Mark Sawicki

Mark Sawicki began his career as an actor and clay animator in Michigan. He moved to Los Angeles in 1976 and became involved in visual effects during the "Star Wars" era. One of his first roles was working for Roger Corman's New World Studios, where he served as a cameraman on low-budget science fiction films. From there, he transitioned to shooting effects and creating animation for commercials and numerous rock videos. In 1986, he became a matte photographer at Illusion Arts, working under visual effects experts Albert Whitlock, Syd Dutton, and Bill Taylor. During this time, Mark began working on mainstream films and also served as an instructor for Kodak's Cineon system, a significant digital film compositing technology. After a decade of compositing matte paintings at Illusion Arts, Mark became a co-supervisor for Area 51 on Tom Hanks' *From the Earth to the Moon* (1998). He is currently the head effects camera supervisor and digital colorist at Custom Film Effects. Mark has authored three DVDs on clay animation and produced a documentary titled *Twilight Cameraman* on optical printing, available from firstlightvideo.com. He is also the author of the book *Filming the Fantastic: Guide to Visual Effects Cinematography*, published by Focal Press. Mark continues to act in independent films and, although he no longer engages in clay animation, he still creates whimsical clay cartoon characters for the fine art market.