Yeah, that’s all I can say about this ad from the June 1962 issue of American Cinematographer. Would you ever imagine a time during which a company thought it profitable to proclaim its aversion to computers? Although the copy points out that it’s human creativity and artistry that really count, the headline made me laugh.
With computers so deeply entwined in every aspect of our lives, I often wonder what new advance will relegate our dependency on current tech to the same state of absurdity?
If we’re lucky, we might find out. I suspect it’s a lot closer than we think…
I have no idea how many miles of film that I personally dropped at MPL’s Nashville Office! Not to mention hours in their telecine suite.
They are missed as are those days of actually shooting film.
Hello Richard,
I had a similar experience yesterday – only the subject was transferring 1984 VHS video to digital. In the 80’s I lugged a VHS vcr connected to a rather bulky early vidicon tube video camera for a couple family weddings. I suggested my sister take the vhs to her local Walmart so they could convert them. (she lives in Kansas where there are plenty of Walmart stores). So I thought I would be the helpful big brother and see if they still had that service – 45minutes later on the phone with Walmart , most of which was spent interacting with automated mis information electronic devices trying to sound human, I got to a human who when I ‘chatted’ my question ‘do your stores still offer conversion to vhs to digital services’…. after about 2 mins the reply was “could you explain more about what is vhs”. Seriously, I’m not exaggerating one bit…. jump to the end of the 45 mins, another nice human named ‘Hershey” told me they don’t offer that service online but they do at the local stores…. true story, there are people answering phones at Walmart that don’t know what vhs means – do you suppose they ever heard of Motion Picture Laboratories?
Garrett – Soon nobody will be remembering us, either…!
A quick internet search reveals they are out of business under that name! Of course, the ad was run 60+ years ago and plays to the fears of the ill informed that these “mechanical monsters” were taking the human factor out of the equation and that could be further from the truth. Remember HAZELTINE? This is an excerpt from AC Magazine, June 19, 2023 — “….but before there was digital projection, film prints for theaters were color-corrected on a Hazeltine, using a system based on values of red, green and blue called “printer lights.”
Full article here: https://theasc.com/articles/shooting-motion-picture-negative-still-camera
I miss the laboratory days at Fotokem. I choose to be a projectionist so I could see other Cinematographer’s work. I met Janus Kaminski, I projected the dailies for his Huckleberry Finn show. Jeffery Kimbal and Tony Scott were awesome people during the True Romance shoot.
Jeffery Kimbal introduced me to Tony as an up and coming DP. I was embarrassed but Tony praised me for learning the Lab processes first. They were genuinely gentlemen.
I had a color timer friend that would photo copy the printer lights and give them to me so I could learn from watching the creativity of other artists. Film students of the current era are missing out on important experiences. The Magic of film Dailies, with a room full of people, cannot be replaced by viewing dailies on a monitor or an IPad. We need to be together in the dark watching and listening for “camera…..speeding….the 2nd AC and slate in the frame and then that clack of the slate bar….Action!