Mark Sawicki

Mark Sawicki began his career 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, working on low budget sci-fi pictures for Roger Corman’s New World Studios, working as the optical consultant on the first Terminator film, and shooting effects and creating stop-motion animation for commercials and rock videos for Judas Priest and others. In 1986, he became the matte photographer for Illusion Arts working under visual effects masters Albert Whitlock, Bill Taylor and Syd Dutton. During this period, Sawicki began his work on mainstream films and became an instructor for Kodak's Cineon system (a landmark digital film compositing system). After a 10-year stint as the lead matte photographer at Illusion Arts and winning an Emmy certificate for his contributions on the Star Trek franchise, Sawicki worked as a co-supervisor for Area 51 on Tom Hanks’ From the Earth to the Moon. He subsequently became the head effects camera supervisor and digital colorist for Custom Film Effects, working on numerous features including The Dark Night Rises.

Sawicki has authored and hosted instructional media for the Stan Winston School of Character Arts and produced the documentary Twilight Cameraman, about the craft of optical printing. He also authored several books on VFX, stop-motion animation and virtual production published worldwide by Focal Press. His books have been translated into Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Sawicki teaches as an adjunct professor at several Los Angeles colleges and has performed as a SAG actor in more than 15 independent features and shorts.