Meet Mike Figgis

Mike Figgis is a filmmaker, photographer and musician. He began directing for the cinema in the 1980s, having worked as a musician and in the theatre. As a filmmaker he has continued to draw upon his musical and theatrical background: writing the scores for almost all his films and adapting several plays for the screen, including Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1999) and Rattigan’s Browning Version (1994).

His American work has included significant critical and commercial successes, particularly Internal Affairs (1990) and Leaving Las Vegas (1995). His films explore unconventional narrative structure and the potential of technological developments for smaller scale productions. He used Super-16mm to shoot Leaving Las Vegas and digital cameras for Timecode (2000), which abandoned editing and split the screen into four quarters, a technique later made famous in the TV series, 24.

Mike is also responsible for the Fig-Rig, a camera stabilisation device for smaller cameras, which is made commercially by the Manfrotto Group.