KODAK 500T (ECN2) - 35mm CINEMA FILM + SCOTLAND IN JANUARY
I’ve been wanting to try Eastman Kodak’s 500t for ages but have not been able to source film or find a lab that will process it in medium format 120. But now that I’m fully equiped for 35mm again, it’s all systems go. 500t is famed through it’s use in motion picture, the stock has been available since 1996 and is designed to run through cinema cameras at 24 frames per second and is only available in 400ft rolls directly from Eastman Kodak. Enterprising folk around the world re-spool these bulk rolls into manageable 5 ft rolls and sell them on, technically it’s illegal and often these companies get sent cease and desists. I have kind of used this film before, though in a slightly modified form from the only approved re-spooler, Cinestill.
Clearly a film that has been used to create visual masterpieces like , Fightclub, Dunkirk, Interstellar, The Brutalist and most of Quentin Tarantino's output is compelling. Not only is the film visually flexible, it’s sensitivity and exposure latitude means it is an incredibly practical film that can be used handheld in near darkness. In this series I have pushed the film one stop to 1000iso which has increased the grain and crushed the shadows, though i will know better how to utilise it once my next roll is developed as I have shot it at 500iso which will give me native results. Basically I wanted a film I could use in the Scottish winter without a tripod; I am also convinced that this format combination will give perfect results for capturing Cumbernauld with the cinematic grit it so richly deserves.
The rolls I’m currently using cost £7, processing is £17, which equates to 66p per frame. I waited just over two weeks to get my film back from the processors as I believe they have to tape a bunch of these shorter rolls together to run them through the machine.
Here’s the full data-sheet and the schematic for the awesome machines that are used to develop film.
GLASGOW WEST
39 Linkwood Crescent - Drumchapel - This tower block has a 16th century Chapel by it’s front door. I believe it is the actual Chapel where the area gets it’s name from, The drum being the bridge that crosses Garscadden burn. There is an excellent photo here as folk park their quads, dune buggies and bikes up against it. However it is pretty sqwirly up here and there were a bunch of boys hanging around outside who I’m pretty sure would not have been into to my historical curiosity. I lived near here in my 20’s and used to frequent the skate park down the hill. There were a few times I had to high tail it because of jakey, edge of violence craic. Short facebook article on the chapel here. Drumchapel has been flattened twice, once by the Luftwaffe in 1941 and secondly by the council in the early 1990’s; which also sadly included the brutalist masterpiece St Benedict's Church which was a real loss.
This documentary will give you an idea of what Drumchapel was like in 90s.
The Radnor Park Hotel (Clydebank Hotel) - Closed since 2011 and built in 1966 by Cullen Lochhead and Brown, this red brick, but brutalist infused building had a proposal to be demolished and have flats put in it’s place in 2013, this never happened, in 2018 there was speak of it being re-opened, this obviously has also evidently, run flat. The health centre below it has been recently demolished, me and my children went there a lot when we lived in Clydebank and we have watched this hotel slowly fail and crumble, looking back through the photos on streetview is quite sad, with banners for insanely cheap dinners, function rooms and £1.50 tennents. Not a single car or human being is evident in 21 years of records. I found 4 photos on facebook of folk drinking and singing and I also found the architectural plans here. Honestly it looks like a solid building, considering it’s been empty for so long the young team have failed to pan in the double glazing on the ground floor, but they’ve managed a few on the upper floors as you can see.
YOUNG STREET ← Sheltered Housing — Funny No?
West Court, Dalmuir / Mountblow. Cannot find much out about these flats, they appear to have never been refitted like all the others in the area, retaining thier raw concrete finish and orange accents. Even the fonts above the entrances are period correct and not broken.
Clyde Court and Park Court. You can see from the bleaching of the orange accents on these towers where the sun shines and where it don’t. These high rises are set right next to Duntocher Burn and completely surrounded by a golf course and park. I nearly looked at a flat here it was £28k. It really is the most idyllic spot in Dalmuir.
EDINBURGH
The fast train to London from Waverly - I seem to remember it only goes fast once it’s deep into England but maybe it’s better now? (itchy chin…) It’s pretty amazing that the uk spent £27 billion on not building a train line from Manchester to London. Like…. we invented the train ‽
I love how the Carl Zeiss lens softens off point source lamps when wide open.
Amazing porcelain figure we saw at the SSA exhibition in Edinburgh.
