Michael Coulter

Michael Coulter
Michael Coulter
Born	Michael Daley Coulter; 29 August 1952 (age 72); Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Other names	Mike Coulter
Occupation	Cinematographer
Years active	1972–present
Relatives	Charles Gormley (brother-in-law)
Awards	BAFTA Scotland Craft Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film or Television (1997)
Website	www.michael-coulter.com

Michael Daley Coulter BSC (born 29 August 1952^[1]) is a Scottish cinematographer. He achieved prominence for his collaborations with writer-director Bill Forsyth, and went on to work on high-profile films like Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Sense and Sensibility (1995), FairyTale: A True Story (1997), Notting Hill (1999), Mansfield Park (also 1999), Love Actually (2003), The Bank Job (2008), and The Hustle (2019). He was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for his work on Sense and Sensibility.^[2] He is a member of the British Society of Cinematographers, and BAFTA Scotland.

Early life

Coulter was born in Glasgow in 1952. He was introduced to the local film business by his director brother-in-law, the Charles Gormley.^[1] He started as a gopher for local production companies making industrial films, before moving on to load the black and white film stock into camera magazines at football matches. He went freelance in 1975.

Career

Coulter became acquainted with writer/director Bill Forsyth, shooting in his 1972 documentary short Islands of the West. He subsequently filmed Forsyth's first feature, That Sinking Feeling (1979). Coulter operated for Chris Menges on Forsyth's next pictures, Local Hero (1983) and Comfort and Joy (1984), which Coulter describes as "unmissable opportunities to work with a man I admired tremendously".

During the early 1980s he also worked on many documentaries. "Documentaries made you resourceful, inventive. You had to make things work somehow. Also the life-experience of 'travel broadening the mind' was important for me". He enjoyed a brief stint in France during the early 1980s, as an assistant to cinematographer Pierre-William Glenn, but it was back in the UK that he passed a watershed.

He was just about to start work as the camera operator on No Surrender (1985), when the original director of photography had to pull out.

He has shot numerous commercials directed by Charles Sturridge, Tom Hooper, Mark Mylod, David Jellison (for Kleenex), Gerard de Thame (for Nissan, Rolex, and KIA), among others.

Coulter is represented by McKinney Macartney Management in the UK and Gersh in the US. ^[3]

Filmography

Key
†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

Film

As director of photography

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1972	Islands of the West	Bill Forsyth	Short film 1st of 8 collaborations with Forsyth
1978	The Odd Man	Charles Gormley
1979	That Sinking Feeling	Bill Forsyth
1981	Gregory's Girl	Bill Forsyth
1983	The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright	Murray Grigor	Documentary
1985	No Surrender	Peter Smith
1985	The Good Father	Mike Newell
1986	Heavenly Pursuits	Charles Gormley
1987	Housekeeping	Bill Forsyth
1988	The Dressmaker	Jim O'Brien
1989	Geh Kinde Geh	Crispin Reece	Short film
1989	Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale	Ann Guedes Eduardo Guedes
	Breaking In	Bill Forsyth
	Diamond Skulls	Nick Broomfield
1991	Where Angels Fear to Tread	Charles Sturridge
1992	Monster in a Box	Nick Broomfield
1992	The Long Day Closes	Terence Davies
1994	Four Weddings and a Funeral	Mike Newell
1994	Being Human	Bill Forsyth
1995	Sense and Sensibility	Ang Lee
1995	The Neon Bible	Terence Davies
1997	FairyTale: A True Story	Charles Sturridge
1998	My Giant	Michael Lehmann
1999	Notting Hill	Roger Michell
1999	Mansfield Park	Patricia Rozema
2002	Killing Me Softly	Chen Kaige
2003	Love Actually	Richard Curtis
2008	The Bank Job	Roger Donaldson
2013	The Lovers	Roland Joffé	Co-cinematographer with Ben Nott
2015	Slaba plec?	Krzysztof Lang
2017	The Escape	Paul Franklin	Short film
2019	The Hustle	Chris Addison
2021	A Castle for Christmas	Mary Lambert

As other

Year	Title	Director	DoP.	Notes
1980	Death Watch	Bertrand Tavernier	Pierre-William Glenn	Camera assistant
1980	A Week's Vacation
1981	Coup de Torchon
1982	Espion, lève-toi	Yves Boisset	Jean Boffety
1983	Local Hero	Bill Forsyth	Chris Menges	Camera operator
1984	Comfort and Joy	Bill Forsyth	Chris Menges
1985	Restless Natives	Michael Hoffman	Oliver Stapleton
1987	The Dead	John Huston	Fred Murphy	Camera operator: Dublin
2013	Rush	Ron Howard	Anthony Dod Mantle	Pre-shoot photography: Nürburgring^[1]
2014	Maleficent	Robert Stromberg	Dean Semler	Additional photography^[1]

Television

Year	Title	Notes
1990	4 Play	Episode: "Madly in Love"
1990	The Widowmaker	Television film
1993	Foreign Affairs
1995	The Infiltrator
1996	Interview Day
2018	Shetland	3 episodes
2019	Wild Bill	2 episodes
2020	Breeders	5 episodes
2022	Outlander	3 episodes

Awards and nominations

Institution	Year	Category	Work	Outcome
Academy Awards	1996	Best Cinematography	Sense and Sensibility	Nominated
BAFTA Awards	1996	Best Cinematography	Sense and Sensibility	Nominated
BAFTA Scotland Awards	1997	Craft Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film or Television	—	Won
British Society of Cinematographers	1994	Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature Film	Four Weddings and a Funeral	Nominated
British Society of Cinematographers	1995	Best Cinematography in a Theatrical Feature Film	Sense and Sensibility	Nominated
Chlotrudis Awards	1998	Best Cinematography	FairyTale: A True Story	Nominated
Valladolid International Film Festival	1995	Best Director of Photography	The Neon Bible	Won