Welcome to my site.  A few years ago a friend of mine kept telling me how he had to go "write his blog" and I thought he was nuts.  Why would anyone want to publish a veritable online diary for others to read?  Since then I've given this form of communication a lot of consideration - and seen the admirable blogs created by my cinematographer friends Chris Chomyn and Roy Wagner.   I now grasp the value here - that a person can indeed contribute with an online offering of information, especially to other artists with similar interests.

Although I wear many creative hats, I am primarily known for Special Makeup Effects.  
I've been in this crazy business of film for 31 years.  I have done every type of makeup, from beauty to animatronics.  I have worked with countless actors.  I have seen just about every type of situation on a film set you can imagine, from the absurd to the tragic, from the uncontrollable to the unbelievable and everything in between.  I've sweated in the 120 degree heat of White Sands, New Mexico and frozen my tail off on the ice glaciers of British Columbia.

As we special makeup effects artists try to retain our foothold and keep our art alive; as we see CGI often taking the place of practical effects in a different era of filmmaking, I feel compelled to share my experiences with people.  Although I am delving into digital myself with Zbrush, AfterEffects and other software, for this site I mainly want to offer you my history of doing practical effects in film for three decades.

I was very fortunate to get into the business of special makeup effects when it was just being born in the early 1980s.  It was not easy to break into, but I pressed on through brief hard times and was rewarded with some amazing films, people and experiences.  

This blog will go into all that - and into the technical stuff, the people, the history, working with actors and directors, into cinematography, filmmaking, still photography, mechanical effects and much more.

I hope you enjoy what I have to offer.

Mark

Header photo:  THE X FILES, 1997.  Pemberton Ice Field, British Columbia.