Ernie Vincze, BSC

I was sad to note the death of Ernest Vincze, BSC, HSC, the cinematographer who shot my Channel Four TV short film Dogplant.

I tested Ernie's patience with my storyboards and shot list for two days of day and night interiors and exteriors, animals, and special effects. But he was kind, a total pro, with an impressive resume.

Ernie was born in Hungary and worked extensively on UK television and documentaries, including The South Bank Show, Omnibus, and World in Action. He was a cinematographer on James Ivory's Roseland, the Madonna / Sean Penn drama Shanghai Surprise, the prison drama Scrubbers, the feature film of Biggles, and second unit on The Red Violin. He also shot the first season of the recent Doctor Who, the soap opera Holby City, and the Michael Caine movie Last Orders, the latter two ‘starring’ my Dad as an extra.

My abiding memory of Dogplant, as the camera team was scrambling to set up our next ambitious shot, was of Ernie's young assistant cameraman confiding to me: they had shot a bunch of Four Minutes shorts and most of them were typical TV – one set, with talking heads in a room. 'This,' he told me, 'feels like a feature.' That made me proud.

Thanks, Ernie.

• Ernie's obituary at the British Society of Cinematographers.

• Making Dogplant.

• Pod pup 2024.