Co-autoria da fotografia cinematográfica Vitorio Storaro AIC e Jost Vacano BVK
- Tony Costa aip
- 16 de mai. de 2017
- 8 min de leitura
Publicam-se aqui dois textos em defesa da co-autoria da fotografia de um filme. Estes textos vêm a propósito do lançamento de um inquérito que o IMAGO lançou recentemente a cada associação relativamente à situação dos diretores de fotografia perante o código dos direitos de autor e dos direitos conexos em cada país.
Este levantamento serve para encontrar uma plataforma no sentido de se fazer uma frente comum para ver reconhecido a nível europeu o papel do diretor de fotografia na obra cinematográfica. Sabendo de antemão da oposição e das opiniões contrárias o IMAGO e os diretores de fotografia persistem em obter um dia esse reconhecimento partilhado com o realizador.
Relativamente a este assunto, em Junho do ano passado um acontecimento inesperado aconteceu na Alemanha que deu um novo alento aos diretores de fotografia. Desde mais ao menos do ano 2000 que Jost Vacano diretor de fotografia do conhecido filme alemão «Das Boot» (1981) filme sobre um submarino alemão no tempo da 2ª guerra, tem vindo a ser um dos elementos mais ativos na defesa do direito de co-autoria da fotografia de um filme ao lado do realizador. Numa iniciativa partilhada com a associação alemã BVK Jost Vacano levou a tribunal e de recurso em recurso acabou por ver a sua reivindicação com os produtores do filme dar frutos. O Tribunal deliberou que Jost Vacano tinha tido uma interferência pessoal e particular (recorde-se que mais de metade dos planos dentro submarino não tiveram a presença do realizador) e daí ser justificada a atribuição de co-autoria da obra e ter direito a uma compensação sobre os lucros do filme. E o valor é incrível soma de 450000 euros. Sabe-se que se trata de um caso particular que teve particularidades que não se repetem com frequência noutros filmes, mas o faco de o tribunal superior alemão ter reconhecido a autoria do diretor de fotografia abre um precedente muito importante na questão da divisão autoral de um filme.
Leia também: Jost Vacano BVK gets an incredible favourable law suit.
Ver vídeo de 4m onde Jost Vacano explica um dos mais importantes planos que fez no filme.
Jost Vacano no plateau de «Das Boot»(1981) realizado por Wolfgang Petersen com o seu 1º assistente de Imagem.
On authorship of the cinematographer:
Visual film design as an independent creative achievement defining the cinematographic work
By Jost Vacano BVK/ASC 2013/14
Cinematographic creations for film and television are protected "works" according to copyright law if they represent a "personal intellectual creation" of their authors. The following therefore only relates to the kind of cinematographic works where the creative activity of their authors is central. Amongst the authors of a cinematographic work are above all the director, as well as the cinematographer / director of photography, who is responsible for the film's visual design.
The visual design of a film is the unmistakable result of the creative imagination, and here the cinematographer exercises decisive and defining creative influence. Among the fundamental and typical creative means that s/he uses – partially in collaboration especially with the director, but often with full responsibility – are the following Activities relevant for copyright law:
Preparation in collaboration with the director and production designer (set and costume design),
determining the dramaturgical, stylistic and visual design.
Scouting and choosing locations:
Planning of the structure of scenes, location, time of day and lighting; for documentary films, selection of real settings taking account of dramaturgical and artistic considerations.
Breakdown of scenes into single shorts, long takes and sequences of movement where the editing and rhythm of the film are already predetermined.
Determining the camera position and movement, framing and composition with respect to the dramaturgical and emotional effects of the storyline, of characters and locations, as well as the internal relationships of protagonists, perspective and the third dimension.
Lighting design to create a dramaturgical, aesthetic and emotional atmosphere, to support the artistic and dramatic expression of the protagonists, to create effects of space and depth, to focus specifically on the action, to emphasise or suppress scenic elements, to create specific light effects as well as "interactive lighting" to integrate activities outside the field of action.
Colour design and filtering to enhance the dramatic and emotional impact.
Photographic special effects including those going beyond the normal technical range.
Pre-selection of the filmed material in collaboration with the director and editor.
Colour timing / colour grading in the laboratory, during electronic colour correction or digital postproduction, representing the completion of the photographic design process.
(For detailed explanations of above activities see the professional profile of the cinematographer.)
In this context it makes no difference whether "films" are recorded and manipulated using film, magnetic tape, hard disks, memory chips or other storage media with various analogue and digital camera systems and workflows. The sole criterion – independently of the technology of its creation – is the image visualised, created and offered to the spectator by the cinematographer. Therefore the term "film" is generally used here.
The responsibility of the cinematographer for the visual design which forms the work as a whole and which is a "personal intellectual creation" (according to German copyright law) does not only lead to his authorship with respect to the visual design but also to his co-authorship of the film as a whole, generally together with the director.
However, because of the economic interests of the production management the authorship of the cinematographer has often been contested in the past and the "camera person" has often been assigned to the area of technical support. The recognition of authorship has therefore been the task and foremost goal of the German Society of Cinematographers (BVK) in the past 30 years. By now, this recognition has not only been achieved throughout the industry but has also been confirmed by the legislative authorities (as regular author) and the highest courts.
