MIKE PROUDFOOT Associate BSC ACO

1945 - 2024

Honorary Associate

Proudfoot was born in London in 1945. He often went to the cinema as a youngster, but a career in the moviemaking business never entered his head. After leaving school, he trained as a car mechanic with Porsche. Then his friend’s wife who worked at the Rank Organisation’s shorts and documentaries department, told him they needed a mechanic to look after their camera cars. ‘After looking after their cars for around a year, one of the documentary assistants left and I was offered the job of documentary assistant,’ he said. ‘In the next two years I went all over the world working on Rank’s Look At Life and recruiting films. As a documentary assistant I did a bit of everything.’

When the department closed, Proudfoot became clapper loader on the last series of The Avengers at Elstree Studios, which he says was a different ball game to running around the world as a documentary assistant.

He went on to focus pulling, shooting a number of commercials, before being employed by Euston Films to work on the television series The Sweeney.

He said, ‘It was fantastic to work on, and it was gritty and ground-breaking. It appeared very real and, apart from the very fast driving, Dennis Waterman and John Thaw did their own stunts. After a while I was promoted to camera operator. The series was shot on 16mm and each episode took around ten days to shoot.’

Proudfoot went on to operate on Scum (1979 d. Alan Clarke), then The Long Good Friday (1980 d. John Mackenzie) both for DP Phil Méheux BSC. Since then he has worked on A World Apart (1988 d. Chris Menges ASC BSC, ph. Peter Biziou BSC), Air America (1990 d. Roger Spottiswoode, ph. Roger Deakins CBE ASC BSC) The Boxer (1997 d. Jim Sheridan, ph. Chris Menges BSC), Hannibal Rising (2007 d. Peter Webber, ph. Ben Davis BSC) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011 d. David Yates, ph. Eduardo Serra ASC AFC) . ‘I love operating because it’s really hands on. I’ve seen so many DPs getting bored with what they are doing. I am passionate about operating. I have worked on second units as a DP and operator but I am a nuts-and-bolts man. I love to be up there with the actors and I have been very lucky working with good actors and directors.’

Proudfoot’s son Miles is also a camera operator, recently operating on Downton Abbey. Away from the film set Proudfoot Snr enjoys trout fishing and tinkering with his classic car. He says he has enjoyed his career describing it as both a ball and a hobby. Mike’s last listed credit was for Dough (2015 d. John Goldschmidt and photographed by Peter Hannan BSC).

OTHER CREDITS: Absolute Beginners, Year of the Comet, Restoration, A Knights Tale, Girl with the Pearl Earring, Wimbledon, Blood Diamond

SELECTED AWARDS: BSC/ACO/GBCT Operators Award: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011 d. David Yates)