Lars Pettersson FSF reports from another productive IMAGO annual gathering, this time in London.

From 14-15 February, it was time once again for the IAGA, the annual meeting of the International Federation of Cinematographers, more widely known under its abbreviation IMAGO. This time around, courtesy of the British Society of Cinematographers, we find ourselves at the Copthorne Tara hotel in London, with part of the conference held at the nearby Holiday Inn. Admittedly a less spectacular setting than last year’s IAGA, which was held at Cinecittà studios in Rome, Italy, but nonetheless this combination of four-star hotels provide a memorable setting for the proceedings.

Hosting this IAGA is part of the BSC’s 75th anniversary celebration, and constitutes both a major financial commitment as well as an impressive practical undertaking. Audra Marshall (from the BSC), Marcela Bourseau ABC and Carolina Piquet (from IMAGO) have been responsible for handling all practical preparations in order to bring this event to life. LED lighting specialists Nanlux were one of the stalwart sponsors of last year’s IAGA, and they are back in spades again here in London, providing valuable support in putting this event together.

Many delegates and board members had already arrived on 13 February, and there was a relaxed agenda for that afternoon consisting of a visit to the Open House event at Cooke’s new London facility, followed by a dinner at the San Pietro restaurant in the evening. Luciano Tovoli ASC AIC and Ron Johanson OAM ACS  were notable no-shows among the participants at this year’s IAGA, both regrettably for health reasons. 

14 February, however, was the first official day of the IAGA, and after a two-hour board meeting in the morning, the proceedings proper opened at 1 o’clock in the Shannon conference room at the Copthorne Tara, with the ambition of running through the lion’s share of the business at hand.

One of IMAGO’s founding fathers, Luciano Tovoli ASC AIC, greeted and addressed the assembly from an online video link, and as BSC President Chris Ross was unavailable due to a shooting commitment in a remote part of Finland, his predecessor on that job, Mike Eley BSC, greeted all delegates and participants on behalf of the BSC. Eley paid particular tribute to the unflagging effort of former IMAGO President Nigel Walters BSC for always being the voice of IMAGO within the British Society of Cinematographers. And with those words the 2024 IAGA was officially up and running.

For the second consecutive year, IMAGO President Mustapha Barat ABC was at the helm of this event, and he received nothing but praise for his calm diplomacy and skilful handling of the proceedings. Tim Palmer BSC, a cinematographer and BSC governor, was unanimously voted to be the official moderator of the conference.

There were a number of amended statutes for IMAGO as an organisation to be discussed and voted upon, and it was decided that a seventh IMAGO committee should be launched, focusing its efforts on Film Preservation and Restoration. Other business handled during this first day were the appointment of Paul René Roestad FNF as honorary member of IMAGO, as well as reaching the decision that next year’s IAGA will be held in South America in May and hosted by the ABC. 

The official proceedings ended at 7:30 PM and were followed by a one-hour gap to allow everyone a visit to their rooms.

Wednesday was then rounded off with a delicious three-course dinner in the Shannon conference room at the Copthorne Tara. With Greek salad for starters, oven-baked chicken supreme with sautéd potatoes as main course and chased down with some vanilla brulée baked cheesecake for dessert, no complaints were voiced by the dinner guests. By fortunate coincidence, we wound up seated at the same table as Kurt Brazda AAC and Paul René Roestad FNF, and with tableside companions as interesting as these the conversation was captivating, fascinating and enlightening, and the evening passed in what seemed like a few minutes.

On 15 March, due to a scheduling conflict, the proceedings move to a conference room at the nearby Holiday Inn hotel, a short walking distance from the Tara, and first on the agenda are two company presentations from IMAGO sponsors ARRI and Nanlux, respectively.

For almost 90 years, ARRI’s core business had been to manufacture precision equipment for transporting film – basically having nothing to do with the actual creation of the image in terms of colours or dynamic range. But with the introduction in 1998 of the Arrilaser film recorder, and a few years later the Arriscan film scanner, all this changed. Creating an outstanding image is today vital to ARRI’s products, and in a fascinating lecture, ARRI head of lighting technology R&D, Regine Kraemer, and ARRI senior product manager camera systems, Marc Shipman-Mueller, explain to us the unique advantages of combining ARRI’s luminaires and cameras in order to attain the very finest highly saturated colours, enhanced skin tones and colour rendition.

 As part of the Nanlux Presentation, Rodney Charters ASC CSC NZCS takes us on a no less fascinating journey through his illustrious career, encompassing such projects as the TV series 24 in the 1990s and the 2017 hit movie Going in Style. The theme throughout is downsizing and this is of course Nanlux’s great strength, as the Evoke 2400B unit demonstrated in front of us has about the punch of a traditional 4K HMI, and can in fact be powered by batteries weighing a mere twenty kgs. Gone are the days when large HMI units and generator trucks were mandatory on most location shoots…

After a break for a delicious meal in the Holiday Inn restaurant, it’s time for the last item on the agenda: the IMAGO committees giving their reports on activities held during the previous year. These 20-minute presentations are in all cases but two held by delegates present at the IAGA, the exceptions being the Education and  Technical Committee’s reports, given by Ella Van den Hove SBC and Dave Stump ASC, respectively.

The always entertaining Kurt Brazda AAC, on the topic of Working Conditions, stressed how unevenly the revenues in the motion picture business are divided among those active in it. Adriana Bernal ADFC revealed that the Masterclass Committee will continue with the successful ”IMAGO Talks” format in the upcoming year. Bojana Andric SAS gave a summary of the 2023 activities of the always prolific Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and finally Argyris Theos GSC from the Authorship Committee gave us his thoughtful reflections on the fine line between artists being inspired by their peers, what’s popularly known as an homage, and plagiarism.

The IAGA conference closes promptly at 4:15pm, exactly according to plan, and the IMAGO staff have arranged for a bus to take us all to the Battersea Evolution to attend the BSC Expo special VIP opening. Those readers who wish to browse through a write-up of that fascinating event can continue reading here.