Roger Pratt honoured with lifetime achievement award
On Friday 11 February 2023, Roger Pratt (LGS 1965) was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Society of Cinematographers at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. In this article we look back at Roger’s extraordinary career and successes rooted in his time at LGS.
Roger attended Loughborough Grammar School between 1958 and 1965 before heading to Durham University and then progressing back south to study at the London Film School. Whilst at School he made the 8mm Black and White Short Green and Dying and he later attributed some of his subsequent success to the encouragement he received for this project from then Headmaster, Norman Walter.
"I got a taste for making films at LGS, encouraged and funded by the Headmaster at the time, Mr Walter. My Oeuvre, ‘Green and Dying’ budget £100, was a black and white silent film with a separate soundtrack which tried to give a flavour of life at the School. I was not subject to any editorial interference from the School and I got the bug"
In 1975 whilst working as a clapper loader on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Roger met Terry Gilliam who would go on to become a friend and close collaborator on many film projects. Success closely followed with Roger being the Director of Photography for more than 35 films, including Brazil (1985), Batman (1989), Frankenstein (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The End of the Affair (1999), Chocolat (2000), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Jadoo (2013.) He was BAFTA nominated for The End of the Affair and Chocolat and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for The End of the Affair.
Loughburians will probably be most interested in Jadoo, a comedy family feature film set in Leicester, written and directed by Amit Gupta (LGS 1991). Roger was praised in the reviews of the film with one critic describing it as having been “ravishingly photographed.” We’ve recently learnt of a further Loughburians connection as Felix Buxton (LGS 1988) wrote and produced some of the soundtrack to the film.
We’d like to extend our warmest congratulations to Roger on this recognition of an extraordinary career.
You can read more about Roger’s career here.