Mike Holding is an accomplished director and cinematographer of international television wildlife documentary films and docu-dramas and has won numerous international awards over the years in recognition of his diverse talents as a filmmaker.
Mike was born and raised in wilds of Kenya, has a BSc. honours degree in Zoology; a Diploma in Business Management; is a keen naturalist and outdoorsman; holds a private pilots license, scuba diving instructors license, is an active conservationist, and has travelled very widely throughout Africa’s wilderness regions throughout his lifetime.
His career spans a dynamic 30-years in the communications industry starting as a cameraman for BBC television News in Kenya in 1978. Mike then took up the position as Editor for two successful leisure magazines – Great Outdoors and SA Boating in South Africa, before becoming involved as a film director in corporate audio-visual and industrial theatre. He first worked with Audio Image before becoming owner and director of Audio Visual Creations. As a Creative Director, Mike worked at Multivisio producing high end corporate programming before forming award-winning Catchlight Pictures, which undertook blue chip corporate films for a four year period. During this time, Mike personally undertook the multiple roles of director/producer, cameraman, video editor as well as audio engineer, with a prestigious client-base including 40 top companies such as Coca-Cola, SA Breweries, Nissan, Toyota as well as the United Nations Development Programme.
Mike’s corporate work has been recognised by a number of Creative Awards for Direction and Cinematography.
In 1993 Mike was awarded a 3-year commission as wildlife cameraman on location in Botswana, for Tim Liversedge Productions for National Geographic Television. Mike filmed a significant proportion of the footage for “Okavango - Savage Paradise” (Nat Geo Special), which was a selected finalist for Cinematography at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. Since then Mike’s cinematography has been recognised with multiple awards, not least of which was a recent Emmy Award for cinematography shared by the “Planet Earth” camera team.
While Mike is most at home behind his camera, or flying aerial shots in remote places, he also conceptualises, scripts, shoots, edits and directs post-production on all of AfriScreen’s projects.
When filming sequences for our international clients, he is always intimately involved in the story, planning logistics and field production of every project, providing clients with the kind of skilled multi tasking that benefits every production.