FOCAL International is the

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. Through collabor ...

representing

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

companies,

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

facilities and individuals involved in the use of

footage In filmmaking and video production, footage is raw, unedited material as originally filmed by a movie camera or recorded by a digital video camera, which typically must be film editing, edited to create a motion picture, digital video, video cli ...

, still images and

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

in all forms of media production. It represents more than 300 companies and individuals involved in media production, asset management, preservation of historical archives,

film restoration Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the wid ...

and

History

FOCAL International was founded in 1985 by an international group of

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

archive leaders, specialising in film, television and news content who knew each other largely through licensing film and television archives. The high cost of Archive management, preservation and storage and the introduction of new formats was also endangering many film based collections. The founders included Jill Hawkins from

BBC Enterprises The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

(now

BBC Worldwide BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetised BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...

), Pam Turner of Visnews, David Warner of

ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...

, George Marshall of

British Pathe British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

, Sten Frykholm from the Swedish broadcaster SVT, Jacque Blanchard, from the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

, and Patricia Gang of

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

. With the support of a close group of individuals from both BBC and Visnews including Alan Stoner, Jeremy Cantwell, David Wratten as well as researchers Kirsty MacCalman and Jane Mercer, FOCAL launched officially at MIPCOM in 1987. Its first patron was

David Puttnam David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (; born 25 February 1941), is a British-Irish film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include '' Chariots of Fire' ...

, who became Chair of Patrons in 2005.

Structure

FOCAL International is run by a small administration team in the UK, reporting to an international Executive Council, comprising a chair, and a number of representatives of member bodies. FOCAL International seeks to implement its objectives through its

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

s, which are made up of industry experts and representatives. These committees include: the Editorial Committee, responsible for the quarterly magazine "Archive Zones"; the Events & Exhibitions Committee, responsible for organising the FOCAL International Awards, and FOCAL International's presence at relevant trade and industry events; the Training Committee, responsible for providing and promoting training in the archive industry, and raising awareness of the need for preservation of archives; and the Funding & Lobbying Committee, which lobbies governmental and institutional bodies on behalf of its members.

FOCAL International Awards

The FOCAL International Awards were established in 2004 to support and honour the researchers, technicians and producers who uncover, preserve and utilise archive footage in their work. The award ceremony is held annually in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, UK. The Awards cover categories for the best use of footage in factual productions, history arts & entertainment, music, sports, natural history, short format and cinema. Further categories include best restoration or

preservation Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

project, Jane Mercer Researcher of the Year, plus two additional personnel Awards for FOCAL Member Company of the Year & Footage Person of the Year. The FOCAL Executive Board also bestow the Lifetime Achievement Award. Notable winners have included: *

Rick Prelinger Rick Prelinger is an American archivist, writer, and filmmaker. He is also professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prelinger is best known as the founder of the Prelinger Archives, a collection of 60,000 advertising, edu ...

: Lifetime Achievement Award, 2012 * Pathe News: Footage Library of the Year, 2012 * Britain At War:, by the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

Film Archives: Best Use of Footage in a Home Entertainment Release, in 2012 * Senna: Best Use of Sports Footage and Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release, 2012 * Fire in Babylon: Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release, 2011 *

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

: Best Restoration or Preservation Project, 2010 (for the restoration of The Red Shoes) * JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America: Best Use of Footage in Factual Productions, 2010 * Focus on Film, run by

The National Archives National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention. Conceptual development From the Middle Ages i ...

: Best Use of Footage on Non-television Platforms, 2008.FOCAL International Awards 2008 http://www.focalint.org/focal-international-awards/2008/the-focal-international-awards-2008 Retrieved 12 July 2008 * Stewart Binns: Archive Award, 2004 & 2005

Members

Companies and organisations that are members of FOCAL International include: *

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...

* AP Archive *

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

(Industry Partner) * BAPLA (Industry Partner) * BBC Motion Gallery *

Bridgeman Art Library Bridgeman Images, based in New York, London, Paris and Berlin, provides one of the largest archives for reproductions of works of art in the world. Bridgeman Art Library was founded in 1972 by Harriet Bridgeman and changed its name in 2014. Th ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

* Corbis * Film Archive Forum (Industry Partner) * Fremantlemedia Archive *

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (stylized as gettyimages) is a visual media company and supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video, and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three mark ...

* Huntley Film Archives * Imperial War Museum Film and Video Archive *

ITN Source Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washington, D.C. ITN ...

* The

NHK , also known by its Romanization of Japanese, romanized initialism NHK, is a Japanese public broadcasting, public broadcaster. It is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television licence, television license fee. NHK ope ...

Visual & Audio Archives (Japan) * The

National Archives of Singapore The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) ( Malay: ''Arkib Negara Singapura'', Mandarin: 新加坡国家档案馆, Tamil: சிங்கப்பூர் தேசிய காப்பகம்) is the national archives of Singapore. It was for ...

* The

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

(Australia) * The

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

* The

National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales was established in 2001 in order to preserve and promote the audio-visual heritage of Wales. The archive is funded by the National Library of Wales and the Welsh Government and located at the National ...

* Natural History New Zealand Moving Images * The

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

The Pinewood Studios Group Pinewood Group Limited (formerly Pinewood Group plc and Pinewood Shepperton plc) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational movie studio, film studio and television studio company with headquarters in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, En ...

* The

Press Association PA Media (formerly the Press Association) is a multimedia news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and ...

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

(Wales) * Science Photo Library *

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

(Australia) * SVT (Sweden) * The Scottish Screen Archive at the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS; ; ) is one of Scotland's National Collections. It is one of the largest libraries in the United Kingdom. As well as a public programme of exhibitions, events, workshops, and tours, the National Library of ...

* T3Media *

Wellcome Library The Wellcome Library is a free library and Museum based in central London. It was developed from the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome (1853–1936), whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the ...

Moving Images & Sound Collection *

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

(Finland)

References

External links

FOCAL International
{{Authority control Arts and media trade groups Film organisations in the United Kingdom Film post-production