Developing

Developing film was a process that I learned last semester. It's very calming, frustrating, exciting, magical...well, a whole list of adjectives basically. Let me outline the steps of developing negatives for you.

1. put your film on a film reel. in the pitch black dark.
2. put your film reel into a light-tight canister. in the dark.
3. turn on the lights, walk into the sink room.
4. prewash your film with room-temp water
5. add developer chemical into the light tight container. slosh around for a good long while.
6. add stop chemical to stop the developing process. slosh around for 30 seconds.
7. add fix chemical. slosh.
8. open canister, put film through final wash.
9. drop in some photoflo (to prevent streaks!).
10. hang to dry.

now, a recipe for a basic first internship:
1. get internship. difficult, but with persistence usually things come through. usually.
2. get dressed. in the dark (or at least the early morning light)
3. become enlightened as to what your internship entails. get shown to an office.
4. begin learning about the culture of your organization. get your hands a little dirty.
5. add culture. slosh.
6. add your own assertiveness. stop cultural imperialism! be your own person! (but only for 30 seconds)
7. add hard work to produce an outcome, or multiple outcomes. slosh.
8. show work to boss, watch it get marked up, returned to you for final go-over.
9. make it preeeeeeeettty.
10. and then it's over.

ah...comparison lists. much like the lengthy to-do list on my desk.

***note: i was thinking about where the whole "learning and growing" aspect fit in here...i guess it's that when you're developing film the images are already there, the developing brings it out of you. You always had the ability to do your job, but the process it what makes it visible to others, as well as yourself.