A large congregation – including cinematographers, actors, studio, post-house and laboratory heads, former colleagues, as well as family and friends – gathered at St Peters Church, Rickmansworth, on 14th February 2017 to celebrate the life of Roger Sapsford, who passed away on 16th January.
![](https://britishcinematographer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Roger-Sapsford.webp)
One of the industry’s great characters, Sapsford started in the industry in 1967, with a three-year apprenticeship at Rank Organisation. After spells at Bucks Laboratories, Technicolor and Universal, where he helped to build labs and generate sales though his personable skills as a contact man, he spent 16 years at Fujifilm Motion Picture UK, expanding the company’s market share by working directly with cinematographers, directors and producers on high-profile productions such as John Madden’s Shakespeare In Love (DP Richard Greatrex BSC) Merchant Ivory’s The Remains Of The Day (DP Tony Pierce-Roberts BSC). Sapsford was renowned for his passion in championing the next generation of filmmakers too, often turning-up on location, at weekends, with short-ends in the boot of his car to ensure they completed their shoots.
After Fujifilm, his career also took in spells at i-Lab and ITFC Ltd (now Deluxe Media Europe) in Soho. Among his many achievements, Sapsford was awarded a BAFTA Teddy Oscar Award in 2004 for outstanding contribution to filmmakers and, in 2005, The BSC ARRI John Alcott Award for lifetime services to the film industry. Experienced, hard-working, with strong technical knowledge and one of the industry’s most affable characters, he will be sorely missed, but fondly remembered.