Mike Hoover

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Mike Hoover (* 1944 ) is an American cinematographer , film director , film producer , documentary filmmaker and mountaineer who in 1985 57th Academy Awards with his film Up with an Oscar in the category "Best Short Film" (Live Action) has been awarded .

biography

Hoover combined his passion for mountaineering and climbing with his job as a cameraman and documentary filmmaker. After working as a cameraman in the 1970 horror adventure film Harry and the Magic Ring , he increasingly turned to documentaries. His first short film Solo from 1972, in which he directed the camera and directed and also portrayed the mountaineer climbing the El Capitan rock face in Yosemite National Park , was nominated for an Oscar . For the mountain film On behalf of the dragon by and with Clint Eastwood , he taught the film star how to climb in the Yosemite Valley before the film was shot in 1974 in Grindelwald , Switzerland .

Other documentaries such as To the Ends of the Earth (1983), The Endless Summer II (1994) and Zion Canyon: Treasure of the Gods were made under Hoover's camera work . For his short film Up , released in 1984 , in which Ed Cesar released his hawk , who had previously lived with him, in order to then go in search of the animal with a kite , he was rewarded with an Oscar and received the jury's prize Awarded at the Montreal World Film Festival . In the late 1980s, Hoover traveled eighteen times to Afghanistan to film the bloody war in the country. This resulted in the documentary films Battle for Afghanistan and Afghanistan: The Secret War (both 1987).

He worked for Curtis Hanson in his thriller Am wilden River with Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon in the area of ​​"visual effects". Hoover was often responsible for mountain shoots for various film teams; the filming locations stretch over a large part of the world and were often politically unsafe and associated with dangers for the crew, be it on the difficult rock faces of the Eiger , on Mount Everest or K2 or while canoeing in the jungle of Venezuela .

Mike Hoover was married to mountaineer Beverly Johnson (1947-1994), whom he met in 1967 on a climbing tour in the Yosemite area. She died when the helicopter crashed while on a two-day heliski tour in the Ruby Mountains. Hoover, who was also in the machine, was seriously injured. He later sued the manufacturer of the helicopter; an out-of-court settlement was reached.

Filmography (selection)

Cameraman or special camera work

  • 1970: Harry and the Magic Ring (Equinox)
  • 1972: Solo (short film; also director + actor (mountaineer))
  • 1973: Journey to the Outer Limits (documentary)
  • 1975: On behalf of the dragon ( The Eiger Sanction ; mountain shots)
  • 1976: Perry Comos Christmas in Austria
  • 1978: The Secret Life of Plants (documentary)
  • 1980: White Hell ( High Ice , TV film; mountain shots)
  • 1982: National Geographic Specials (television documentary series, episode The Sharks )
  • 1983: To the Ends of the Earth (documentary)
  • 1987: Battle for Afghanistan (documentary; also director + producer)
  • 1994: The River Wild (The River Wild)
  • 1994: The Endless Summer II (documentary)
  • 1996: Zion Canyon: Treasure of the Gods (short documentary, special shots)
  • 1997: Amazon (documentary short film)
  • 2010: Great Migrations (TV miniseries, episode Feast or Famine )
  • 2013: Great White Shark: Beyond the Cage of Fear (TV documentary; also producer + own appearance)

Director and producer

  • 1984: Up (short film)
  • 1987: Afghanistan: The Secret War (TV documentary, also editor)
  • 1989: To the Limit (documentary short; director only)
  • 2006: Shark: Mind of a Demon with Fabien Cousteau (TV documentary)

Awards

year Award Category, work along with Result
1985 Oscar "Best Short Film" : Up Won
1985 Jury Prize "Best Short Film" Montreal World Film Festival : Up Tim Huntley Won
1989 CableACE Awards Editing documentary: Afghanistan: The Secret War Tim Huntley Won

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The 57th Academy Awards | 1985 sS oscars.org (English)
  2. ^ Edmund Newton, James Bates: Disney President Wells Killed in Copter Crash: Accident: Executive was among three who died on Nevada skiing trip. He is credited with helping firm achieve new prosperity. In: Los Angeles Times , April 4, 1994 (English). Retrieved February 15, 2018.