The Database, Field-by-Field

Here’s some info regarding the definition and usage of each field:

Stock #
With few exceptions, all the major film stock companies gave identifying numbers to their film stock products, and although sometimes companies might reuse a stock number (Kodak did this a handful of times), it seemed the best way to organize the database.

Company
The manufacturer of the film stock. For consistency and simplicity, I’ve standardized the names of the film stock manufacturers for use in this database. Some decisions worth noting and explaining:
-I decided to use “Kodak” for economy and recognizability, rather than “Eastman” or “Eastman Kodak”.
-I use “Ansco” rather than “GAF” or “Agfa-Ansco”. GAF was the final name of the company (from 1967-) as a film manufacturer, but Ansco is far more known and historically iconic as a film stock name. Further complicating things, from 1928-1942 or so, Ansco was merged with Agfa, and US-sold products labeled as “Agfa-Ansco”. These name variations will be noted clearly.
-Even though Agfa and Gevaert had individual histories and products pre-1964 merger, I have decided to combine each of their separate outputs (and their post-merger output) under the umbrella name “Agfa-Gevaert”, primarily because many of their individual products continued to be made under the merger name, so it makes things confusing to try to keep everything separate. I may separate them later if I figure out an elegant way, but in the meantime these vagaries will be explained in the database on a stock-by-stock basis.
-Ferrania produced stock under its own name until being acquired by 3M in 1964. The 2010s revived Film Ferrania is basically unrelated to the historic Ferrania, but these stocks will still be listed under the name “Ferrania”, with appropriate notes.

Name
Usually I try to include both the official trade name of the stock along with any more colloquial or general usage name it might have (i.e. Ektachrome Commercial / ECO).

Gauge
The film gauge the stock was available in. In cases where a stock was available in multiple gauges, all relevant gauges are listed if the stock number was shared between the different gauges. If a stock had different stock numbers depending on gauge (such as Kodak called it 5219 for 35mm and 7219 for 16mm), then those have separate entries.

Base
The composition of the film base. This is most typically acetate, polyester, or nitrate.

Color
The color capability of the stock. This can really only be black and white or color, but there are always weird exceptions, which will be noted if present.

Type
This is the condition of the stock with regard to intended process/polarity, i.e. negative, positive, reversal, etc. Nearly any stock can be processed any number of exceptional ways for all kinds of results, so I decided to more or less stick to the manufacturers’ intended usage of their stocks for simplicity and clarity purposes. Some stocks like hi-con can be used as positive, negative, or reversal, and the manufacturers generally intended them that way. Ektachrome can be cross-processed as negative, and although this was acknowledged by Kodak, it wasn’t an intended or recommended usage, so it wouldn’t be noted as such.

Usage
This field refers to the intended purpose of the stock – camera stocks, print stocks, intermediate stocks, etc. As with “type”, any stock can theoretically be used any way, but this field will reflect the manufacturers’ intended usage.

ASA/EI
This is the speed of the film. Although every film has a measurable sensitivity, this information is typically only provided for camera stocks. I will include EI info for non-camera stocks where possible. This field is called ASA/EI, because even though ASA (American Standards Association) speeds don’t technically apply to motion picture films (instead, EI/Exposure Index is the system used), enough people use “ASA” across all types of film that I decided to use it for recognizability. There are also other standards for film speed that have been historically used in other parts of the world, such as GOST in the USSR, etc., and I will note those where possible.

Balance
This is information typically relevant only for camera films, and refers to the general color temperature of the illumination in the space being photographed. Most commonly, this is either tungsten (indoor) or daylight. Infrared stocks were also in use, but far less commonly. Many manufacturers’ camera stocks were offered in both tungsten and daylight varieties. This can be interesting info to know about a film because it also may indicate something about a film’s shooting circumstances or intentions, especially in independent/experimental filmmaking. A tungsten film used outdoors — or a daylight film used indoors — would require a corrective filter to give a balanced color image. The usage of a filter would reduce the speed of the film. Some filmmakers would deliberately use a daylight film indoors, to get a nonstandard color palette that they desired (Stan Brakhage did this in many of his films).

Edge Coding
My feeling has always been that this could be one of the most helpful tools of the database, but it’s also one of the hardest to harvest data for. The vast majority of film stocks have at least SOME kind of edge lettering/coding/etc. At the very least, the manufacturer of the film stock places their name there, but all kinds of other information can potentially show up in the edges.

This kind of edge coding is totally separate from edge numbering for workprint/negative matching, by the way – it’s quite common for film to also feature sequential edge numbering (typically every 16 frames in 35mm and every 20 frames in 16mm), which are used to assist a negative cutter in matching the negative to the edited workprint.

The kinds of information that can be found in the edges of the film strip can really vary. As mentioned, there’s usually the manufacturer’s name, but there also may be a NITRATE or SAFETY notation, the actual stock name/number (or an internal company designation for the stock, which can sometimes be deciphered), digits related to emulsion or slitter codes (such as 1S and 2S on Agfa stocks), processing tags from specific labs, or other manufacturer-specific data (e.g. “PNI” on Ansco stocks means “processing not included”).

The most common edge coding information that folks are familiar with are date codes. Most extensively employed by Eastman Kodak, some Dupont and Fuji stocks have date codes as well. These codes refer to the year of manufacture of the stock itself, which is massively helpful information to know, but also worth keeping in mind that it doesn’t mean that’s the same year the film was shot. A handy date code document, originally assembled by various archivists, cleaned up, re-organized, and updated by John Klacsmann, is HERE.

Historical edge coding can be difficult data to collect, and there are also plenty of stocks for which the edge coding is pretty generic or the same as several other stocks. But hopefully even the partial data pertaining to edge codes that’s present will be useful.

Introduced
The year a stock was introduced. I have attempted to get as precise as possible infomation for this, since there are often conflicting years listed, even from the stock manufacturers themselves. Sometimes a stock is introduced in a limited test phase, and doesn’t enter into general availability until the following year. One helpful resource for determining some of this data has been the announcements, articles, and even advertisements in magazines like American Cinematographer and Business Screen.

Discontinued
The year a stock was discontinued.

Antecedent
The previous stock that the stock in question replaced.

Replacement
The subsequent stock that the stock in question was replaced by.

Process
The photochemical process intended to be used with the stock in question.

General & Historical Notes
The boundaries between these various ‘notes’ categories are somewhat fluid. But this particular field is primarily meant for historical contextual info, usage info, quotes taken from articles, manuals, magazines, etc. characterizing a stock, its background, its qualities.

Technical Notes
This notes field is meant for more specifically technical information regarding the stock in question.

Archival Properties
This notes field is for reporting and describing the archival properties of a stock.

Anecdotal Notes
This notes field is where anecdotal info can live, not just from archivists, but also filmmakers, lab folks, and anyone who has an informed/firsthand opinion or observation about a specific stock. This field was important to me in the conception of the database, because I loved the idea of having quotes from folks who used these stocks, in their own words, sharing their opinions and thoughts on them and their use of them.

Images
Images of the original stock cans/boxes, as well as pictures of edge codes and other visuals pertaining to the individual stocks.

Data Sheets
If I have a technical data sheet for a stock, I will attach it here.

Documents
Other assorted documents (such as ads, magazine articles, charts, etc.) will go here.