Today we’d like to introduce you to Last Good Film Lab.
Our first rendition of a lab started in Vixxion’s kitchen almost two years ago. As time went on and our community of customers grew we had to adapt. The lab was started by three different creators who all wanted to achieve the same goal. The goal being to start a film lab created by the community & for the community. A place where creatives can drop off their film & know that other artists, like themselves, are handling their art as well as they would handle their own. The idea originated in early 2019 as Vixxion was developing & scanning film out of his kitchen for hundreds of creatives, James was spending his time on set both as a director & a film shooter while Mike, a cinematographer, was out shooting motion picture & still film. During the COVID quarantine, James came to Vixxion with film rolls to develop & an idea to start an official lab. From there, they brought Mike into the project as a friend & a trusted figure in the film community. The rest is history.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Were in the business of nostalgia the machines are old and hard to find and also had to learn them in-n-out – opening a business during covid, with no guarantee that this was going to work out or when it would be safe to open – as creatives we understand the importance of handling peoples film/content, formulating a lab that we ourselves would want to go to with a structure in which the entire process is handled. We’re all passionate creatives with careers so finding a balance of time to be here and dedicated our effort to learning the machines thoroughly. The Last Good Film Lab is in the business of nostalgia. Our machines run daily & are no longer produced; they’re hard to find and difficult to maintain. We also opened our business during the worldwide pandemic with no real guarantee if the idea would work or when the business would be properly able to open. A big challenge was, as being creatives we understand the importance of handling people’s film and we ourselves had to formulate a plan to structure the entire process of how customer’s film was handled. A balance of time is a constant obstacle within ourselves. Owning and operating a lab gives us little time to work on our own artistic projects, leaving a delicate balance of work while still going out and creating.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Last Good Film Lab?
We specialize in the processing of analog picture film. from start to finish; from the rolls coming out the camera freshly shot to the digital files being sent out to the photographer. What sets us apart from other labs is that we’re a new generation of photo lab, everyone working here from the owners to the employees is a creative, we looked at everything we disliked about other labs whether it be old methods, to the presence of the labs holds in the community. We looked at that & made it a point to be different. We email files only. No CD’s & no USB sticks, you get the files emailed directly to you free of charge. When you come in here, we want it to feel like you’re seeing friends not a stranger. We also do community posts, showing off the work of photographers who come here. We want to support those who support us.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
The biggest risk was easily just making the storefront and the brand what it is now. Think about it, three people coming together who already had their time occupied with their careers, deciding to start a business in the middle of a pandemic. We had no idea when this idea would get off the ground even though we were working on it constantly.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.lastgoodfilmlab.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lastgoodfilmlab
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LAST-GOOD-FILM-LAB
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lastgoodfilmlab
