With Polaroid stopping production of instant film in June 2008 what is left on the market is all there is and the Polaroid will soon become a distant memory. Or will it? The impossible project is a mission undertaken by some of the worlds top integral film experts to re-invent the now vintage and iconic technology. The reason Polaroid stopped making film was because the components/ingredients needed for the film have not changed in 40 years and some of those resources are no longer available or are just too expensive to be commercially viable. So the impossible project is to re-invent using new technologies film that will work with the vintage Polaroid cameras. The team have bought a whole Polaroid factory in the Netherlands and all of the necessary equipment, but will they be able to successfully re-invent Polaroid by their completion date of 2010? And if they do manage to do it and 'save' Polaroid, will it still be Polaroid? Sure if they manage it it will be instant film, but will it have all of those Polaroid characteristics that we all know and love? Will the new technologies or techniques used to create the film get rid of the imperfections that make the film so lovable? I suppose we will have to wait and see. And either way I hope they succeed, whether they retain the Polaroid charm or re-invent it completely, because at £30 a pop the limited stock of film is too highly priced for my student budget so hopefully Polaroid makes a comeback.
I love polaroids and really hope they mnage to retain it in some way. No it's probably never going to be the same as the originals and yes it will be stupidly expensive. But then I suppose thats what happens to everything when its ceases to be a comercial product and slowly drifts into the vintage, antique stage of its life.
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