After 73 years of supplying the entertainment industry with film printers, splicers, color analyzers and other equipment, Hollywood Film Company is ready to diversify. Reaching that goal, however, will not be easy. Owner and President Vincent Carabello has the manufacturing equipment and the employees with the know how of taking an idea and making it into a product. What he doesn’t have yet are customers outside those he has already been serving. Automotive, aerospace, medical parts – Carabello is open to all opportunities that come his way. “That wouldn’t be the best move to limit us to a single industry,” Carabello said. A single industry served Hollywood Film Co. well since starting in the 1930s under the direction of two brothers. Over the decades the company established strong relations with the major studios, which purchased editing and colorizing equipment, and vendors such as Technicolor and Deluxe that make theatrical prints. Technological advancements and the shift from film prints to digital files began to erode away the market that Hollywood Film served. The studios did not need splicers and colorizers; Technicolor and Deluxe did not need as many printers to make copies of film prints as their labs lost work to digital film prints. Hollywood Film still had strong sales overseas, where the digital transfer was not as quick; and for archival purposes. Up until 2009, the company had a backlog on orders for its equipment. Customers had no qualms about price or quality, Carabello said, but they did on delivery time. The rebound following the recession has been slow and the backlog has disappeared. A good year is making a dozen of its printers. A low volume manufacturer, the most produced item is the eight-sided case used to bring film prints to theaters. Fifty to 100 of the cases can be shipped in a day. The reinvention – or to use a popular Hollywood term, reboot – of Hollywood Film was a logical decision for Carabello to make. It is vital to the survival of the company and keeping its employees, some of whom have been there 30 years, working. “It is like staring a new business,” said Vincent Carabello, Jr., the vice president of sales and marketing. “It is a battle.” To get the word out that it is open to non-entertainment customers, the company is attending trade shows, hired a manufacturing representative, and started a new website under the name HFC Manufacturing that highlights the capabilities and not the products. Carabello also reached out to David Fisher, owner of S&H Machine in Burbank and founder of the Southern California Manufacturing Group, a peer organization assisting its members in improving their businesses. (Carabello contacted Fisher after reading about him in the special manufacturing issue of the Business Journal.) Fisher made a visit to Hollywood Film at the end of April. Carabello and his son stopped in at S&H in early May. Fisher was impressed by what he saw at Hollywood Film, particularly in how well-rounded its capabilities were. The company not only engineers and designs its products, but has an electronics shop, machine shop, sheet metal shop, and final assembly. That is unique in a shop that size but that the company has been pigeonholed in a niche market will not be an easy thing to break out of, Fisher said. His advice to Carabello was to enter other industry segments with their own products but Fisher admits that is easier said than done. “You need to have an idea that someone will buy; that is the issue,” Fisher said. “I think they are smart to be thinking about the next phase of their business while they still have business coming in from the film industry.” Hollywood Film, however, is not just a manufacturer. Most of the space at its Sun Valley location is for storage of film prints, both 35mm and 70mm; shelf after shelf after shelf filled with octagonal and rectangular carrying cases. Some prints of older films are lent out for festivals or revival screenings. There is also a small scale film rejuvenation business. At one time, this work of cleaning up theatrical prints of scratches and dust was a larger percentage of what Hollywood Film did but the demand lessened as digital prints became more common. The manufacturing remains the heart of what Hollywood Film does and is why its equipment can be found in every motion picture facility around the world. While automated machines are found on the factory floor they are often idle. The machinists are more likely to work on the hand-operated equipment. Investment in additional equipment will be likely for the company to attract new customers, as is both an investment of money and time to get the needed certifications to supply medical devices or aerospace parts, Fisher said. The capabilities that Hollywood Film possesses are such that non-entertainment customers shouldn’t dismiss them, Fisher said, adding that he would recommend the company to his existing customers to provide work that S&H is not capable of doing. Although the reinvention is in its early stage, the executive team at Hollywood Film feels comfortable about the steps taken so far. The orders from non-entertainment customers have so far trickled in. “We realize we have to start small and then get that big order,” Carabello, Jr. said. Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]
As Film Industry Changes, Firm Tries to Reinvent Itself
