So excited to see this update and to be making a visit this month. Big ideas just take time. I have meet too few people in my live with your kind of vision . I know in my heart you will make it and feel honored that I have had chance to be part of this process.

Grazie tutti i Ferrania! You can continue to count on my support- however long it will take. Don't give up, and don't let any negative energy get in your way! It is a tremendous job, and you have gotten over many hurdles, the finish is slowly coming into sight!

Impressive heavy duty stuff and clever workarounds. Best wishes for a flourishing new business. Un abbraccio a Nicola.

Grazie dell'incoraggiamento, un abbraccio anche a te!

I know Italian bureaucracy moves at a glacial pace, hope the public companies get going and implement the services needed.

A truly fantastic undertaking. No small task, it is reassuring to see everything being done properly and with an eye on a long term future. So it takes time? maybe but, It will be worth waiting for.

In the future a lot of photographers and flmmakers who love (and come to love) the medium will be grateful for all your efforts

Looking forward to buyng my first rolls and cartridges

Keep going, It's been so long now, I've forgotten what I originally backed you for. So it will all be a nice surprise when it lands.

Yep, I've forgot to show my site with FERRANIA logo on (and all my contacts)!
www.maksrossi.com
:D

So, I'm photographer and (also) industrial engineer and no one knows better than I how complicated it is to do simple things in Italy.
But still with a bit of cooperation from the authorities I do not think is really difficult. One way may be to still engage public authorities, the municipality, the region, and especially the people. Maybe even a small foundation could be useful to raise funds and donations.
For the rest if you need an engineer I can help. :)

I know everyone is entitled to their opinion (and English is not everyone's first language, so that may be factor as well), but I don't get the negative energy being sent towards the project. Kick starter was never a guaranteed thing and I am still excited that one day it will be a reality.

If Film Ferrania came back and wanted another kick-starter I would back it in an instant. If it takes 10 years, and 100 more kickstarters, I would still not be disappointed and I will forever be grateful for what you folks are trying to do! Please don't give up on this!

For those not 100% happy with the situation, there is still PLENTY of great films out there to use so don't let these small issues prevent you from still supporting Ilford, Kodak, Fuji and the Impossible Project (and others). Film is not dead, but we need to understand that it can't continue to live if we don't support it during the good times and the bad.

I am also begging everyone to not give up on this either! Film Ferrania needs our support too!

So glad to finally hear from you all. To be quite honest, I would have preferred to have heard from you all on the hundreds of small issues instead of the ~2 month long lack of any communication. Please keep us posted for the remaining time so we at least have an idea that you are still at work to make this dream a reality!

i would eveb sign up for some film today. only to show you how important your keeping on is and only to encourage you to really keep on keeping on!

You are the future of our past and present so there's a lot riding on it..good luck

Sending you all the love - keep on at this! In the end it will be worth all the wait and the work! <3

hugs!

Take your time! I'm totally confident that we'll get our films and I have every respect for dealing with italian bureaucracy...

Nothing wrong with using a machine originally used in the 20th century to create something for the 21st century to enjoy. If anything it only adds more to the story that is FILM Ferrania.

Having helped my father start his business from the ground up (more like basement actually), I'm fully aware how the little things seem to pile up and hit you when you least expect it. This is not an easy task and many would have given up much earlier. You have to have passion and drive, especially in those moments when it seems like nothing can go right. While the situation is not ideal, being able to adapt and utilize your current resources is a good sign for a strong future, even if it seems like you're grasping at straws.

Keep going and In bocca al lupo!

Keep up the awesome work folks!

Rock on. You're smart, dedicated, and hardworking. We realllly admire what you're doing! And, maybe contact Florian Kaps, the Austrian who saved the Polaroid factory in Holland, to tell him what you're doing and see if he wants to lend a hand!

