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Expo
Corner
World
Expo 88 – Arguably the biggest picture taking event
Australia has ever seen
Andrew
Mason
April
30th 2003 marked the fifteenth anniversary of the
opening of World Expo 88 in Brisbane, Queensland. The event
ran for six months from 30th April until 30th October
1988.
An Expo is a world’s fair, where nations and
corporations gather together to review and predict man’s
cultural and technological
evolution through exhibitions and demonstrations of
their achievement. Unlike a trade fair, exhibitors at an
Expo do not directly sell their goods and services.
The $600 million plus event was fully sanctioned by the
Bureau of International Expositions based in Paris, and
ran with
theme “Leisure in the Age of Technology." World Expo 88
was spread over 40 hectares on the South Bank of the
Brisbane River, within 800 meters of the CBD.
The total attendance for the six-month event was
15,760,000. (over 85,000 a day)
Hanimex – Fuji as the official suppliers of Film and
Cameras to World Expo 88 were responsible for the set up
and running
of three (3) on site one hour minilabs as well as the
photographic media center.
The on site official media centre was set up for use by
accredited photographers for the duration of World Expo
88. On
site processing and printing of black and white and C41
compatible color negatives was available, while E6 reversal
film was processed off site by F-Stop color laboratories
via regular courier runs organized by the media centre.
Black and white processing and printing was handled at
no charge with C41 and E6 services made available at tax-free
prices. A full range of color and black and white film
(as long as it was Fuji) was also available at the sales
and
service counter.
The Hanimex – Fuji minilabs were operational from
30.04.1988 to 30.10.1988 - a total of 184 working days.
During this
time the three minilabs processed in excess of 74,000
rolls. The hours of operation were 10:00 to 22:00.
(These hours
were laid down as part of the agreement with World Expo
and could not be altered.)
Each outlet (with the exception of the media center) was
very small only 16m square. In this space room was made
to
fit film and paper processors, counters, two cash
registers, paper/chemistry, stock, drums for
photographic effluent
and the most important ingredient - up to five (5) staff
members at any one time.
Of the three on site minilabs one site K420 handled
almost 60% of all rolls processed and films sold - this
lab processed
over 44,000 rolls during the 184 days and sold in excess
of 100,000 rolls of film. In fact on most days the cash
registers were recording 3.2 transactions per minute.
This minilab may well have had the record for the
busiest minilab
in the world during the duration of Expo 88. On average
this minilab was processing and printing a roll of film
every
2.5mins and sold a roll of film every 1.1 minutes.
Service times of one hour were impossible to achieve
other than those people who visited the shops in the
first 30/45 mins
of Expo opening, this was not too much of a problem
because the Expo offered so many photo opportunities for
visitors. In fact our research indicted that the average
visit generated 2.4 rolls of film (over 57 exposures)
being exposed.
From these numbers you can see the total rolls processed
on site was quite small by comparison, and even
allowing for rolls being processed interstate/ overseas
this event was one enormous film processing feast for Brisbane,
Queensland, and Australia.
World Expo 88 saw the introduction of the Fuji Quicksnap
(single use camera), with over 5000 of these units processed
in four (4) months.
With the exception of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games,
Australia has not witnessed such a huge picture taking opportunity
as World Expo 88. I feel that it is up to the
photographic industry to promote picture taking and importantly
printing of these images at key times of the year such
as Christmas, holidays, birthdays, Mother's Day, school
functions etc. For instance how many parents photograph
their children’s first/last day at school and how many
families have photographs of two, three or even four
generations on the same print.
World Expo 88 was just a fantastic picture taking
opportunity for all who attended. I got a huge amount of
pleasure in
helping all those who visited the on site minilabs
capture precious memories of Expo 88.
Importantly if Expo were held again this year how many
precious memories would be printed and saved for posterity?
Some interesting numbers from Expo 88:
- 80 - the percentage of rolls that were 100 i.s.o.
- 61 - the percentage of rolls that were 24exp.
- 74 - the percentage of customers who could either not
load or unload film from 135mm cameras.
- 300,000 - the number of season passes sold all
bearing the message “Image by Fujifilm”.
- 1.1 - the percentage of sales that required a
credit card transaction.
- 7 - the percentage of rolls processed with a
second set of prints.
- 22.6 – the average number of frames per film.
- 2.4 - the percentage of reversal rolls processed.
- 1.3 - the percentage of films that were blank.
We processed enough film, which if laid end to end would
stretch, from Brisbane to the Gold Coast.
We produced enough 6 x 4 prints to cover the sails of
the Sydney Opera House twice.
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