Mike Molloy ACS BSC inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013
Mike started work on 17th March 1958 (St Patrick’s Day, …he is half Irish) basically as a floor sweeper at Cinesound. Floor sweeping led to stints in the optical printer, animation with the Oxberry and shooting the titles for the newsreel.
Eventually he moved to assisting the newsreel cameraman soon followed with people like Lloyd Shiels, Howard Rubie, chief news cameraman John Gillis and legendary film editor Sid Whitley ready with advice and criticism “You silly bugger, You never shoot he arse of anything except a Sheila!” Sid said on viewing footage from the Bathurst car races with too many shoots of racing cars receding into the distance.
TV Commercials and documentaries soon followed and eventually he left Cinesound with the best training one can get. He can still grab a camera and run with it.
In 1967 with his friend and ex Cinesound cameraman Peter Hannon, he joined many other friends in London. A union ticket was essential so he worked as “Holiday relief assistant” at the BBC, eventually getting the prized ticket.
Mike’s first jobs in feature films were camera operating on Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon. Micke returned to Australia in 1972 to shoot his first feature as DOP, Mad Dog Morgan starring Denis Hopper and David Gulpilil, directed by Phillipe Mora. Returning to the UK he continued shooting feature films that included The Shout, The Hit and Scandal.
In 1998 with producer Jeremy Thomas shooting his first film as director, and Mike as DOP of the film All the Little Animals. In 2000 Mike shot Shiner a modern day version of “King Lear” it started Michael Caine. For television, with John Voight, Mary Steenburgen, F Murray Abraham and Charles Coburn. In additional to Mike’s feature work (Credited on 31 films) he has shot over a thousand TV Commercials all over the world.
Mike is based in Sydney and had deal Australian and EU nationality. Mike was induced into the ACS Hall of Fame in 2013.
