Remember The Lost Roll Of Film? The Owners Have Been Found

Remember a few months back when we posted the video about the guy that found the lost roll of film in NYC? Well the mystery has been solved and the owner of the film finally saw the video and emailed Todd.



Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

Log in or register to post comments
31 Comments

Now everybody off to find the film. :D

Lee,
Thanks for posting this. I realize that no one else has commented yet but it seems to me that this is a work of performance art on it's own, and a brave humanizing one at that. When he left the canister at the end, it gave me a little chill.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the story, (I wouldn't post it if I didn't) but at the same time I find the whole thing to be ridiculous.

Some people leave a single roll of film of their crappy vacation pictures that they probably don't even know they lost and a guy makes a very well edited and emotional video about it and people eat it up.

I find Todd's story telling and editing to be the best part of this story :).

Think about it. Isn't this story way better? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17789873/ns/us_news-wonderful_world/ there just wasn't a great video made about it.

Oh I'm so glad that he found the owners.. what a great story and amazing idea he had at the end to leave the new roll of film out there to be found...

Genius!

This all does seem a bit too convenient but that doesn't mean it's not still a great story. Glad to see there was actually a conclusion to this as I thought it was all fake after I posted the first video....now I'm not sure but does it really matter?

Gave me a chill also. Great entertainment. The best 5 minutes that I spent today.

How many of you think this video would not have gone viral if the film he had found was color and not BW?

All of a sudden the pictures look a little bit too much like the crap we take on our own vacations and it looses the "amazing art" feel.

I know I sound like a troll right now but I'm trying to make a valid point.

Sweet story. But just as I felt after watching Part 1, it makes me wish John Maloof had tried even half as hard to track down Vivian Maier (who is the clear inspiration for Blizzard guy's adventure).

Would you play along and start leaving your film out there for someone else to find and return? I could see this becoming a new game for photographer adventurers....maybe.

Or furthermore, Lee, if he had found a memory card instead of film. And kudos for trolling your own post.

YES! im so glad there was a follow up on this for some reason i thought this story was pretty cool and a fun adventure
thanks!

The end reminds me of this guy.
http://www.picturecrossing.com/index.html

Yeah Lee is just trying to be a trolling warlock drinking tigersblood...I would just ignore

Awesome! Thanks for the update.

I know street where you left the roll, that's not far away from where I'm living

@ Lee,
Actually I don't think the wedding story is a better story (regardless of the quality of the pictures found in either camera), because there's no journey to it. He lost a camera, it sucked, he found a camera. What made the video you posted so compelling is that there was a beginning, a middle where our hearty photographer/protagonist scoured the globe, and a conclusion. Furthermore, the journey wasn't just his, it belonged to everyone who saw the photos and tried to help him solve the mystery of the people in the photos -- who were they, what were they doing, where were they now, etc. Leaving the photo roll at the end promised a continuation of the story that any of us could be part of all over again.

The quality of the photography was irrelevant, it was more about what an image can do. Although, in the woman's defense she was shooting film and unable to evaluate and delete on the fly. yada-yada. But that's just my two cents. Thanks again for posting.

@ Lee -- lol, just saw your posting about B&W. I have to agree with you there. Contrary to Paul Simon's song, everything looks like "art" in b&w

I freaking love this.

@Brian I think we totally agree with each other. My whole point was that the only reason this became so huge was because Todd made something that happens every day into a compelling story. Without the video, it's just a lost roll of every day vacation pictures that the owners didn't even care about.

At least the wedding pictures were important

As with the first part of this story, anyone else get really irritated with his narration? His fake stuttering and poor attempt at sounding like he's not reading just sounds disingenuous to me an ruins it.

Beautiful!

A modern day message in ab ottle. People meet entirely by chance and I would love to see the sequel to this. If I am ever a bit down I will watch this short film again. Thank you very much for sharing.

I agree that the wedding pics being found is a great story. If there was a great video to go along with it - it would have been posted on every social network page along with other major news sites.

However the follow up video to the lost film roll was a bit disappointing. I watched 3-4 min of someone getting drunk all to have a climatic ending of drinking tea - I would have rather saw the exchange of the roll in the beginning and a story of the shooting that was done on the film along with any side stories of how they might have lost it, and blah blah blah.

I agree that the wedding pics being found is a great story. If there was a great video to go along with it - it would have been posted on every social network page along with other major news sites.

However the follow up video to the lost film roll was a bit disappointing. I watched 3-4 min of someone getting drunk all to have a climatic ending of drinking tea - I would have rather saw the exchange of the roll in the beginning and a story of the shooting that was done on the film along with any side stories of how they might have lost it, and blah blah blah.

I find this video a great counterpoint to the story about the guy who had his image stolen and spread across the world. Just goes to show that people being connected through the Internet can be have terrible results or heartwarming ones.

Is it just me or does this totally fill like a NPR story I Love it :)

Some people have too much time and money on their hands...

Interesting trying to find the owners of a lost roll of film because you are bored but, this is just pretentious.

Instead of just mailing the photos back to the owners you go to Europe, mooch off strangers, make the owner of the film uncomfortable, and post the entire thing online.

This is filmed like a car commercial. I expected to see an ad for travelocity or kodak film at the end of your video.

If you are hoping to get an job with this as part of your reel showing off your editing chops, good for you. Although I still think you have too much time and money on your hands.

I said last time this feels faked, but I hope it's real. After watching this, I know it is fake.

Hey. I actually liked this story. The wedding pictures could have given a nice story as well. Lee already made the major point: You just have to sell it right.

I loved this story and the photos when I first came across it. Now that it has come to a happy ending with the chance of carrying forward makes me even more happy about it. Thanks for sharing this and the beautiful writing you've done.

I cant for the life of me understand why some people feel the need to piss in other peoples soup?
It was a nice feel good story.
Wether it be real or fake realize by posting your negativity just means you an ASS.

Have a nice day and please don't kick the puppy on the way out ;)

Doesn't matter if it's fake or not. It's still a good lesson. It's a video with a purpose, and meaning. It's about being nicer, better and more open to eachother. I love it!