The CITO International Joint Research Group consists of cinematographers and scientists who are contributing their expertise from the fields of cognitive science, art history, media technology, film practice, and urban studies, among others. The artistic and the theoretical field have common grounds, i.e. they seek answers to certain questions and aim to communicate the emerging knowledge. Yet both fields have diverging views on the methods for acquisition and the dissemination of the results. However, a new generation of research supervisors is more acquainted with practice-based research methodologies. One of the advantages of new research models is that they allow us to approach the subject matter from a multi-disciplinary perspective, from which cinematography benefits as a medium. Cinematographic research that “marries” technology with culture is not only an interdisciplinary research field, therefore fulfilling the European Commission’s triple I agenda (i.e. interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and international) for research funding, but it is also entirely in line with building “inclusive, innovative, and reflective societies”. As such, this international joint research group and program can put it in a competitive position for this type of funding. During this conference, we will lay the foundation for the next applications for funding for further research into cinematography. We will identify the projects and set up the working groups and the deliverables for each of them.

The Contributors: The first publications of the journal were the conference proceedings of the Cinematography in Progress 3 Conference held in April 2019 at the RITCS and INSAS in Brussels, Belgium. The participants of that conference were mainly teachers and researchers of cinematography, and they have become some of the core contributors to the journal. Currently, we are publishing Issue 1: Reaching Out. The call for papers has attracted researchers to write and/or review articles for the journal. By setting up the journal, we have managed to create a research community around the topic of cinematography, and the group is growing every month. Now, after the difficult COVID years, it is time to connect live and to continue our collaborations in more projects. We will discuss funding opportunities, books, and other research outcomes.