BRIEFINGS INDUSTRY
[ NEW REPORT ] BEHIND THE LENS REPORT EXPOSES POOR INDUSTRY EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS
I MAGO’s Working Conditions Committee has published a report investigating the financial insecurity that too often accompanies a career in production. “Few industries are as misunderstood when it comes to actual working conditions as the audio-visual sector,” the intro reads. “When you pull aside this glittering curtain, a different world is revealed.” The report details how the freelance nature of most camera work ‘opens the floodgates to exploitation’. More than half of the 496 cinematographers surveyed are self- employed. Without cross-industry standards, two-thirds of them have to negotiate their own fees, and nearly half describe often starting work without a signed contract. Such nebulously defined work precipitates extreme hours, unpredictable schedules, unpaid overtime, abuse of power, burnout and, in the long term, piecemeal pension entitlements: 12- to 15-hour days are common and 19% said their working week often exceeds 60 hours. According to IMAGO’s former president and general secretary, Paul René Roestad, ‘fair payment for pre and post work is rare, as is fair compensation for extensive overtime’. “What a dream it must be to work in this industry!” quips Kurt Brazda, the chair of IMAGO’s Working Conditions Committee, in the report’s introduction. While 70% of questionees agreed ‘working conditions impact their personal life in an unhealthy way’, the report demonstrates their powerlessness to demand better. Some production companies blacklist individuals who complain, so there’s a ‘fear that standing up for one’s rights may mean losing the job’.
And freelancers can’t afford to lose a job. Two-thirds said they’d been unemployed in the past year, and 26.5% admitted doing non-cinematography work to supplement their income. An unpredictable wage packet makes filmmakers much more likely to grit their teeth and put up with poor working conditions because they don’t have the bargaining power of walking away. Add to this the fact that most cinematographers want to say yes because they love what they do, and you end up with what the chairs of IMAGO’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee call the ‘passion exploitation rabbit hole’. The report also shows how the industry’s demographic makeup makes it harder for women to speak out. Three- quarters of the questionees are male and, while nearly half of the female cinematographers marked gender inequality as a main issue, only 4% of the men did. The odds are stacked against women’s voices before they even open their mouths. IMAGO presented the report to the EU parliament in November 2025. They told policymakers that, given an individual’s weak negotiating power – if someone complains, they’re replaced by someone who won’t – the solution ‘needs to be systemic’. With more and more talented people leaving the profession, it’s imperative that collective representation is expanded, legal protection strengthened, negotiations made transparent and all working hours fairly paid, not swept under the rug in the name of a passion project. With the right regulations in place, IMAGO argues, crew members will be respected as ‘parents, partners and humans with a private life’ as well as skilled camera-smiths.
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