CALL FOR INTRODUCTION OF QUALITY STANDARDS REGARDING DIGITISATION OF FILM HERITAGE AND FILMS PRODUCED DIGITALLY TO PREVENT VIOLATIONS OF AUTHORS RIGHTS
BY THIS DOCUMENT IMAGO ASKS FOR FIAF’S SUPPORT OF THE IMAGO INITIATIVE – DECLARATION OF DRA – MADE DURING THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN BARCELONA HELD IN APRIL 2013
About IMAGO: IMAGO represents professional cinematographers from member organisations across Europe (32 European members) and also from around the world (15 non-European associated members). Some of IMAGO’s principle aims are to defend and promote the economic and moral author’s rights of cinematographers, especially in the digital age and to encourage the long-term preservation of cultural heritage and make this available to the public.
The IMAGO General Assembly held in Brussels on 16 February 2013 emphasized that audio-visual creators should be directly involved in the process of the digitisation of film heritage and the control of quality of current digital originated movies. So far, EC studies have concentrated mostly on the fact of a lack of standardization of audio visual data and a lack of availability of AV content across Europe. But studies have failed to consider the fact that in a numerous cases the “alleged” preservation of heritage might be considered as “falsification” (to quote Luciano Barriatúa, from the Spanish Filmoteca in Madrid at the 69th FIAF Congress in Barcelona).
Cinematographers are, together with other creators, involved in film production, co-authors of the films and this is why they are automatically deemed to own economic and moral author’s rights. Of course, in most cases they have previously transferred their economic author’s rights to third parties, but their moral author’s rights, i.e. to claim the integrity of their creative contribution, are unwaivable, and the legal protection of moral author’s rights is not limited in time in many EU countries. Therefore, there is even a legal basis to claim involvement in the digitisation of film heritage.
Until now, archivists have had to work in complete isolation, without any assistance from representatives from creators involved in the production of films. IMAGO believes that expert groups, composed of representatives of restorers, creators involved in audio visual productions, producers, etc. should promote a standard of quality in the digitisation of such. Only this “certificate” can guarantee that future generations will be able to enjoy a “real and authentic” film heritage.
For this reason IMAGO kindly requests FIAF to support the IMAGO Declaration of the DRA and consider it as the basis for a mutual statement by European film authors and archivist associations which could be officially proposed to the European Committee to be incorporated into the Directive for preserving films in digital format and allowing access to such. We are convinced that this will help us with other legislative actions in the future (EC, UNESCO,…). Through the process of normal evolution, one may expect an extension, deletion or modification to this document will occur.
We also kindly ask FIAF to build up cooperation with IMAGO by nominating the contact persons to work with IMAGO’s technical and authorship committees.
Thank you in advance for your kind understanding and consideration.
Best regards,
Marek Jicha
contact person IMAGO to collaboration with FIAF
(Czech Republic, Evropska 674/156, Prague 6, 16000) IMAGO,
European Federation of Cinematographers
DECLARATION OF THE DRA 2013
IMAGO Declaration of the Digital Restored Authorizate (DRA)
Approved on February 16, 2013 in Mons (Belgium) by IMAGO Annual General Assembly
IMAGO is a non-profit, non-union Federation for European Cinematographers, representing 47 national associations (32 European members and 15 non European associated members) standing for the recognition of the cinematographer as a key player in the audiovisual cultural chain. Its goals are to heighten the artistic and technical quality of professional cinematography.
The cinematographers, as co-authors of cinematographic works and authors of the image, hereby claim that only Digital Restored Authorizate (DRA) preserves as completely as possible all quality aspects of their technical and artistic contribution thus preserving the authors’ moral and economic rights.
A. In case of digitization of film heritage:
Digital Restored Authorizate (DRA)1 is a digital transfer from the Original Camera Negative (OCN)1 or if not available from the intermediate films (IM)1 approved by the Director of Photography and Representatives of a professional Author Cinematography Association according to the Reference Show Print (RP)1. DRA is physically represented by Master Archive Package (MAP)1 as long-term digital preservation master and Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM)1 as digital projection master which both are satisfying the lower criteria.
