A film laboratory is a commercial service enterprise and technical facility for the film industry

Film industry

The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...

 where specialists develop, print, and conform film material

Film stock

Film stock is photographic film on which filmmaking of motion pictures are shot and reproduced. The equivalent in television production is video tape.-1889–1899:...

 for classical film production and distribution

Film distribution

The distribution of a film is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by a film distributor...

 which is based on film material, such as negative

Negative (photography)

In photography, a negative may refer to three different things, although they are all related.-A negative:Film for 35 mm cameras comes in long narrow strips of chemical-coated plastic or cellulose acetate. As each image is captured by the camera onto the film strip, the film strip advances so that...

 and positive, black and white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 and color, on different film formats

Film format

A film format is a technical definition of a set of standard characteristics regarding image capture on photographic film, for either stills or movies. It can also apply to projected film, either slides or movies. The primary characteristic of a film format is its size and shape.In the case of...

: 65-70mm

70 mm film

70mm film is a wide high-resolution film gauge, with higher resolution than standard 35mm motion picture film format. As used in camera, the film is wide. For projection, the original 65mm film is printed on film. The additional 5mm are for magnetic strips holding four of the six tracks of sound...

, 35mm

35 mm film

35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...

, 16mm

16 mm film

16 mm film refers to a popular, economical gauge of film used for motion pictures and non-theatrical film making. 16 mm refers to the width of the film...

, 9.5mm

9.5 mm film

9.5 mm film is an amateur film format introduced by Pathé Frères in 1922 as part of the Pathé Baby amateur film system. It was conceived initially as an inexpensive format to provide copies of commercially-made films to home users, although a simple camera was released shortly afterwards.It...

, 8mm

8 mm film

8 mm film is a motion picture film format in which the filmstrip is eight millimeters wide. It exists in two main versions: the original standard 8mm film, also known as regular 8 mm or Double 8 mm, and Super 8...

. The film laboratory managers can charge by the footage or by time used while in lab.

Processes

Exposed motion picture film

Filmstrip

The filmstrip was a common form of still image instructional multimedia, once commonly used by educators in primary and secondary schools , now overtaken by newer and increasingly lower-cost full-motion videocassettes and DVDs...

 will be processed according to exact chemical prescriptions at measured temperature as well as over measured time.
After processing there is an original, the camera or picture original, in most cases a negative. From it a first sample is exposed on a motion-picture film printer. Again after processing there is a positive ready for inspection by the production representatives, usually by projection in the dark just like one sees a movie in a theatre.

The film lab thus needs various apparatus from developing equipment and machines, over measuring tools, cutting, editing devices, and printers to different sorts of viewing machinery including classic projectors

Movie projector

A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying moving pictures by projecting them on a projection screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras.-Physiology:...

. Besides there are sensitometers

Sensitometry

Sensitometry is the scientific study of light-sensitive materials, especially photographic film. The study has its origins in the work by Ferdinand Hurter and Vero Charles Driffield with early black-and-white emulsions...

, densitometers

Densitometer

A densitometer is a device that measures the degree of darkness of a photographic or semitransparent material or of a reflecting surface. The densitometer is basically a light source aimed at a photoelectric cell. It determines the density of a sample placed between the light source and the...

, analysers, and array of chemical laboratory items that will help maintaining a level of repeatability of operations. Auxiliary material is also encountered within a film laboratory, for example leader film, plain plastic, to keep a developing machine threaded up.