Here in 60 Seconds

Came across this article in today's Toronto Star, mourning the loss of the Polaroid in general, but focusing on particular on its effect on the fashion industry. Now, I don't give a hoot normally about the fashion industry, but as I read this article, and learned what sort of a function Polaroids have in that industry, I started to wonder what sort of effect this will have on the film industry.

I've worked a lot on film sets, where Polaroids are an essential tool. Primarily, and most importantly, they're used as records of continuity: the costume masters and mistresses, set decorators, and the all-important continuity director, amongst many others, are all constantly taking Polaroids and pasting them either on walls or in these massive binders, with notes on the white strip of the photo, as their instant visual record of who is wearing what/what prop is where/how much snow is on the ground/etc. at any given moment. No matter what arguments you want to make for "convenience", the fact is that until we all have those nifty direct-download pieces of paper a la Minority Report, you will have nothing more convenient or instantaneous for the film industry's usage than the Polaroid. Digital photos have to be downloaded, and even with those nifty little photo-only printers, that adds two more steps to a process in a business where time is major money.

I haven't seen the financial reports for Polaroid, but I wonder how the elimination of Polaroid film can be an issue of it no longer being lucrative, when I think about how much of it is used on just one film set ever day.

I really wonder what will replace it...