And The Winner Is… Film Photography! — Shooting CineStill 800T at The Emmy's
Posted by Michael Nguyen on
The Collab: NBC x CineStill x Vanity Fair
The Emmys is television’s biggest night, the Super Bowl of the small screen if you will, with all the stars of your favorite shows gathering to vie for the ultimate accolades. This year’s 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, were held at the Peacock Theater in Downtown Los Angeles on September 14th, 2026 and broadcast live by NBC and Peacock. To commemorate their 100th anniversary, NBC was looking to do something extraordinarily special. So they partnered with us at CineStill to document the entire spectacle — from the red carpet, to the awards show, to backstage BTS — exclusively on 800T!
But that’s not all. We upped the ante by processing and scanning all the film live on-site as the rolls were coming in throughout the show! This allowed Vanity Fair to then publish their favorite film photos the following morning and provide an exclusive behind the scenes look at the Emmy’s on film. If you’re curious to learn how we captured the stars of the silver screen on silver halide, check out our recap of the special day — and watch this video, produced by NBC, about our process.
The Team
Ashley Osborn and CineStill co-founder Brian Wright were the two photographers in the trenches, shooting the whole afternoon and evening entirely on CineStill 800T, both in 35mm and 120 Medium Format. Steve Carter served as Project Liason / Runner, taking the exposed film from them and bringing the rolls to the pop-up film lab we had set up in a hotel room right next door to the Peacock Theater and managed by CineStill co-founder Brandon Wright.
The film was then handed off to Arvin Santiago, who was charged with loading the film into various JOBO tanks using a changing bag. The loaded tanks were then brought to yours truly stationed in the bathroom, where I processed the film with our Cs41 "Color Simplified" 2-Bath Kit. The processed negatives were then dried by Randy Armenta and once dried, Bret Watkins scanned the negatives using the CS-LITE+ SpectraCOLOR Light Source and a digital camera tethered to a Macbook Pro, where Brandon did the conversions and editing in Lightroom with the CS-Negative+ Convert Tools. Once significant batches of images were completed, they were unloaded onto a portable hard drive that Steve ran back to the Media Room for NBC and Vanity Fair.
The Gear
Cameras
- Contax G2
- Canon EOS1V
- Fuji GA645
- Fuji Klasse
- Rolleiflex SL66 with IMAX Projection Lens
Processing Equipment
- CineStill Cs41 “Color Simplified” 2-Bath Kit
- CineStill TCS-1000 Immersion Circulator Thermostat
- 16qt. plastic tub for water bath
- Film changing bag
- JOBO developing tanks (1510, 1520, 1530) & 1501 reels
- JOBO Silverbase Processing Machine
- JOBO Mistral 3 Film Drying Cabinet
Scanning Equipment
- CS-LITE+ SpectraCOLOR Light Source
- Negative Supply Pro Film Carrier 35 MK2 with 35mm Full Border Scanning Cassette
- Negative Supply Pro Film Carrier 120 MK2 with 120 Full Border Scanning Cassette
- Sony A7R IV and Sigma 105mm Macro 2.8
- iPad with live preview app
- Macbook Pro with Lightroom CC and CS-Negative+ Convert Tools
The Process
We set up the pop-up lab in the hotel room the day before the Emmy’s to make sure we had everything we needed to hit the ground running on the big day. Two batches of CineStill Cs41 color chemistry were pre-mixed and we brought 2 additional kits to serve as backup in case of spills. A water bath using a TCS-1000 was set up to maintain the appropriate chemistry temperature throughout the event, along with dual JOBO Silverbases for semi-automated rotary processing. For drying duties, a JOBO Mistral 3 was hung up on a C-stand. The scanning system consisted of a CineStill CS-LITE+ SpectraCOLOR light source with Negative Supply holders, a Sony A7r IV with a Sigma 105mm 2.8 macro lens tethered to an iPad for previewing and a Macbook Pro with Lightroom CC and CineStill CS Negative+ for converting and editing.
