As well as continuing to shoot films, Oliver Stapleton is also employed as Co-Head of Cinematography at the National Film and Television school in Beaconsfield UK (2017). He attended this school in the late 1970's when it was in it's infancy. It was the most influential and productive part of Oliver's education. Why?
"Returning to being a student at the age of 27, after 6 years struggle as a stills photographer in Cape Town, marked an all-time low financially, but a real period of learning to light and photograph films. The best bit was the 18 months I spent making 'Shadowplay', writing, directing and editing what turned out to be a flawed but quite curious 70 minute drama about ex-South Africans struggling with paranoia in London low life. All that time in front of the Steenbeck (a flatbed film editing machine) with my own material laced across the mattress and coffee machine taught me more about shooting than I could ever learn on the floor staring at a tin of Heinz or a packet of Omo."
"Shadowplay", for the curious, is available for viewing HERE.
Although Oliver's credits are available below on IMDB, they don't tell the whole story. These pages gives some insight to Oliver's personality and sense of humour, as described candidly by his wife..
In 2012, Oliver set off on his own and made a documentary about a 120 yr old sailing ship called VEGA. This ship takes medical and school supplies to remote islands in Indonesia. Oliver set out to do the owners a favour by supplying them with footage they could use to raise funds, but he ended up with a film that was very different to what he thought he was making... he is still working on it (2017!).