In accordance with the legal postulation of adequate royalties, the cinematographer therefore has a claim to authorship contracts with purpose limited transfer of rights of usage and designation of royalties or repeat fees, a share in the proceeds of secondary exploitation, as well as a share in the fee on blank media and equipment according to §§ 53 and 54 of the German copyright law by the German copyright association for fine arts, photography, and graphic design (VG Bild-Kunst). First results with respect to an additional share in proceeds have already been achieved in the area of cinema, corresponding negotiations with the union of producers and the broadcasters have begun in the area of television.
Germany and the BVK play a leading role in this area. In many countries a recognition of the cinematographer as author has not been achieved yet. Due to the legal copyright system in Anglo-Saxon countries ("work made for hire"), authorship in these countries generally lies with the producer.
Jost Vacano BVK/ASC 2013/14
Vitorio Storaro AIC, ASC, O legendário diretor de fotografia italiano que fotografou o filme americano de culto «Apocalipse Now» (1979)
ASSOCIAZIONE Italiana AUTORI della FOTOGRAFIA CINEMATOGRAFICA (A.I.C.)
THE CINEMATOGRAPHER THE AUTHOR OF THE CINEMATOGRAPHY
By VITTORIO STORARO AIC ASCIMAGO’S Authorship Committee Senior Advisor
CINEMA, as a JOINT WORK, can be created only, and solely, with a contribution from several collaborators, all specific AUTHORS in their individual fields of expression, who are directed by the principal Author of the cinematic work itself: THE DIRECTOR.
CINEMA IS NOT, THEREFORE, AN INDIVIDUAL WORK Cinema is a LANGUAGE OF IMAGES through which a concept is expressed, since said images are revealed by the conflict and the harmony of the elements, of SHADOW and LIGHT, and – as Leonardo da Vinci called them – their children, COLOURS, so that a different composition of LIGHT in a Film results in a diverse figurative structure.
CINEMATOGRAPHY, literally WRITING WITH LIGHT IN MOTION, does not, therefore, only determine the kind of vision in images but is also instrumental in creating the structure of the Film itself when it is being made.
THE CINEMATOGRAPHER is the person who creates the mise-en-scène of the Light by bringing his own individual vision to the creation of the Cinematic Image, thus determining, according to the “WAY” in which said images are REVEALED, PRINTED AND TRANSCRIBED and with his own personality, the way in which each spectator perceives, sees and experiences the specific filmic work.
Considering all this, and already having had our creativity recognized through our qualification as AUTHOR OF THE FILM’S PHOTOGRAPHY by the Italian Cinema Law of 2004 in the two articles that determine the Co-Authors of a Film for the Italian Nationality, and by the Italian Cinema’s Quality Awards, we feel it is our duty to request and to officially obtain legal recognition of a right that is, in fact, already ours, and to be included among the assignees of the paternity of a Cinematic Work, which until now has only been attributed to the Literary and Music Authors of a Language that is principally distinguished and determined by, and expressed through, the IMAGE.
In the darkness, enveloped by that warm amniotic sac known as a movie theatre and enraptured by the collective unconscious along with all the other spectators, we are even able to dream in a world composed of CONTENT and FORM. The WORDS and the SOUNDS would only be called LITERATURE and MUSIC if they did not accompany the IMAGES.
A body of arts that can only bring the magic word CINEMA alive when they are united.
In the complex and multifaceted CULTURE OF IMAGES, the Cinematic Image aims, in fact, to stimulate new forms of dramaturgy and narrative structure whose visual language, which by determining in a more subtle and profound way than the verbal one the structure of its specific consciousness, is the fundamental pillar on which a film’s existence rests, causing, through Writing with light, the work to exist as a whole: the CINEMATIC IMAGE that thus comes into being, like any other art form.
An “ORIGINAL” result that our work determines, however, whatever and wherever, through the magic representation created by our specific style, our personal Cinematographic and figurative language, which – whether one likes it or not – by concretizing itself in the word Image determines Cinema itself, constituting it as a Work as such, as an OBJECT.
Hence, Cinema must be considered the product of a language composed of: IMAGES-MUSIC-WORDS.
Since we are aware that CINEMA, as a JOINT WORK, can be created only, and solely, with a contribution from several collaborators, all specific authors in their individual fields of expression, who are directed by the principal Author of the cinematic work itself: THE DIRECTOR.
Since we have always known that CINEMATOGRAPHY, literally WRITING WITH LIGHT IN MOTION, not only determines the kind of vision expressed through the images, but also contributes with its specific calligraphy to the structure of the Film itself, thus taking the form of an individual INTELLECTUAL WORK.
Given the fundamental importance of legally recognizing the person responsible both technically and creatively for the quality of the ANSWER PRINT OF A FILM and of the subsequent quality of the ELECTRONIC DIGITAL MASTER, with the aim of protecting not only the audio/visual quality of a work in all of the forms in which it is enjoyed, but above all to uphold the SPECTATOR’S RIGHT to have the possibility of seeing and hearing a work exactly as the various Co-Authors have conceived and created it, it is even more essential that the figure once known as the “Director of Photography” be officially included in the AUTHOR’S RIGHTS Law as AUTHOR OF THE CINEMATOGRAPHY.
A law that so far attributes such recognition only to the Literary and Music Authors – as well as to the Director – of a Language that is principally distinguished, determined and expressed through the language of the IMAGE.
VITTORIO STORARO AIC ASC
IMAGO’S Authorship Committee Senior Advisor
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