The Early Days

The Fuji Photo Film Company was founded in 1934 to take over the proposed Motion Picture Film manufacturing operations of the Dainippon Celluloid Company, who had constructed a factory at Minami (South) Ashigara, some 50km west of Tokyo, at the foot of the mountains which lead to Mount Fuji. This site was selected for its abundance of clean water and clean air, together with ease of access.

The original purpose for setting up the Ashigara Factory was to create a local manufacturer of Black and White Motion Picture Positive Film in Japan. Until this time all products had been imported and the first 'home-made' Japanese product was manufactured at Ashigara in 1934. From this small beginning the Fuji Photo Film Company has expanded to its present day world-wide organisation involved in all aspects of imaging products and technology. By 1939, Black and White Camera Negative had been added to the company's range of products and research started into Colour Motion Picture systems.

First Colour Products

After the war, research and development continued, and by 1950 a Colour Reversal Film (very slow - EI. 10) was available. The first full colour production in Japan was completed on this material in 1951. 'Carmen Kokyo Ni Kaeru' (Carmen Comes Home) was made by the Shochiku Company and it turned out to be a success. In the same year the Daiei Company's Black and White production 'Rashomon' (The Gate of Rasho) was shot on Fuji Film and won the Grand Prix at the Venice International Film Festival, the first Japanese feature film to win international recognition.

Negative & Positive Colour Systems

The trend in the 1950's in colour motion picture technology was away from the Technicolor dye-transfer system (for which the original Fujicolor Reversal Film was well suited) towards a Negative / Positive film system. Fujifilm's R & D moved in this direction and the first Fujicolor Negative and Positive Films were introduced in 1955. The camera negative film was faster at EI. 25, and did not incorporate any coloured coupler masking.

From the small beginnings of the Negative / Positive colour system in the 1950's, Fujifilm's research and development progressed gradually. It incorporated changes to include coloured coupler masking (for improved colour rendering in the final print) and incorporating compatibility with Eastmancolor processing systems, so that by 1970, camera negative speed had increased to EI. 100, and Fujicolor Negative film accounted for 90% of the Japanese domestic feature film market.

Higher Speeds And Wider Choices

Throughout the 1970's, camera colour negative speed remained at EI. 100, a great improvement on the early days but still insufficient when low light level filming was required. Fujifilm's R & D now concentrated on increasing film speed and in the 1980's the company launched Fujicolor high speed negative film A250, a world first which ushered in a new era of high-speed colour camera negative films. At EI. 250, the new film was 2.5 times faster than any other colour negative film available at the time. Further improvements followed so that by 1984 the speed had doubled again to EI. 500, and practical low-light cinematography in colour was a reality.

The Environment

Fujifilm has always paid particular attention to the effect its manufacturing operations have on the environment. At the Ashigara factory all water used in manufacturing is extensively purified before being returned to the river. The purified water outflow is passed through a series of tanks that house large numbers of Koy Carp. The underlying philosophy is 'If the Carp are healthy, the factory is healthy.'

Key Innovations

Over the years Fujifilm has introduced key innovative camera films to the motion picture market, including a high speed reversal film for TV new in 1974 (RT-400) and the worlds first high quality low speed daylight negative film - the F-64D in 1988. However the most important of these for the cinematographer was the introduction of the original Fujicolor A250 high speed negative film in 1980. At a time when the general philosophy in the industry was that for colour, one speed of negative film was sufficient for all purposes; A250 bucked the trend and immediately offered a number of advantages to the cinematographer. Firstly, lower-light cinematography was possible, but also lighting in a given situation could be reduced, therefore offering a significant reduction in production costs. Fujifilm did not replace the earlier stock with A250 but chose to run it alongside the existing 100 speed negative film. In this way, the cameraman had a choice of stocks for different shooting situations.

The first European production to use Fujicolor A250 was 'Das Boot' filmed by Bavaria Radiant Productions and completed in 1981. Another early user of A250 film was the French production 'Le Dernier Metro'.

The Fuji Photo Film Co was honoured for its innovation in 1981 by being presented with the Academy Award of Merit for its 'research development and introduction of a new ultra-high speed colour negative film for motion pictures', popularly known as a 'Technical Oscar'.

Since the introduction of the original F-Series in 1988, further improvements and additions have been made, resulting in the current 3rd generation "Super F-Series", which allows the cinematographer a choice of seven colour negative stocks, four Tungsten balanced, F-125, F-250, F-400 & F-500, and three Daylight balanced stocks, F-64D, F-250D and REALA-500D. REALA-500D is the most recent addition to range, and is the world's first motion picture 500 speed Daylight film, and the first motion picture film to incorporate Fuji's 4th colour layer technology, which ensures the film sees the colour spectrum the human eye does.

R & D continues to further improve the image quality of Fuji Motion Picture negative film, so it won't be too long before there is something new...