A newly formed Italian Directors' Association has been formed by Italy's leading commercial directors in a group effort to initiate changes to protect the commercial, artistic, and professional activities involved in the Italian commercial production industry.

Present at the first meeting in Milan on February 9th were many of Italy's foremost commercial and music video directing talents. The group's aim is to protect the quality of representation for directors within the Italian market; draw up a basic contract for directors and production companies that underline terms of payment and copyrights; promote the industry by organizing events, studies/courses; provide information that will contribute to enhancing the creativity and professional demeanor in general, and; develop contacts between people interested in commercials and music videos both within Italy and abroad.

At the first meeting the foundations for the association were discussed and are presently being drawn up. Once completed, the association will commence putting forward its proposals to the rest of the Italian commercial/music video industry.

"The association was born on the Internet at the beginning of January," says Italian director Alex Orlowski, now based in London at his own company Orlowski Films. "We all decided to tackle the big issues in the Italian market which at first led to directors, producers and agency people arguing online, so we opened another more private Web site just for Italian directors. Then we decided to set up the association and tackle the issues relevant to directors in Italy."

"We know that Italian production companies will stop at nothing to get a director, even if it means paying way too much money to please the client," says Orlowski of Italian production companies' tactics.

"We want our Magna Carta sent to all production companies who are interested to hopefully improve conditions in Italy," continues Orlowski. "For example, we want to be paid 50 percent in advance, followed by the remaining 50 percent within 30 days of the shoot ending. In Germany, I am usually paid within a week of finishing a job, but it is more like three or four months in Italy at the majority of production houses. This is not the case for the crew due to having a very strong union. The director is left behind, and we merely want the same rights an an electrician, a gaffer or a grip. It is disrespectful especially when you consider that a good part of the creativity in Italy is made by the director. We want equal rights."

The expansive list of directors currently within the association who were also present at the first meeting in Milan are: Giovanni Bedeschi, Federico Brugia, Guiseppe Capotondi, Marco Della Fonte, Giacomo de Mas, Pietro Follini, Luca Lucini, Massimo Magri, Fabrizio Mari, Mario Mazzeo, Stefano Moro, Francesco Nencini, Alex Orlowski, Ago Panini, Riccardo Paoletti, Enrico Satta, Marco Schillaci, Carlo Sigon, Riccardo Struchil and Fabrizio Trigari.