| Image: Harman Photo |
Harman is a name that, for many, is synonymous with black and white film. After all, it’s the company behind the staple monochrome brands Ilford and Kentmere. However, in 2023, parent company Harman Technology launched Harman Photo, a color film label, with Phoenix 200 as its first completely in-house color film.
Now, the brand has released a short documentary that walks through the process of developing a new color film and its goals moving forward. It’s a really fascinating look into the R&D process for film companies, and offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their equipment and lab spaces. It also is neat to see (and hear from) some of the individuals behind this work.
To start, the team walks through the difficulty of color film in particular. “For a black and white film, there’s a lot fewer layers, and it’s very heavily silver-driven. When we are talking about color film, there’s a lot more chemicals involved because we have to get the various layers of color that we need,” says Giles Branthwaite, Sales & Marketing Director of Harman Technology.
Harman Photo developed these from scratch, too. “Our emulsions for color film are nothing like what we’ve done before. Everything that we do, every layer that we put on, every new model of film that we do is new from the ground up. There are no recipes for what we are creating. It’s all coming out of the minds of R&D as we speak,” says Greg Summers, Managing Director of Harman Technology.
“It’s still not where we ultimately want to be.”
It was also exciting to hear about the company’s long-term goals, of which there are plenty. There have been two iterations of its Phoenix film, but they won’t be stopping there. “It’s still not where we ultimately want to be,” says Branthwaite, a sentiment echoed by others featured in the video. They also specify that some tweaks weren’t quite ready for Phoenix II, but will be ready soon, citing halation, sharpness, granularity and speed as some of the areas that will see improvements.
“There’s some very experimental stuff coming soon. It’s going to shock people.”
Beyond the existing lineup, the video also teased that more films are on the way, and ones that we won’t expect. “There’s some very experimental stuff coming soon. It’s going to shock people,” says Josie Cowap, Lab Technician. Long term, they want to offer a “full range of products, full range of speeds, potentially different segments of the market,” says Branthwaite. “As a brand, we want to be different. A little bit alternative, a little bit out there.”
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| Image: Harman Photo |
Greater availability could also be on the horizon. “We’re anticipating our volumes will grow,” says Branthwaite. The team walks through some of the investments made in the production facility, specifically the finishing line, where they spool all the film and package it. “These machines cannot be bought. We’ve had to design them, get them manufactured, put them together, so they really are bespoke,” says Branthwaite.
So much investment in the facility is a good thing for us film fans. “This actually gives somebody hope that analog film will be around for the next 10, 20, 30 years going forward,” says someone who works in the factory but wasn’t named in the video. Indeed, as a film photographer, the whole story gives me hope for the film industry in the years to come.