hen we decided to name our laboratory, our team looked back to our beginnings in the film industry in New York City and that wonderful Film Center Building at 630 Ninth Avenue. The Film Center Building was the home of several film laboratories, including Guffanti and Precision Film Labs, as well as the place where many films were edited and finished. We remember fondly Paul Guffanti and Bud Stone. Both of these lab men “knew their stuff” and always helped filmmakers, especially newcomer to the business. Charlie Diana, a negative cutter with an office on the top floor, was a long-time fixture in the building, and was always ready to consult and help filmmakers with their projects, and to remind them that the negative was pure gold, and should only be handled by the most experienced hands. There were people from many generations of the film business, working together, and teaching the younger generation all the tricks of the trade, and more than anything else had a love of film. It was a beehive of film activity where thousands of feature films, television series episodes, commercial and documentaries were created. It is with affection and remembrance of all these people and projects that we decided to call ourselves The Film Center Laboratory.*

But there’s another reason we chose the words film and center as part of our name. Film is at the center of our business. Only film. No video, no digital, just FILM. We also decided to specialize in an area that is in great need of services in the present film preservation climate. Our only service, and one we feel is very important to film preservation, is to duplicate 8mm, super 8 and 16mm original reversal film onto 16mm negatives (and prints, if you need them).

Home movies as a film genre are now more than 80 years old. Kodak introduced 16mm cameras and raw stock to the general public in 1923, and since then millions of home movies have been photographed by amateur cinematographers. 8mm film and cameras were introduced in 1932, and many millions more films were shot in this gauge. Now these originals, which contain amazing scenes of life, places, events and some famous people, too, are languishing in family collections and decaying at alarming rates. For families who want to preserve these films, we recommend digital copies because of the reasonable costs involved. We also suggest that these films are turned over to a local film archive with the ability to store the films at proper temperature and humidity for long-term preservation of the original materials.

In some cases home movies contain very important pieces of history, both personal and of our greater history and culture. More and more these films are being used as source materials for TV shows, features, commercials and documentaries. An example of a project we just complete is 38 minutes of 8mm and super 8mm Kodachrome home movies by an amateur cinematographer named Augustus Sassa, who followed President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy to appearances they made during their rise to the top of the political world. Done by our client, The Metro Theatre Center Foundation, with a support grant from The National Film Preservation Foundation, these color films which are now more than 60 years old were converted to a new 16mm negative from which several prints were also made, and these copies will be distributed to The Library of Congress and The UCLA Film and Television Archives. The originals will go to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archives in Hollywood for long-term preservation and storage. All of these archives will receive digital copies of the original films in order to make them available for study, research and possible use in new works.

Using our own proprietary equipment, based upon previously existing printers, optical benches and lab equipment that we have customized with computer programming, we are now offering these special services to our customers.

Our team of optical bench and lab technicians and computer specialists from four generations of film business activity assure state-of-the-art work, careful handling of originals, and a great result at the end of the production line to insure precious home movies will be here for many years to come. By the way, one of our team is just 19 years old, and has been a film enthusiast since he was 12, and he represents the next generation of film work and preservation.

Those of us from older generations are passing along our knowledge, experience, passion and love for film to the younger members of our team, so that we can have film in our lives for many years to come.

For quotes or other information about our services, please e-mail us.

Film Forever!

Leslie Ann Levine
General Manager
Film Center Laboratory
234 Ninth Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

*We are not connected to, or part of, or owned by the present owners of the Film Center Building in New York City. Our name is strictly an homage to the building.