The Spark of Passion
My story with film processing began at the age of 15, which was in 1980, when I developed a passion for photography that went beyond just taking pictures. I taught myself film development, mixing chemicals and loading 100-foot bulk rolls into 36-exposure cassettes.
My bathroom became a darkroom where I printed and developed my own black-and-white photos. In the late 1980s, I took my first job at a photography company in Amsterdam, where I learned to process colour negatives using an in-house "dip-and-dunk" (rack-and-hanger) C41 line. Later followed by color photo printing and RA-4 processing.
Working in the dark, controlling temperatures, and handling irreplaceable originals became second nature.
From bathroom darkroom to professional processing - the foundation of a lifelong passion
Education and early Inspiration
1
1989 - Gerrit Rietveld Academy
Application accepted to study filmmaking in the audiovisual department in Amsterdam
2
1990 - First Super 8 Film
Shot and edited my first Super 8 film, marking the beginning of hands-on filmmaking experience
3
1991 - San Francisco Art Institute
Exchange program where I learned hand-processing techniques for 8 and 16mm colour and black and white reversal film
4
1992 - Operating a 16mm Film Processor
Accepted as paid operator of SFAI's compact 16mm black-and-white reversal processor, proving consistent results were possible
The Search for a Solution
The Challenge
By the mid-to-late 1990s, I tried to find my own compact machine. Industrial processors - even those given away for free - were several meters long, required 3-phase 380V power, and held hundreds of liters of chemistry. They were far too large for my needs.
The demand for Super 8 processing simply didn’t justify such industrial-scale capacity.
The demand for Super 8 processing simply didn’t justify such industrial-scale capacity.
One day, a friend of mine let me use his computer with a dial-up 28k modem (we're talking 1996) to search the early internet.
There were no usable search engines yet, no eBay, and after spending hours online I found nothing.
"Since no compact film processor existed for Super 8, I decided to build one myself."
The Roller Challenge
The Critical Problem: Film tension!
The processor was a single-speed machine; once the motor engaged, it ran at a fixed rate. The real test was whether the film could travel smoothly across hundreds of rollers without slack or stress.
The processor was a single-speed machine; once the motor engaged, it ran at a fixed rate. The real test was whether the film could travel smoothly across hundreds of rollers without slack or stress.
The first real parts were the rollers: several hundred grey PVC wheels turned by retired technicians at Amsterdam-Noord's NDSM shipyard.
What I didn't realize at the time was that the rollers were not precision-machined. Their diameters varied slightly, between 39.95mm and 40.15mm. (0,2mm tolerance)
1
Problem Solving Process
For a full month I did nothing but re-arrange rollers, measuring each one with a caliper and carefully recording the results. To make even a small change - swapping the position of two rollers - I first had to remove all the rollers from the axle, re-order them, mount everything back into the processor, lace the film again, and run a new test.
2
Breakthrough Achieved
Bit by bit, though, the tension evened out until the film finally ran smoothly through the entire path. That breakthrough transformed the processor from an experiment into a fully operational production tool.