Da italiano penso che non ci sia persona che capisce meglio la vostra situazione e le difficoltà che si incontrano per tutti gli imprenditori che desiderano fare impresa in questo paese.
Tutto quello che posso dire è di non mollare di fronte alle difficoltà e di continuare su questa strada.
Inoltre, se mi permettete di darvi un suggerimento, continuate ad alzare la voce con le istituzioni locali e i fornitori di servizi perché come ben sapete, in Italia, o ti fai sentire o ti chiudono le porte in faccia. Sempre.
E perché no, cercate anche di portare all'attenzione dei media una seconda volta il vostro caso, magari potrebbe essere una strategia utile per attirare su FILM Ferrania gli occhi dei vertici del governo.
Si potrebbe tentare!
A presto, Federico :-)

Only Patient will make success

You guys are amazing. It's a wonderfully ambitious, potentially unrealistic project and that's what's so great it about it! After all, you're doing something that the big companies have given up on. But hey, most of us are working with equipment that others would think to be wildly inefficient and out of date. Hooray for that! Keep on keeping on :)

I'm happy waiting. All the best of luck to you getting it under way. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to keep getting knocked back by situations that are out of your control. Yes, absolutely just keep going - think you have a good mass of people willing you on...

With all these issues going on (most of which could have been anticipated), I wonder how in the earth you gave a definite deadline (APR 2015) more than a year ago at the time of fundraising and now you are simply unable to. In the meanwhile we heard of all sort of problems: first asbesto, then the problems with summer climate vs milder climates (humidifier and what'snot!), then legal-bureaucratic issues, now logistics... WIll this ever be over?

Hi Maurizio,

Thanks so much to you and everyone in this thread for responding, mostly with encouragement and understanding. This phase WILL be over, and relatively soon. We are actually awaiting some images of the new power conduit being installed - and we will share them as soon as we have them. A small step, but a step nonetheless.

With this said, I offer some detail that I hope will help everyone understand, just a little bit more, the series of events that put us where we are today.

**WARNING: TL;DR stuff ahead, but really, you should read it**

I'll start by pointing you to a couple of charts (http://www.filmferrania.it/... that help put both timelines into perspective.

As you can see, we had just the one very narrow window to produce the Kickstarter batch (and some extra stock to sell afterward) - and this was *before* all of the infrastructural work was scheduled to begin. Everyone was confident of this timeline and all energies were focused on communicating each of the steps leading up to actual production. In fact, we had a google calendar and an outline of all of the posts we would make to document each step in the process leading to production. We started contacting warehouses and a few re-sellers. Everything was in motion...

Then that window was slammed shut - and while our fingers were still in it, so to speak. It was a huge blow and rendered our original timeline useless.

From our perspective, the *only* real difference between our Kickstarter timeline and today is about losing that production window. Everything else we have been through over the past 14 months was 100% inevitable and 100% necessary. We had hoped to "shield" everybody from this period of time because outwardly, we would have been focused on selling our (very limited) stock of film and generally keeping everyone excited for "Batch #2". I say "shield," but we would have certainly shared most of the same things you've seen in our posts, but instead of using these to apologize for delays, they would have played out more like an informative documentary of what it takes to make a film factory. The "shield" part would have been that we actually had some film to sell - so everyone who wanted to could sort of "participate" in the process, rather than be forced to watch it from a distance.

The difficult fact that we at FILM Ferrania have been forced to accept is how little control we had over the larger situation on the campus - the highway project, the demolition of the other buildings, and of course the restorations and upgrades necessary at the factory. Once the asbestos was discovered, we basically "lost" the LRF until February of this year - and even since then, as we have pointed out above, there are lingering issues that we cannot do anything about. "Lost" is an oversimplification, of course - a reduced team stayed in the factory nearly every day, including our co-founder Marco Pagni who attempted some level of supervision of the contractors. But the fact is that we could not run the coater, despite Nicola's best efforts to speed up the various processes (I'm sure he'll relate the hundred or so meetings in his memoirs), AND manage to stretch our meager financial resources to cover the long gap.

