Mark Sawicki

Mark Sawicki began as an actor and clay animator in Michigan He came to Los Angeles in 1976 and became involved in visual effects during the Star Wars era One of his first positions was working for Roger Cormans New World Studios working on low budget scifi pictures as a cameraman From there he went on to shooting effects and creating animation for commercials and many rock videos In 1986 he became the matte photographer for Illusion Arts working under visual effects masters Albert Whitlock Syd Dutton and Bill Taylor During this period Mark began his work on mainstream films and became an instructor for Kodaks Cineon system a landmark digital film compositing system After a 10year stint of compositing matte paintings at Illusion Arts Mark went on to become a co supervisor for Area 51 on Tom Hanks From the Earth to the Moon 1998 Currently Mark is the head effects camera supervisor and digital colorist for Custom Film Effects He has authored three DVDs on the art of clay animation and a documentary Twilight Cameraman on the craft of optical printing available from firstlightvideocom He is also author of the book Filming the Fantastic Guide to Visual Effects Cinematography published by Focal Press Mark frequently performs as an actor in independent films While he no longer does clay animation Mark continues to create whimsical clay cartoon characters for the fine art market