From an early age David Tattersall always had a camera in his hands. At age 14, he bought a “Quarz 5” clockwork standard 8mm movie camera with saved pocket money and spent many weekends animating claymation monster movies or recreating scenes from favorite Sci-Fi and Kung Fu films with his teenage buddies.

Tattersall received a First Class BA in Fine Art from Goldsmith’s College, London University, where a growing interest in filmmaking blossomed and his 16mm films won national student film competitions. He went on to study cinematography at Britain’s National Film and TV School under Ossie Morris, Billy Williams and Charles Lagus. His Student films were highly regarded and included King’s Christmas, which was nominated for the BAFTA Best Short in 1987 and Metropolis Apocalypse, which was shown at Cannes in 1988.

During the late 80’s Tattersall connected with several top commercials directors in London, Rome and Madrid and during this time polished his craft shooting many spots for cars, airlines and beauty products.

In 1990 at age 29 he shot his first feature film; The Bridge directed by Syd Macartney. The following year he began shooting three seasons of the highly regarded The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for Lucas Film with a roster of talented directors including; Nicolas Roeg, Mike Newell, Vic Armstrong, Joe Johnston, Peter MacDonald, Terry Jones and Simon Wincer. The show involved recreating significant historical events from the early 20^th Century that helped to shape the cultural, artistic and political landscape in Europe, Africa and the US. The show spanned a wide variety of genres including drama, action, comedy, romance and even horror. Tattersall was nominated for an Emmy and an American Society of Cinematographers Award for his work.

In 1996 Tattersall was invited to Hollywood to shoot Con Air (1997 d. Simon West) followed by Soldier (1997 d. Paul W.S. Anderson), The Green Mile (1998 d. Frank Darabont) and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999 d. George Lucas)

It was during this time that he worked with Panavision, Sony and Lucas film on extensive early tests that resulted in the invention of 24-frame digital cinematography. Tattersall shot Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002 d. George Lucas) with the first prototype Digital Cinema Cameras.

Other notable cinematography titles include; James Bond: Die Another Day (2002 d. Lee Tamahori), Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005 d. George Lucas), Vertical Limit (2000 d. Martin Campbell), The Majestic (2001 d. Frank Darabont), Tomb Raider II (2003 d. Jan De Bont), The Matador (2005 d. Richard Shepard), Speed Racer (2008 d. The Wachowski Bros.), Romeo and Juliet (2013 d. Carlo Carlei), The longest Ride (2015 d. George Tillman Jr.), The Foreigner (2017 d. Martin Campbell), Death Note (2017 d. Adam Wingard)

TV work includes shooting the pilot episodes for AMC’s The Walking Dead, (d. Frank Darabont), TNT’s Mob City (d. Frank Darabont) and Cinemax’s Outcast (d. Adam Wingard)