Digital Restored Authorizate (DRA) may only be considered as one of original sources of cinematographic works if it satisfies the following criteria:
1) the image is digitally processed in appropriate spatial resolution + in original frame rate + in original aspect ratio and image size + appropriate dynamic range and color resolution;
2) it is produced with the supervision of officially recognized professional film restorers;
3) it is produced with the collaboration of authors of cinematography, sound and direction (if they are available) and representatives of their Professional Associations;
4) it is approved by “Expert Group” (officially recognized restorers, mentioned available authors and representatives of their Professional Associations) which should sign in mutual agreement an official certification;
5) the differences in visually perceptible quality between RP and DRA must be in reference to image tonality and color distribution unrecognizable as a key prerequisite for preserving the authenticity of film heritage;
6) it is used as the source for generating Intermediate Access Package (IAP)1 from which all delivery formats (for D-Cinema, TV, home-video, the web, etc.) must be derived without any distortion of criteria defined above (except resizing and different levels of compression, depending on the resolution of each delivery format).
In case that those criteria are not fulfilled, the digital master without official certificate has to be considered an infringement of unwaivable moral authors rights of cinematographers.
B. In case of digitally originated movies:
Digital Authorizate (DA)1, digitally originated film physically represented by an Digital Cinema Distribution Master (DCDM), constructed from digitally born images by a digital cinematographic camera and graded by the Director of Photography of the movie satisfying Digital Cinema relevant ISO standards.
IMAGO confirms that when a certified DRA is created, the cinematographers won’t claim any remuneration in concept of creation of digital master itself, but of course are claiming fair remuneration for any kind of exploitation of the DRA. Therefore final costs of digitization will decrease as well as DRA will bring higher quality.
European Commission reported that 85% of 1.03 million hours of European film heritage is out-of-commerce, and hence not accessible. While 98.5% is still not digitized, currently locked away in cans in the archives. That is also why IMAGO promotes the right of reproduction in the sense of Art. 2 Information Society Directive 2001/29/ES and the making available right in the sense of Art. 3 of mentioned Directive but consider that therefore it is absolutely necessary to recognize Digital Restored Authorizate (DRA) as the standard of digital master to preserve film heritage for future generations.
Appendix I: Glossary of Terms
DA (Digital Authorizate) — New digitally originated master graded under the supervision of the Cinematographer satisfying relevant ISO standards for digital cinema.
DAP (Distributon Access Package) — Any kind of dissemination format (for D-Cinema, TV, home-video, the web, etc.).
DCDM (Digital Cinema Distribution Master) — An uncompressed and unencrypted set of image, audio and subtitle files satisfying relevant ISO standards as digital distribution master and not generally designed for long-term digital cinema preservation, allowing creation of DCP.
DRA (Digital Restored Authorizate) — A digitally restored and authorized cinematographic work satisfying DRA specification.
DSM (Digital Source Master) — A non-specified set of image and audio files digitally done in post-production depending on the content provider and technical facilities i.e. data from motion picture scanner.
DCP (Digital Cinema Package) — DAP for digital cinema distribution generally not suitable for long-term preservation.
IAP (Intermediate Access Package) — Unencrypted but packaged set of image and audio files, descriptive and additional technical metadata and media (image in visually lossless compression, audio uncompressed) created from MAP or DCDM; it is designed for generating any kind of dissemination packages (for D-Cinema, TV, home-video, the web, etc.) but not for long-term digital preservation while it contains only projectable image area and supports ISO digital projection frame rate.
IM (Intermediate Film) — Any duplicate film element positive and negative, colour or B/W, made as intermediate between OCN and final print.
MAP (Master Archive Package) — Unencrypted but packaged set of image and audio files, descriptive and even additional technical metadata and media (image in mathematically lossless compression, audio uncompressed) done from DSM in arbitraty resolution and designed for long-term digital preservation while it should contain the whole film area (including eventual optical soundtrack, sprocket holes etc.) and support original frame rate.
OCN (Original Camera Negative) — An original film element exposed in the motion picture camera.
OST (Original Soundtrack) — An original motion picture soundtrack recorded on a magnetic or optical carrier used as an authoritative reference point for digital restoration.
RP (Reference Show Print) — A carefully produced answer print approved by the Cinematographer from the time of first release generally used as an authoritative reference point for digital restoration.