Italian film producer FILM Ferrania has announced its second film, an orthochromatic film called Orto.
The 50 ISO black-and-white negative film has been teased for some weeks but the official announcement was made via the brand’s website and social media accounts on Sunday (2 April).
The new film follows on from the release of the company’s first emulsion, P30, which was released in 2017.
“We are proud to release our second product since achieving continuous film production status at our manufacturing base in Cairo Montenotte, Italy,” FILM Ferrania said on its website.
“Ferrania Orto is P30’s quirky cousin and features the same high silver content, inherently strong contrast and practically invisible grain as P30 – but this time, distinctly ortochromatica.
“In the earliest days of silent cinema, film stock was blue-sensitive or orthochromatic,” FILM Ferrania said. “Hollywood relied on cosmetics as a “corrective” for on-screen actors. One hundred years later, the very “flaws” that plagued our predecessors are now the creative features that distinguish orthochromatic films today.”
The Italian film brand also suggested the film be shot at its box speed of ISO 50. “We understand that modern films are very flexible, but Orto is based on a classic chemical formula that responds best when shot at the listed ISO of 50.”
The new Orto page of the FILM Ferrania website also includes development recipes for major photographic developers.
FILM Ferrania emerged from the ashes of film producer Ferrania, which folded in 2009 after more than 80 years producing film. In 2013 it launched a Kickstarter to help fund an intended new line of colour slide films, based on the Scotch Chrome series of films it produced in the 20th Century, on part of the Ferrania’s production site.
A series of problem – including discovery of asbestos on the manufacturing site in northern Italy – led to the slide film project being paused while the company concentrated on P30.
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).
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