Arthur Provis is an English cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

 and producer, best known for co-founding AP Films

AP Films

AP Films or APF, later becoming Century 21 Productions, was a British independent film production company of the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s...

 ("Anderson-Provis" Films) with Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....

.

As a former Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 photographer forging a career operating rostrum camera

Rostrum camera

A rostrum camera is a specially designed camera used in television production and filmmaking to animate a still picture or object. It consists of a moving lower platform on which the article to be filmed is placed, while the camera is placed above on a column. Many visual effects can be created...

s, he met Anderson filming a series called You've Never Seen This about unusual circus acts. Finding a shared interest in film-making, Provis teamed with Anderson creating AP Films with the original intention to make commercials. As a result of an advert featuring a puppet, the company was approached in 1957 by Roberta Leigh

Janey Scott

Janey Scott Lewin , well known as Roberta Leigh is a British author and artist. She wrote romance fiction and children's stories as Roberta Leigh, Rachel Lindsay, and Janey Scott....

 to create a children's series The Adventures of Twizzle

The Adventures of Twizzle

The Adventures of Twizzle is the very first television show produced by AP Films and specifically Gerry Anderson, after being approached by author Roberta Leigh and her colleague Suzanne Warner. Sources vary as to who directed the series...

for Associated Rediffusion. This led to AP Films' early puppet shows including Twizzle, Torchy the Battery Boy

Torchy the Battery Boy

Torchy the Battery Boy was the second television series produced by AP Films and Gerry Anderson, running from 1958–1959. It was another collaboration with author Roberta Leigh and was directed by Anderson, with music scored by Barry Gray, art direction from Reg Hill and special effects by...

and Four Feather Falls

Four Feather Falls

Four Feather Falls was the third puppet TV show produced by Gerry Anderson for Granada Television, from an idea by Barry Gray.-Production:The show was made on a tight budget and could not afford sophisticated special effects...

, although Provis left the company amicably in 1959 following disagreements with Anderson over future strategy.

Whereas Anderson went on to produce his own puppet ("Supermarionation

Supermarionation

Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...

") programmes (including Supercar

Supercar (TV series)

Supercar was a children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis's AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. 39 episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour series. In the UK it was seen on ITV and in the US in syndication...

, Stingray

Stingray (TV series)

Stingray is a children's marionette television show, created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and produced by AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment from 1964–65. Its 39 half-hour episodes were originally screened on ITV in the UK and in syndication in the USA. The scriptwriters included Gerry and...

and Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds (TV series)

Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...

, the last credited to AP Films), Provis continued his association with Roberta Leigh, producing and filming the puppet series Adventures of Sara and Hoppity

Sara and Hoppity

Sara & Hoppity was a children's puppet television series created and produced by Roberta Leigh. It was based on a series of four books written by Leigh and illustrated by Marion Wilson....

(1961) and Space Patrol

Space Patrol (1962 TV series)

Space Patrol is a science-fiction television series featuring marionettes that was produced in the United Kingdom in 1962. It was written and produced by Roberta Leigh in association with the Associated British Corporation.-Summary:...

(1962-3).

A colour pilot episode for another puppet series called Paul Starr: Space Agent about a James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

-style action hero failed to be commissioned, as did a 1967 live-action science fiction series The Solarnauts, for which Provis filmed the model sequences. Following this, Provis went back to filming commercials.

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