We then did a test run with a roll of 35mm to ensure everything was dialed in perfectly. It is also good practice to conduct a water drop test to see how much the temperature of the liquid inside the developing tank drops from the initial pour into the tank to when you pour out the chemistry after the processing session. This will give you an idea of how much you need to compensate when setting the temperature to heat up your chemistry. In our case on this day, 106°F was the target temperature to attain. Once everything was confirmed A-OK, we were ready for showtime.
Showtime began at 2PM on Monday the 14th with the red carpet. The big A-listers didn’t arrive until closer to 5pm when the televised ceremony started, which was good for us, as starting at a slower pace allowed us to get into a rhythm and then pick up the pace as the evening went on. The first batch was 2 rolls of 35mm, but as the event rolled on, batches of 5 rolls of 35mm mixed with 120 were coming in. With 2 rolls of 35mm, a JOBO 1520 was used, whereas with 5 rolls we needed to extend that with an additional JOBO 1530 Extender. All the film was shot at the box speed of 800 ISO so we did not have to worry about push processing.
As mentioned earlier, a water bath using the TCS-1000 was set up and the developer and blix in their respective chemical storage bottles were placed in it to maintain the processing temperature of the chemistry throughout the evening. It is also good practice to use another analog thermometer to check the temperature inside the bottle to ensure the water bath temperature accurately transferred to the chemistry in the bottle. Be sure to rinse said thermometer after each bottle to avoid unintentional cross-contamination!
When processing 5 rolls with a long tank like the JOBO 1520+1530, it is especially important to pour the chemistry quickly and to shake the tank horizontally in order to get the chemistry to make contact with all sections of the rolls before placing it on the Silverbase magnet to ensure even development. It is also advisable to fill the tank more than the minimum required amount since a higher volume of liquid takes longer to cool so the chemistry can maintain the necessary temperature longer.
Once images appeared on the negatives, Randy and I would remove excess water on the surface of the film with a Kimwipe and then he would hang them up in the JOBO Mistral 3 for drying. The tanks and reels also needed to be bone dry for subsequent processing sessions so they are also placed at the bottom of the Mistral 3 cabinet to dry.
As the negatives dried, they were passed off to Bret who scanned them on our CS-LITE+ SpectraCOLOR light source with the Negative Supply borderless carriers (so we could show the edge print) and a Sony A7R IV with Sigma 105mm Macro 2.8 lens. While not necessarily required, we opted to scan the negatives with the emulsion side up (mirrored image) in order to not have to worry about the possibility of any reflections coming off the film from the lens. This would save time in post by not having to correct any such reflections; just be sure to flip the image back to the correct orientation.
The camera was tethered to a Macbook Pro so the files could be converted and edited immediately by Brandon using Lightroom CC with our CineStill CS-Negative+ Convert Tools. From the moment we received the rolls to the final images being uploaded to the interwebs, the process took just under 90 minutes. When all was said and done, a total of 31 rolls were successfully processed, scanned, and edited that evening.
The Results
The following is a selection of some of the shots we got that night. Using the Negative Supply Full Border Scanning Cassettes when scanning allowed us to show off our edgeprint on the negatives. You can also check out Vanity Fair’s exclusive behind the scenes feature here.
The Final Word
Well there you have it folks. I hope you found this rundown of that special night educational and inspiring, because we believe this is possible for you to do as well. Maybe it’s not at a big awards show, and it might just be at home, but I hope all of this information shows you just how possible it is. With the right preparation, photos taken on film can absolutely be processed, scanned, edited, and uploaded during a live event like the Emmy's, sports games, and so on, by anyone. If this has sparked some ideas and the wheels have started turning on wanting to do something similar, there is no better way to start processing and scanning on your own than with our JOBO DUO Color + B&W Film Processing Kit for 35mm & 120 and the VALOI 360 Starter Bundle is an excellent intro into film scanning. I don’t know about y’all, and perhaps I am biased, but all the celebrities look a lot more natural and relaxed on film!
A big shout out to NBC and Vanity Fair for working with us on this special occasion and we look forward to more opportunities to showcase that film can and should be implemented to document any big event.
