Terry Cole BSC began his career in the camera department during a period when the traditional route into cinematography was through practical experience on film sets. One of his early credits was as a clapper loader on Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966), a production photographed by Carlo Di Palma. Cole subsequently progressed through the camera department, gaining experience as a focus puller and later as a camera operator and Director of Photography.
His work as a focus puller included Leopard in the Snow (1978), where he was credited in the camera department, and The Little Prince (1974), on which he worked in the focus department. These roles provided the technical foundation for his later career as a cinematographer and placed him within the generation of British camera technicians who developed their skills through the demanding practical disciplines of film production.
Cole's career coincided with a period of considerable change in the British film industry. The growth of freelance production created a need for camera technicians to establish professional standards and a means of representing the interests of a workforce that was increasingly working outside the traditional studio system.
In 1977, Cole joined John Deaton, Mike Fox and Geoff Glover in establishing the Guild of British Camera Technicians. The four men had discussed the need for such an organisation while working on Superman. They invited camera technicians to a meeting at the Caernarvon Hotel in Ealing Common on 6 November 1977. The organisation was initially called the Society of British Camera Technicians before the name was changed to the Guild of British Camera Technicians, avoiding confusion with the British Society of Cinematographers.
The founders wanted the new organisation to be non-political and to protect the interests and aspirations of the growing freelance camera workforce. They also wanted it to establish an authoritative professional presence, encourage new talent and maintain high standards of camera craft and technical practice. The GBCT subsequently became an important institution within the British film and television industry, providing professional representation, technical resources, training and a means of maintaining standards within the camera department.
The GBCT has subsequently developed into a major professional organisation for camera technicians, encompassing the full range of modern camera-department roles and specialist areas including aerial, underwater, 3D and visual-effects photography. Its training programmes and professional standards continue the principles established by its founders in 1977.