AIMS OF IMAGO
the European Federation of Cinematographers
The main purpose of the Federation is to champion and
uphold the high standards achieved by the Cinematography Profession, and
via a constant exchange of experience to promote the spread of that highly-specialised
culture on which the long-standing technical and artistic quality of the
European Cinema industry is firmly based.
One of the things that most concerns us, is making - by using our artistic
and technical knowledge - an even more worthwhile contribution as IMAGO to
improving and maintaining technological equipment and also the quality of screening
in cinemas.
Thus ensures that all the work that we, together with the directors and their
collaborators, put into making a film, and the resulting quality, may be fully
appreciated by movie-goers who, in many instances, are nowadays obliged to
watch films which, owing to technical inadequacies and shortcomings, do not
come up to the standard of the original.
With a view to obtaining the legal recognition which would permit us to more
effectively uphold this fundamental requisite of quality, in other words, to
defend quality in the cinema, we aim to work simultaneously to have the Cinematographer
recognised as co-author of the Film, which the Italian AIC and the Spanish
AEC already do in their credits with a more appropriate and correct term that
literally translated means "Author of the Photography". Legislative
bodies are also beginning to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Directors of
Photography (DoP) right to be recognised as co-author, but a great deal of
work still has to be done.
Another important field in which IMAGO will take action, both by urging government
intervention and becoming directly involved, is the methodical preservation
and restoration - which can no longer be delayed - of our vast European cinematic
heritage.
Operations such as these, require a financial commitment that is way
beyond IMAGO's own possibilities. Even, as far as IMAGO's share is concerned,
they cannot be undertaken without the responsible and creative participation,
on a permanent rather than casual basis, of Cinematographers who are often
the on-the-spot or secondary witnesses of Cinema history in the making.
Naturally, the complex and many-sided activities related to these primary objectives
imply extremely high costs, over and above the general expenses of administration:
the organisation of Meetings on general or specific themes concerning new technologies
used in shooting and projecting a film and also in film preservation to be
held in the headquarters of the different national societies in turn,
• the publication and distribution of books and technical magazines,
• the organisation of specialised workshops, seminars and exhibitions,.
• the support of professional education,
• the support of professional festivals like CAMERIMAGE in Lódz /
Poland, MADRIDIMAGEN / Spain and MANAKI BROTHERS / Macedonia.
• the planning and co-ordination of research into the cinematographic image,
at a European level.
• the initiative and official trips undertaken by one or more members of
the Management Council to interest the competent European and, at a more general
level, international authorities in this very important profession of ours, without
which the cinema industry could not hope to survive.
Last update November 23, 2005