Digital Orchard moves film scanning to Kodak Film Lab at Pinewood

Digital Orchard Group and Kodak have announced an exciting new development in their long-standing shared services partnership, that sees the installation of Digital Orchard’s world-class film scanning operation at Kodak Film Lab London, based at Pinewood Studios. The move will see Kodak’s comprehensive negative processing services for motion picture films and Digital Orchard’s expertise in film scanning & finished scan digital workflows combined for the first time at one facility, based at the historic studios that have been the home to filmmakers around the world for over 85 years.

Digital Orchard and Kodak first partnered in 2019, to combine Kodak’s photochemical expertise with Digital Orchard’s expertise & cutting-edge film scanning technology. The partnership has seen over 5 million feet of film processed by Kodak Film Lab, and then scanned & serviced through Digital Orchard’s workflows.

Kodak Film Lab offers a range of modern processing equipment for colour and B&W camera film, and newly commissioned film recording services to produce YCM digital separation masters and colour intermediates for preservation. The lab is supported by a skilled team of technicians with extensive experience of working on major studio feature films, commercials, promos & archive projects. Digital Orchard’s scanning operation at Pinewood includes a LaserGraphic ScanStation 65 – recently upgraded to incorporate 6.5k capability – as well as a Scanity HDR 4K scanner, supported by Digital Orchard’s scanning team headed up by Dan Redrup.  Together the teams now offer a complete end to end process and scan service for 8mm, 16mm, 35mm & 65mm film, together in one facility.

Commenting on the development, Sam Margaritis, Managing Director at Digital Orchard said: “We’re thrilled to be able to move our film servicing operations to Kodak Film Lab London in order to strengthen our partnership and offer filmmakers the world’s very best film scanning technology & expertise, directly where their negatives are processed. It’s a testament to our ongoing commitment to provide the very best in service and quality for our clients in the UK & around the world.”

Antonio Rasura, Director Motion Picture Labs Kodak added: “Pinewood Studios has such a rich heritage as a place for filmmakers to bring their stories to the screen, so we’re delighted that we can now service both processing & scanning at our lab there. Our team have worked so closely with Digital Orchard over the past 4 years, we’re excited to welcome them to Pinewood and continue to provide best in class service to our clients from there.”