Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The 8mm camera return explained by Kodak CEO Jeff Clarke”.
Hey everybody welcome CES 2016, we’re here at the verge lounge presented by Ford SYNC thanks for come in, I’m Sean, okay and I’m a reporter for The Verge, and I have a very special guest list here today. This is Jeff Clark, the CEO of Kodak, who made probably one of the most surprising announcements of CES. I don’t think anybody really expected to come here and wind up talking about a film camera, let alone an 8 millimeter film camera. But that’s what you announce and I would love to hear more of it because I haven’t seen it yet well. Originally super 8 camera 50 years old was announced in 1964 and obviously a couple years later came out at the World’s Fair codecs last super 8. Camera was 1982, so bringing this back is part of a recognition that there’s an analog Renaissance happening, and we see this a vinyl. You see this with 3d printing, where you’re taking digital and then using physical property to create the best of both worlds, and we believe that not only should Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino and JJ, Abrams and and Steve McQueen be able to shoot on film. Students should be able to and aspiring artists and filmmakers should, as well as as professionals. So we want to offer that for people to have a super8 camera again I want to get to those filmmakers in a second, because, that’s, I think, a really interesting part about this.
But can you give me an idea? Tell everybody how this thing works because you it is: it’s a dislike lis digital, but an 8 millimeter camera, and one that I haven’t. I mean the last one was released before I was born and I’ve used 8 millimeter cameras before and they are. There are a lot of fun to use and then there’s, but there’s a process of getting that film developed. You guys have the whole thing sort of locked down with this new camera right.
We do. We felt that you needed a full ecosystem. So, first of all, the camera is a classic film camera, the same cartridge that we were making for the last 20 years, pops right in there and you have a real analog film experience.
We’Ve added some digital features. We added a viewfinder, we added a digital mic and we added a place. You can put a card in so you can integrate that properly, but the ecosystem is you take the pic you buy the film.
You then send the film left who shot it back to Kodak. We will then upload an image on YouTube or whatever you’d like, and then you can share it. Social media can watch it digitally if you want and then the mail a special present comes, which is the reel-to-reel, but you can. You can shoot at home as well. I shot on some 8 millimeter film, some vision 3 a couple years ago for a project, and I got the digital transfer done and everything, but I had to find it was. It was almost impossible.
I had to find the last place in New York City that sells it and it’s this basement office. I mean it’s like so hard to track down it’s impossible to find online, and then I had to bring it back there to get developed and they did the digital transfer. It was very expensive, but I did get that real back and there was something about as much as I had fun working with that film in the project on my computer. Having that real was something totally wild and that’s exciting that you guys are keeping that around. We think it’s important, but you know your analog right. Yeah you’re, not digital, your analog, so when you feel it when you touch it, that’s part of the maker movement.
That’S part of why there’s an analog rent Renaissance right now is it um. This show is full of very good digital products that are extraordinary. What we’ve done is taken some of that digital content and brought back analog into it for the best of both worlds and that’s what makes it fun for you and the ecosystems required the ecosystem that you know.
Frankly, many of us were shot as kids. You know with super 8 in that those, the movies that we have in our memory had a full ecosystem. We could have gone to the corner pharmacy and got that done now.
It’S you have to do a mail order into Kodak, but it will be it’ll be good. Now this camera tell me when it’s gon na be released and tell me how cheap it is. Cuz, it looks really cool. If you haven’t seen it, you got ta go find it.
It is like the nicest looking 8 millimeter camera that looks like it was released in 2016. Really later this fall. We expect to have a limited edition out we’re targeting prices still TBD, but when we get to volume you’re talking somewhere between 400 and 700 dollars for a camera, you know pricing it right. Underneath oculus well yeah yeah totally different experiences, but I mean I would expect to look in that price range.
If I was gon na try and find a working, a millimeter camera. I know my brother has one though one is one I used. Then it was even that is hard to keep working these days, because it’s that one’s even older than 82 yeah. So you know when we announced this.
A lot of people have come back and given us feedback, including a school teacher who teaches film and he said – we’ve been buying them up and and having spares you know off of the internet and it’s getting harder and harder. There is a super8 you can buy today, which is five thousand dollars. It’S a very beautiful. You know all the features that you could have and the owner sell a couple hundred of those really unique product. This is for the masses. This is one we want to get people accessible to students. One part of getting that to the masses is like, though, where I want to end this. Is you mentioned these guys at the beginning, but JJ Abrams, Quentin Tarantino? There are a bunch of really acclaimed filmmakers that have already come out before you even really announced this thing officially have come out and supported this idea, which must be really cool, but I want to know was that something you approached them to talk about this idea Ahead of time, did they just hear about it? I mean how deeper story than that um, you know, Kodak was in bankruptcy and after the company came out of bankruptcy, we brought on a new manager team, I’m the new CEO of that the last 18 months.
One of the earliest decisions we had to make was: are we going to continue to make film it’s only 10 % of kodak revenue, and but it’s a huge responsibility for our brand and the and as a medium as an artist medium, we made the decision to Do it and we went all-in, and so when we talked to the Spielberg’s and Tarantino’s, will you still shoot film if we still make it their answer was resounding yes, and then we talked about. What’S the next step in the answer is: how do we get more people to shoot film? And that means you have to have a device? It can’t. You know not. Everyone can shoot 70 like Tarantino, and so you know we have several devices accessible.
You know to people who want to experiment and play and learn and that’s what this is all about, so yes, they’ve been in from the beginning. Well, thank you so much for your time, Jeff. We have a whole lot more going on here at CES this year. The shows packed with a ton of stuff we’ve been out. Everybody back here has been out working really hard, so give them some love, and if you want to see all that definitely go to the verge. Comm also go to youtube.com, slash The Verge and click Subscribe. We’Ve got tons of awesome videos there. Maybe we can get some film videos processed and put up there too. I’M sure we can get you some film yeah there we go so head to those make sure you subscribe thanks for watching stick around. Thank you very much. .