“Painted Lady” by Jessica Harrison - her portfolio is here
Dubbed as ‘The Poo’, ‘The Poo Hotel’ and ‘The Golden Jobby’. This 5 star hotel in Edinburgh is to my mind an architectural success. I have to say the new St. James Quarter does give me the ick, Burberry, Rolls Royce and Gucci do not constitute good design, at least not in this era; expensive shit aye!
UPPER DENBURN GARDENS - ABERDEEN
Welcome to Upper Dunburn Gardens - Aberdeen.
This brutalist megastructure just north west of the city centre has ended up in a strange sort of limbo due to ‘Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete’ (RAAC) and Asbestos. Meaning that the health centre on the top deck is now unsafe and has been abandoned since 2023. The google reviews for the Denburn Health Centre are pretty stark, you can read them here. The Denburn Carpark and Denburn Court, the 22 storey tower block you see here were built in 1971-73 replacing the granite tenements , workshops and railway infrastructure that existed here for over 200 years. Classed as a slum and not fit for human habitation in the 1960s the area was mostly demolished. This repository of photos and documents on Trove.scot give loads of insight to the place, past and present. The Denburn Car Park is still operable and apparently folk are running QR code scams in it.
The Skaters of Aberdeen have taken it upon themselves to clean this whole upper deck up. They have a great web page that shows all the work they are doing and I cannot overstate what a positive difference the Skate community makes to almost every inner city area of Scotland.
You can see why folk want to Skate here, these wee curved brick walls give plenty opportunity for radical switch fakie nose blunts, inverse booger slides and dank nollie indy grinds - H’Min Bam is the only Skate film I know that has Aberdeen in it, the A’deen Fool Pipe is suheen else. Watch it here and read about it here
Literally a 90 degree rotation from the last two photos. Pictured here is the Woolmanhill Hospital, derelict since 2017. It was sold by NHS Grampian to a property developer in 2018 and there are plans to turn it into a boutique hotel. It’s far from boutique at the minute wouldn’t you say? The building is Grade A listed. Here’s an article on the plans.
Round the health centre buildings we saw signs of heroin use and sadly some junkies had also kicked in the Skaters tool shed. Folk have definitely got 1 way into this building and maybe most disturbingly folk had been chipping away at the wall making wee piles of dust. Not sure where the Asbestos is in this building but turning the walls into dust on purpose is pretty fckng dark.
GILCOMSTOUN LAND - ABERDEEN
The Grade A listed Gilcomstoun Land . Yes that is the name of the building. I absolutely love this photo, the colour, the kids slide echoing the stairs, the muted purple of the birch. I remember paying attention to the spacing of the end of the hand rail, the tree and the slide, trying to contain the bush, but the way this all lines up is just sublime and helps me believe that I am quite good at photography.
As you can see the council have really tried hard to block access into this building. Braced steel plating all over the place. The warning signs say Danger Fragile Roof, Danger Asbestos. We were here around 8am and as the sun came up it actually got 1 stop darker, Insert Fifty Shades of GreyJoke…
Lot’s more to explore in these parts, it’s quite the scene no?
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I think it’s amazing that this mad scheme has been Grade A listed, the original layout and architectural features are basically untouched. The listing means that it is likely that these will be refitted at some point, made more energy efficient and maybe just maybe they will pay someone to strip the moss and lichens of the parapets.
Historic Scotland Listing can be read here.
The last shot on the film and just sublime, the soft light on the bevelled stilts, the glow from the boiler room, the dank on the pavement, the lichen and the moss. Denburn swathed in mizzling rain on the horizon. This frame shows a big handling scratch and the edge of a bit of tape, these will have been made by the people re-spooling the film, I think these artefacts absolutely enhance this photo. I will definitely be back in Aberdeen soon and hopefully it coincides with the Skaters of Denburn doing a clean up, because I wanna volunteer and sample their craic, i think they are so inspiring.
IPHONE PHOTOS
INSPIRATIONAL POETIC IMAGERY OR DEPRESSIVE DEPICTIONS OF DANK ?
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I’M PRETTY HAPPY ABOUT IT :)
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NEXT ROLL OF FILM IS MORE ECN2, 500T - ALSO NEEDING TO FINISH SOME MEDIUM FORMAT PORTRA 800.
BIG THANKS TO THOSE WHO ARE DONATING, THIS HELPS SO MUCH WITH THE COSTS OF FUEL AND FILM.
✴With Gratitude
