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behind the camera
original The Saint TV series, with Roger Moore. He pays particular tribute to mentor DPs like Geoffrey Unsworth, Wilkie Cooper and Lionel Banes.
Since long graduating to lighting cameraman – he’s a member of both the American and South African Society of Cinematographers – Cox’s resumé has been an even more exotic, and occasionally award-winning, mix of features and commercials (more than 300 in all for clients as varied as Datsun/Nissan, Rayban and Proctor & Gamble) in almost every corner of the globe, including Hollywood.
But his own Africa remains a fascinatingly varied beat in its own right for a craftsman who can also boast, in addition to a pilot’s licence, skills in classic car restoration, Judo and precision target shooting. Like the time he was in the East Coast wetlands of St Lucia in Natal with director Italo Zingarelli for an Italian comedy with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, quaintly-titled I’m For The Hippotamus. They were due
to shoot a scene with the outsize Spencer whose jeep ends up in a pond full of hippos when they suddenly heard from a ranger that someone had been bitten in half by a rampaging creature of that ilk. Cue a quick call to Rome for an animatronic hippo and a swift script change to some Jaws-style action.
Sometimes the creatures are more human, as in Cox’s close encounter with the infamously pneumatic 18-rated star Shannon Tweed on The Most Dangerous Woman Alive. Although, for a change, it wasn’t really that sort of film Tweed was still persuaded to take her top off, saying to the crew, “I’ve spent a lot on these boobs so you might as well have a look at them.”
Cox has even, but with some reluctance, turned his hand to directing for his own and partner Debbie’s company UniTal which, utilising tax break money, makes films and TV programmes from time to time. “I don’t like doing that too much because you often have
to deal with things that are extraneous to the actual film-making – like producers who are inept.”
Having worked on both sides of the Atlantic, has he noticed significant differences? “The procedures are much the same, but the attitude is very different. For instance, I remember once working on Dynasty and saying to a producer, You know, you could save a lot of money if you shot on 16mm.’ He said, ‘Why? There’s a budget and we spend it properly.’
Adds Cox: “In the UK, they tend to think ‘save’ rather than ‘bigger and better.’ That attitude indirect- ly diminishes the size of a project. If you think small, you’ll be small. In the US, their vision is much broader. They see everything bigger.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
All Peakviewing titles mentioned above were originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative