From engineers to technicians and filmmakers, there are countless people who contributed to the invention and production of the 35mm film. The first was Thomas Edison who invented the camera and projector to shoot films on. Edison’s cameras and projectors had a width of 35mm which meant they needed film of the same width. Eastman Kodak Company, or simply Kodak’s, founder George Eastman created and produced the film rolls that would eventually be used to make movies. To this day, Kodak supplies the film used for movies.
Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal, and Warner Bros. Studios came together in 2002 to form the Digital Cinema Initiative (D.C.I.) with the purpose of facilitating the move to digital filmmaking, ensuring a uniform, high level of technical performance, reliability, and quality control. Since the creation of D.C.I., more movie directors have veered away from traditional film to creating digital movies.
It is important to preserve these historic movies that were shot and displayed on film, and Reel Film Day is a day to do just that, a day to commemorate this revolutionary period in entertainment history. It was in the late 19th century that the first motion picture was shot on film, “The Horse In Motion,” and till the 2000s, the 35mm film was the standard. Kodak and Alamo Drafthouse, famous for being one of the only theaters in recent times that can run film, came together on March 5, 2017, to announce the first-ever Reel Film Day. On that day, Alamo Drafthouse and independent theaters all over the country displayed the beauty of 35mm film through screenings of a few timeless classics. Part of the proceeds of the inaugural observance of the holiday was donated to the Film Foundation for their film preservation efforts.