Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Regular readers of the blog may know that for three months last year, I subscribed to a monthly subscription box for film photography. Each month, a box would arrive containing two different rolls of film and I chose the option of receiving one roll of 35mm and one in 120 medium format because I was absolutely, positively going to shoot my Seagull TLR but we all know how that turned out.
I had hoped that having a “mystery box” of different kinds of film emulsions delivered to my mailbox each month would introduce me to some new and different kinds of film but that didn’t happen. While the 120 roll film offerings were, indeed, fun and unique, the 35mm films I received were not. Two of the three rolls of 35mm that I received during my three month subscription were Kodak color negative film. It was great stuff and I enjoyed shooting both the Gold 200 and later UltraMax 400 film (review coming soon,) but I was hoping for something different.
As an alternative, the UK’s Analogue Wonderland offers a bi-monthly WonderBox that includes six unique rolls of 35mm film. It sells for £50 that’s $65.76 (as I write this) and includes a diverse mixture of film types and while they will ship to the US, the combination of the box price plus shipping cost is outside my budget for the time being. Camera Film Photo in Hong Kong offers a Film Subscription that include 24 rolls of films and costs $212.45 but includes processing and scanning. I don’t know how long is takes to ship film to Hong Kong from the US for processing but one Google search said “between 3 to 25 business days” but I ordered a fountain pen from Hong Kong that was shipped on February 28 and I haven’t received it yet.
Because of my experience and because I can’t afford any of the above wonderful but pricey options, I’ve decided to start my own: Joe’s Film Box will be totally different from every other monthly subscription box that you’ve ever heard of because you don’t have to subscribe and it doesn’t cost anything. This is how (I hope) it will work:
Each month I will select two different rolls of 35mm film from a single dealer/vendor. I will try (key word) to not include any films from FujiFilm, Ilford or Kodak because they are, more or less anyway, readily available locally or from the usual suspects.
Most monthly domestic subscription boxes (not just for film) sell for around $25 plus shipping. My goal will be to keep the total cost of both rolls of film around or under that number.
At that point we have two ways to go: We can treat it like the film photography version of Oprah’s Book Club and we’ll all purchase the film, shoot it and share our results. Or I can purchase the film* and shoot it using whatever I feel is an appropriate camera for the subject matter or maybe the film itself. Then I’ll have the film processed and scanned, probably at The Darkroom but maybe not, and then write a review about each one of them. So you can decide if you would like to try one or both of the films that are in Joe’s Film Box…or not.
It’s a subscription box idea that I think we can all get behind and it will start during the first week of April, 2022, so look for the first two rolls of film that will be in Joe’s Film Box. If you have any suggestions about the brands or type of film you would like to see in the box, click Contact above and let me know.
*If you would like to send me a roll of film to review or any other stuff that could be used for these posts and my videos you can mail it to: Joe Farace, PO BOX 2081, PARKER, CO 80134