US network NBC covered the rising interest in film photography on its Nightly News on Monday (17 October) with a subtle difference – it shot the entire segment on film.
The ‘Developing Story’ segment, hosted by reporter Gadi Schwartz, was shot on a 1970s-era Beaulieu 4008 camera aswell as a Rhona Super 8 camera, giving the segment a distinctive look. It’s the first NBC news segment to be shot on film in more than 40 years.
Schwartz tweeted that the segment also included stills shot on a Minolta SR-T 101, a Canon AE-1 and a Mamiya RB67.
The report came a week after Eastman Kodak – the company which makes Kodak cinema and still film – said it wanted to hire more than 300 new staff to ensure it could meet demand for photographic demand, which has seen an explosion in interest in recent years.
You can see the entire clip via NBC’s Twitter below:
After fading in popularity, film photography is seeing a major comeback fueled by younger generations and social media. @GadiNBC takes us inside the developing craze with a story shot entirely on film. pic.twitter.com/gO2GOdb0Cw
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) October 17, 2022
In the segment, Schwartz said: “Here at NBC News, it’s been more than 44 years since we measured footage in actual feet.
Schwartz joined popular film YouTuber Grainydays shooting film in Los Angeles. Grainydays (aka Jason Kummerfeldt), when asked how he felt about the sound of shooting on film, said it sounded like “old mechanical perfection”.
The news item also visited camera store Tuttle Cameras in Long Beach, where owner Erik Vitwar said the demand for film had recently tripled, and the prices of vintage film cameras had “skyrocketed”. He used the example of a Canon AE-1 currently selling for $299, compared to $160 three years ago.
The segment also visited photography tutor School of Light, with tutor Andrew Hall saying film “is always magical – it never stops being exciting”. It even featured a six-year-old photographer, Byron Lewis, already smitten by shooting film: “It looks like magic.”
Schwartz also posted some behind-the-scenes footage of the film-only shoot, which you can see below.
Tonight on @NBCNightlyNews…It’s been around 44 years since our crews loaded up film stock & measured out footage in actually feet… Until today!!! Join us as we explore why #filmisnotdead! pic.twitter.com/XfXxHMeg7O
— Gadi Schwartz (@GadiNBC) October 17, 2022
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
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[…] excellent Kosmo Foto shared this recent NBC Nightly News clip talking about the resurgence of film photography. Even […]
As a person who spent most of his life working at camera store in San Francisco for 33 years as the store is now CLOSED due to Digital, and Techies that alot of technology in Film Photography, and Cameras that would make Sony, and Panasonic to shame. I was thrill to see that NBC News did a story that film shooters are now re-discovering in what is magic that little girl said on the video because it is magic, and something to hold a camera that is 20 to 30 years old. My film gear is about 50 years –… Read more »