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A camera operator who understands the story, emotionally and stylistically, can convey the director’s choices, be they visceral or poetic, and bring his or her unique relationship with the camera to an audience in a profound way.
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Lou Macnamara (they/she) is a budding Camera and Steadicam Operator and the newest Associate Member of the ACO.
Lou studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins before working in art galleries alongside shooting stills, indie documentaries and artist films on a much loved Canon 5D. Eventually, Lou quit their day job at the Tate to fully focus on working in the Camera Department, starting in short form before working their way up through TV drama and Features from Trainee and Loader to Focus Puller. During this time, Lou was deeply invested in learning and drawing on the experience of working under accomplished Operators and Directors of Photography.
It was these DPs who trusted Lou with opportunities to step up, operating on 2nd Unit Drama and Commercials alongside assisting. By 2023 Lou was ready to expand their skillset further, attending several industry workshops, including a Geared Head workshop at Focus Canning and Optical Support’s Steadicam workshop. That year Lou was nominated for the Screenskills Leaders of Tomorrow programme, supporting freelancers stepping up to more senior roles.
Throughout 2024 Lou focused on building up their rig piece by piece, aiming to get as much time in the rig as possible. This included work across short films, music promos and commercials through to a chance for their first steadicam shot for TV Drama when a last minute 2nd Unit day was added to the schedule of Channel 4’s ‘Brian & Margret’, where Lou had been operating on B Camera. Alongside this, Lou spent all their spare time training at Optical Support’s office, gleaning wisdom and patience from the team and the steady stream of visiting Operators while learning to walk backwards without tripping over Gus and Marley, the studio’s resident dogs.
In 2025 after operating on BBC’s ‘We Might Regret This’, Lou completed their package with the new X-arm Neo just in time for a job as B Cam and Steadicam Operator on Disney’s ‘Alice & Steve’. Next they joined Sky’s 'Sweetpea’ team for some double banking days, where Lou was thrilled to be shooting the opening scene of season 2 and rounding off the year with dailies on ‘Frank & Percy’ a feature starring Ian McKellen and Roger Allam - a real “pinch me” moment!
Lou loves the collaborative process of operating long form narrative, getting stuck into a script, supporting DPs and Directors to deliver their vision and along the way getting to work with talented cast and crew across multiple departments to practically achieve the shot. Through ACO workshops and working with more established colleagues on set, Lou hopes to continue learning and developing their operating practice.
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WINNERS ANNOUNCED: Peter Robertson Assoc BSC ACO GBCT and Emiliano Topai win The Operators Award: Television Drama for their work on the series Mussolini: Son of the Century “Chapter One”
Feb 09, 2026
WINNERS ANNOUNCED: Peter Robertson Assoc BSC ACO GBCT and Emiliano Topai win The Operators Award: Te...
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