina & Co. S.p.A.) who ceased photographic activities in 2009. The company was re-founded in 2013 as FILM Ferrania to build a new film manufacturing base using a small portion of the historic campus.

History

Original Ferrania

The roots to the Ferrania company lie with the 1882-founded

explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...

s manufacturer SIPE (Società Italiana Prodotti Esplodenti, "Italian Society of Explosive Products").

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

saw a wide extension of business for SIPE, including the establishment of a new plant situated in the ''Ferrania'' hamlet of

Cairo Montenotte Cairo Montenotte () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Savona in Liguria, an Italian region located west of Genoa and northwest of Savona. Located in Val Bormida, it is a member of the Comunità Montana Alta Val Bormida. It is co ...

. With the production and chemical properties of explosives and early film being very similar, towards the end of the war in 1917 SIPE founded a subsidiary called FILM (''Fabbrica Italiana Lamine Milano'', "Italian Lamination Factory, Milan") co-owned by the French Pathé Brothers, which effectively became the film company Ferrania, founded in 1923. In 1932, Ferrania acquired the Milanese

photographic plate Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a capture medium in photography, and were still used in some communities up until the late 20th century. The light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, typically thinn ...

manufacturer Cappelli, to temporarily become Cappelli-Ferrania, and soon after also Tensi, the city's other large photographic plate manufacturer, before renaming itself back to just Ferrania in 1938. Ferrania's widest expansion and peak in popularity came in the post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

era after 1945, producing films such as ''Ferraniacolor'' or the black-and-white ''Pancro 30'' (P30) used by famous Italian directors such as

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...

Federico Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most i ...

for many of their films. In the later years following the 1964 acquisition by 3M and as part of Imation, the company manufactured and sold photographic film under the ''Solaris'', ''Dynachrome'', and ''Scotch Chrome'' brands, as well as hundreds of private label products. Up until 2007, Ferrania remained the only manufacturer of 126 “Instamatic” films after

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

discontinued them in 1999. In July 2008, the company's President announced to its unions that manufacture of color film products would cease in December 2008, although as late as March 2009, Ferrania customer service stated that they were still producing 135 format color film in 200 and 400 ASA. However, all manufacture of photographic film had ceased by the end of that year, and the last building was locked down in 2010. In October 2012, Ferrania laid off 198 out of 230 employees formerly working in the manufacture and processing of film.

FILM Ferrania

In 2013, the former Ferrania Research Laboratory (L.R.F.) and its narrow film coater was acquired by the new company FILM Ferrania s.r.l. which also took over some of Ferrania's manufacturing equipment, materials and documentation, as well as a number of those Ferrania technicians laid off in 2012. FILM Ferrania inherited the historic brand Ferrania to launch analog products suitable for the actual needs of the cine/photo market. In 2013, FILM Ferrania announced an intention to produce new versions of the historic ''Solaris FG-100 Plus'' color negative film and ''Scotch Chrome 100'' color slide film in a variety of formats, with a potential emphasis on

cine film Ciné film or cine film is the term commonly used in the UK and historically in the US to refer to the 8 mm, Super 8, 9.5 mm, and 16 mm motion picture film formats used for home movies. It is not normally used to refer to ...

. In an interview, Nicola Baldini, chief of the new company, stated his intention of also bringing back black-and-white films, especially the historical Ferrania P30. On November 19, 2013 Film Ferrania presented the main core of production and R&D, formed by eight people with years of experience in the field, who are listed by their names, biography, and photos, on the company's website. In September 2014, Film Ferrania, after an online survey, announced a crowdfounding on the platform

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

to obtain $250,000 from the founders to buy some machines from the old plant of Ferrania. On October 29, 2014 Film Ferrania terminated the fundraising campaign reaching $322,420 (128% of the original target), and announced that as a prize for the donations, they will send films of the first batch of 35mm, 120, super8 and 16mm test rolls based on the original Scotch Chrome 100. However, Film Ferrania suffered numerous production delays due to asbestos discoveries, and numerous infrastructural issues. In late 2015, FILM Ferrania CEO Baldini told German magazine ''Cine 8-16'' that the new time schedule was to start the first test batch to send to donators by spring 2016, which will include a line of color reversal films based on ScotchChrome in the ISO speeds and color balances of 64D, 100D, 200D, 400D, 640T, and 800/3200T, in the formats of 135 and 120 for still photography, as well as Super8 and 16mm. Later, a negative line based on the Solaris stock will follow in speeds of 100, 200 and 400 ISO. To date, however, none of Ferrania's color products nor their motion picture products have been realized, and no further mention of them can be found on the website. Ferrania P30 Alpha, 1805271725, ako

On February 1, 2017 FILM Ferrania presented a new black and white film – P30 Alpha. It is a

panchromatic Panchromatic emulsion is a type of black-and-white photographic emulsion that is sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light. Description A panchromatic emulsion renders a realistic reproduction of a scene as it appears to the human eye, altho ...

, 80

ASA ASA as an abbreviation or initialism may refer to: Biology and medicine * Accessible surface area of a biomolecule, accessible to a solvent * Acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin * Advanced surface ablation, refractive eye surgery * Anterior spinal ar ...

speed film with a very high silver content, based on the old formula used to produce cinematographic films. Although the first film produced by FILM Ferrania was supposed to be a color reversal film, company decided to produce a test batch of black and white film to test the restored machines used to produce film. After seeing the results from the test batch company owners decided to release the P30 as an

alpha version A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

, to be improved upon based on user feedback. In early December 2019, Film Ferrania announced the availability of the final version of P30 to customers from North America.

Products

* Ferrania P30 Alpha 135/36 - 80 ISO/ASA panchromatic black & white film for 35mm cameras

References

External links