And so, to answer the original question, we are unwilling to announce a new timeline until the LRF is fully under our own control, free of any lingering contractors, reconnected to the necessary services, and fully tested and vetted by our team. We do not want to disrespect you or anyone else by announcing something until everything has been locked into place with actual delivery dates.

To all who have actually read this response, thank you! And thank you Maurizio for asking the question!!

Thanks for this extra comment, Dave, it really helps to put the work into perspective. What you're doing there is extremely valuable, important work for the future of film, and could hardly come at a better moment. I'm utterly thrilled to be a small part of this epic adventure, and I'm looking forward to getting started with the new Ferrania Super 8 film! We're all right behind you on this.

History and experience tells us that nothing really worthwhile is easy. From the outset we needed to understand that this was an ambitious project and Kickstarter founders do, I believe, fully take this on board. This is an ambitious project and one that should, and I am confident, will succeed.

To Nicola and the Team, don't give up. It will all be worth it. There will be another Italian Renaissance. :D)

Well, well … looks like a really tough job to get the LRF up and running. And I guess it is a good sign that you aren’t losing your humor (best you can do, actually ;)).

Just keep on and keep us posted (just as some sign of life, even if it is not as substantial as you would like)!

PS: I really like these posts!

I'm sure you'll make it. We'll wait. Anyway, waiting is much easier than fighting the obtacles.

Wow. It's a big job, eh? Well, I can only say that I'm thrilled to see you're committed to actually solving all these little problems, rather than giving up and going home. As Stephen Barker said below: If you need help with anything, please ask! You have an amazing community of enthusiastic backers and followers who want you to succeed with all their hearts. In other news, Kodak are promoting 8mm film again, so this could be the perfect time to enter the market! http://nofilmschool.com/201... Keep heart Ferrania - we're all rooting for you and we know you can do it. Thanks for the update.

Commissioning a processing plant is a complex project. My advice would be to map it out step by step from the end back until you get to where you are now with every system & sub-system. Then retrace those steps, implementing a delivery strategy for each system such that is ready at the correct time for the whole to come together.
Tricky & detailed stuff.
Keep going, good luck & ask for help if you need it, your supporters must be a varied bunch with skills to offer.

The worst possible thing would be to give up now... keep on going, it will be worth the wait, in the end!

When will films be available ? That's the most important question.

You are correct, it is the most important and all-consuming question for us and for everyone else. When we know for sure, without any doubts, with locked in delivery dates and trucks and planes reserved, and printed boxes, and people to pack and ship everything - THEN we'll announce a new timeline. Until then, all we can say is "soon" - which is of course very vague and subjective, which, in turn, is why we don't post updates as much as we should. This is a conundrum that we struggle with mightily, and only hope to overcome, like everything, through time and diligence.

I am ok with this. I understand the complexities. I am glad you have described (part of) them, please continue with a regular update at least every two months. OK?! I am really glad you did NOT (have to) mention _funding_ of this whole undertaking as a problem! Keep on with it (and keep us posted, please). Rolf

Keep on keepin' on....

I still have great hopes that this project will succeed! I believe in your dreams.

is it time, perhaps, to pass this baby along to the mother who knows how to raise her? what will Papa do after his first master rolls are born and confectioned? can Papa afford to let his factory sit idle?

while Papa wallows in just one of his many mistakes, affordable E6 processing is increasingly becoming endangered across the globe. i say this with all my love ... tick-tock Papa. tick-tock.

This stuff is damned difficult, even without having to deal with government entities. But this is for the future of film. KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON.

Glad to see things are moving along, regardless of the bumps along the road! Thank you so much for addressing the current standing and being open and forthright about how things are going. Cheers!

So this means no film in 2016?? Even so--as Churchill said, Keep Buggering On!

We'd love to say YES there will be film in 2016. But then the minute we say that, something could happen to make it impossible. And so we have no choice but to keep buggering on...

at least they're not bailing and refunding everyone eh?

I know; they didn't have to do any of this!