Ferrania Orto is our second product to be released since achieving continuous film production status at our manufacturing base in Cairo Montenotte, Italy, and sets the stage for a very busy year of new products.
Ferrania Orto is P30's quirky cousin, featuring the same high silver content, inherently strong contrast and practically invisible grain as P30 - but this time, distinctly ortochromatico.
Ferrania Orto will be available for sale in 35mm format in participating Italian shops today, with a global rollout in the coming weeks. Ask for it at your favorite shop!
In the earliest days of silent cinema, film stock was blue-sensitive or orthochromatic. These films were sensitive to the blue-violet end of the visible spectrum but insensitive to the yellow-red end, which meant that it registered reds and yellows as shades of black and blues as varying shades of white.
Back then, movie actors needed to trowel on a thick layer of make-up to look more natural on screen. The consensus in 1920’s Hollywood was that available films made actors look “dirty” on screen due to heavy blue response. This “corrective” makeup became so important that none other than Max Factor made his name as a producer of cosmetics personalized to each of the biggest movie stars of the day.
Today, this former “problem” has transformed into a creative tool for film photographers to use for uncovering a view of the world that our eyes don’t normally see. The “flaws” that sent actors racing to Max Factor’s salon in the past are the very same features that distinguish orthochromatic films today.
Our team was inspired by those early films in the creation of Ferrania Orto, which was a continuation of the ongoing R&D to fill out our black and white film line. As with P30, every roll was lovingly made entirely in-house at our manufacturing base from raw materials. No re-rolls here!
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