Today we’d like to introduce you to Cooper Andrews.
Hi Cooper, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’m a co-owner of Z41 Film Lab. I started shooting celluloid film in 2018 and immediately fell in love with it – and then quickly realized how expensive this new hobby was going to be. This didn’t deter me from shooting film but instead made me look towards creative ways to still afford it and give myself peace of mind. I moved to college in 2019 and saved up enough money to buy myself some cheap chemicals and darkroom chemical bottles and started developing my own film out of my dorm bathroom to save money on developing costs. I would scan my film on this document scanner I got from my parents that could scan film and then I’d touch it up in Lightroom – which was crazy. I spent hours on hours on hours scanning and editing my photos to get good color renditions, which still didn’t even look very good.
At the time – film started to become a pretty big trend for college kids, so I started developing my dorm-neighbors disposable cameras/film for a really cheap price, which gained me enough money to keep buying more chemicals so I could keep developing. I remember feeling very proud of being able to sustain one of the most expensive parts of my hobby and also feeling a bit of a eureka moment as I realized that I was getting overcharged by a lot of film labs. Then covid hit, and I returned home, where I tried to continue developing people’s films by advertising on Instagram. It didn’t work as well as at college, and in total I made exactly $50. Because there wasn’t lots of opportunities to go out and shoot, I had spent lots of time either researching cameras or wasting time on tik tok. I had seen this woman’s video that went viral of her developing film out of her room, just like me. And it went crazy viral. I remember feeling overwhelmed from a handful of rolls, so I couldn’t imagine the hundreds and hundreds of rolls of film that people were sending her from this one video.
So, for whatever reason, I reached out to her and asked if she wanted to partner up and I could help develop some of the film she was getting. She said no. She lived in Alabama, and I in California, so it wasn’t really gonna work. But a few months later, in early December of 2020, she reached back out and asked if I wanted to partner up and start a film-developing business and hire people from across the US that we have our customers send film to so we can all develop it without being overwhelmed. I remember her saying that she also started developing her own film because she thought it was too expensive. In one of our first calls, we had agreed that the three things we wanted to push with this business was affordability, quick turnaround time, and no confusion. So this random woman I had never met before, who lived halfway across the country, offered me a chance at running our own business together. I said yes. We started Z41 Film (now Z41 Film Lab) and immediately went viral on tik tok and Instagram, and we have developed over 250 rolls of film every week since we opened in January of 2021.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have been plenty of struggles on the way with running this business, but that’s just the nature of the beast. I will always say that the most difficult part of running this business is the customer service. Constant emails from customers can sometimes cause a lot of stress on top of the work I already have to do. But I would consider us very lucky with a wonderful team and super grateful customers.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Z41 Film Lab is a mail-in Film Lab where we develop and scan 35mm color and black and white film. We convert the negatives to digital files and send them to our customer’s emails so they can download them right onto their phone or computer. We also send back negatives if a customer purchases the option. Recently, we’ve been expanding to selling film, film cameras, T-Shirts, tote bags, and more. We offer an incredible price for the service we offer. We only charge $10 per roll/disposable camera for high-resolution 2000x3000pixels scans – which other labs would charge around $13-16 for the same service. We hand develop all of our films, so it’s a careful process, and we really treat every roll like our own. We’ve recently expanded to pop-up shops or booths at local music festivals, farmers markets, and flea markets. We have our first one coming up and we’re super excited; it’s called the Flower Moon Festival. We also run a community magazine, called Zine41, where anyone can submit film photos based on a theme, which we’ll then select our favorites and print them in a magazine which is available for purchase for our customers. Our second issue comes out very soon!
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The best way would be to follow us on our socials! Or submit to our zine! Or come to one of our in-person events coming up soon! Posting your photos that we developed and tagging us is also a really fun and supportive thing to do.
Pricing:
- $10 Color Film Develop + Scan
- $12 B&W Film Develop + Scan
Contact Info:
- Website: z41film.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/z41filmlab/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Z41FilmLab
Image Credits
Cooper Andrews
