Lights, camera, Oscar!

But one firm has won an academy award, featuring in films such as Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan and receiving plaudits from film directors across the industry.

Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) received the scientific and engineering award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts in December last year.

It won the prize after changing the face of Hollywood with its high-tech multi-million pound camera systems.

The technology was not immediately glamorous - the firm makes programmable, ultra-stable camera cranes.

But its massive contribution to the special effects industry won over Academy judges.

When Stephen Spielberg recreated the Normandy landings in Saving Private Ryan, he panned the camera across a beach with actors grouped on one patch of sand, then reshot the scene with those troops further up the shore.

By repeating the process and then scanning and merging the shots, Spielberg turned a few hundred shifting extras into an invading army of thousands.

Similar trickery was used in the the Ancient Rome epic Gladiator, currently on release starring Russell Crowe.

The East Grinstead camera control system made sure each shot was exactly like the one before and could be merged exactly.

In The Borrowers, an actor was set against a neutral backdrop while the camera moved high above him. The movement was then scaled down to film the 'normal' sized shot.

When the two scenes were merged, the tiny actor appeared magically shrunk on an ordinary table top.

By shooting the same scene at a very high and then a very low speed, an actor could walk in slow motion through a frantically busy bar, creating the classic beer advert.

Each shot has to be identical and directors have used MRMC technology to get it right.

MRMC has created two systems, the studio-based Cyclops and portable Milo.

Both have played their part in major Hollywood productions.

Sales manager Robin Bullock admitted U.S. film bosses were not immediately convinced by the appeal of the cameras.

He said: "It was Limeys trying to sell to Yanks."

But when the firm set up a rental operation just outside Hollywood, the Limeys got their big break.

One of the firm's cameras was used in volcano disaster film Dante's Peak and the phone has not stopped ringing since.

Aardman Animations used three of the cameras for their recent Chicken Run release.

Steps' video for their current Summer of Love single and the video for Victoria Beckham's new release will rely on the MRMC system.

The machines are not only used by Hollywood directors and British pop producers.

The firm has exported cameras to Moscow and two to South Korea.

The popularity has not come easily.

With the slightest jolt or miscalculation enough to ruin an expensive scene, the machines had to be perfect.

Deputy manager Assaff Rawner said: "We spend a lot of time modelling the shape before we get to manufacture them."

Special gears engineered to ensure one cog fits exactly into another were used to keep the cranes wobble-free.

The camera control systems have sold well but MRMC's next project is a glimpse into the future of the film industry.

The firm is working with Guildford software house 5D Solutions to create a Hollywood where every film is created on computer before an actor is even hired.

Movie credit lists would be shorter than anyone ever dreamed possible.

They have started work on a system which could let directors decide every shot, light and movement in a 3D-modelling package.

The camera movements would be plotted on computer and then exported to MRMC's control hardware so the shots created at a keyboard could be recreated exactly on set.

Automatic camera movements could mean no grips, no focus pullers and no cameramen.

Mr Rawner said: "We're aiming to save anything from one per cent to 20 per cent on a film's cost.

"A typical film costs $100 million so that's a lot of money."

These figures make the quarter-of-a-million-pound cost of a Milo look like money well spent.