TV news (1970s–1980s) Ektachrome has occasionally been used as a motion picture film stock, particularly for TV news gathering in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In fact, Kodak released Ektachrome 7/5240 VNF (125T) in 1975 for that very purpose, where "VNF" stood for
Video News Film.
Cross-processed use and use of old stock (1990s–2000s) It has been featured in three 1990s and 2000s productions, none of which showed a genuine portrayal of the high technical standards of then-modern Ektachrome: • Both the 1999 film
Three Kings and the 2006 film
Inside Man were shot on then-modern Ektachrome, but in both cases, the stock was
cross-processed in
C-41 color negative chemistry and subjected to a
bleach bypass, in order to achieve a particularly gritty or "different" look. • The Ektachrome sections of
Three Kings (1999) were made on custom-made rolls of Ektachrome 100 Plus, aka EPP, • The Ektachrome sections of
Inside Man (2006) were made on Ektachrome 100D 5285, introduced in 2005/06 as a movie version of the still-photography stock Ektachrome EBX. • The 1998 film ''
Buffalo '66'' was also shot on Ektachrome and actually processed in its genuine E6 reversal process, however this production used Ektachrome 160T 5239, an old stock originally introduced in 1975 that would turn out greenish upon processing and the film properties of which, although still sold by that time, were heavily outdated by the standards of 1990s Ektachrome.
Untarnished use in motion pictures (1990s–2000s) Unlike the above films, one professional motion picture that shows the genuine properties and high standards of 1990s and 2000s Ektachrome was
Oliver Stone's
World Trade Center (2006). Released the same year as
Inside Man, it also used Ektachrome 100D 5285 (alongside negative Kodak Vision 2 stock), but in this case, the stock was developed in its standard E6 reversal process. Next to his above film
Inside Man (2006) where the Ektachrome stock was cross-processed, American filmmaker
Spike Lee is known for using Ektachrome for some of his works as soon as
digital intermediate scans (instead of traditional film prints, a process not suited for reversal stocks such as Ektachrome) had matured enough by the mid-1990s, namely
Clockers (1995),
Get on the Bus (1996),
Summer of Sam (1999), and
25th Hour (2002), until Kodak discontinued Ektachrome in 2012.
Ektachrome 100D 5294/7294 (2018–present) Upon the revival of the 16 mm format of Ektachrome in October 2018, Lee used the film stock again in some of the scenes of his 2020 film
Da 5 Bloods. In that film, Lee specifically used Ektachrome in
Super 8mm to simulate the footages captured by the actor Norman Lewis. For the second season of the American TV series
Euphoria released in 2022, Kodak revived the 35 mm motion picture format of Ektachrome at the request of the filmmakers. Ektachrome was also used to photograph sections of the film
Poor Things (2023), whereupon its cinematographer Robbie Ryan noted that the unique colour produced by the stock was referenced throughout the grading process to inform the film's overall visual style. A
65 mm version was created specifically for the 2025 film
Sinners, where it was used for a flashback sequence. Music videos featuring new Ektachrome include: •
Who Cares (2018) by
Paul McCartney (16 mm, used alongside 65mm
Kodak Vision 3 stock) •
All Too Well: The Short Film (2021) by American singer-songwriter
Taylor Swift (35 mm, alongside Vision 3) •
Body Paint (2022) by British indie rock band
Arctic Monkeys (16 mm) ==References==