Fall Film Forum: Mark Rappaport ’72

Justin-Siena's Visual and Performing Arts Department is proud to announce the kick-off of our brand new series of professional Film Forums on Friday, September 25 at 7 pm in the Dining Hall.
Leading Special Effects Artist from Hollywood Returns to his Alma Mater for an evening of discussion and hands-on creature demonstrations from one of Hollywood’s leading special effect companies

NAPA, CA Justin-Siena's Visual and Performing Arts Department is proud to announce the kick-off of their brand new series of professional Film Forums on Friday, September 25, 2015, at 7 pm in the Dining Hall (4026 Maher Street Napa, CA 94558). Our first featured guest artist will be alumnus Mark Rappaport ’72. Mark returns to his alma mater as the founder, owner, and CEO of Creature Effects, one of Hollywood's most successful and best known special effects houses. Mark and his crew will offer and evening of film clips, lecture, discussion, and hands on demonstrations of some of their more famous creatures, including Devil Baby which is a viral audio-animatronic internet sensation.

With a long list of Box Office hits, including Ted 2, Gone Girl, Wild, and 300, Mark's artistry has taken the industry by storm. Come enjoy the magic of Creature Effects and some fabulous door prizes with alum Mark Rapport on September 25 at 7:00 pm in the Justin-Siena Dining Hall. Students are free and adults only $10. Tickets can be purchased online (www.justin-siena.org) or at the door. Be sure to bring your smart phone/iPad to compete for some one-of-a-kind door prizes.

About Mark Rappaport
Born in Yokohama, Japan, Mark Rappaport is an American special make-up effects artist. His main body of work is with special effects in a wide variety of films from science fiction to horror, to comedy and theater. Rappaport has created hyper-realistic animatronic animals including the horse used by Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai and memorable prosthetic makeup effects for 300 and I Am Legend. His company, Creature Effects, Inc., is at the leading edge of the Hollywood creature and makeup effects industry.

At the age of three Mark’s family moved from Japan to the Napa Valley where Mark graduated from Justin-Siena High School in 1972 and went on to San Diego State University. After college, Mark returned to Northern California and worked in law enforcement before meeting and working with Bob Hartman, a San Francisco puppeteer and street performer. Mark’s work with Bob sparked an interest in creating effects for the entertainment industry and he pursued employment at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). At ILM he worked on feature film projects, including Innerspace and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. From ILM Mark went to work with Chris Walas and created effects for films including The Fly II and Child's Play.

Mark went on to run the independent branch of Paramount Pictures known as Full Moon Productions, which gave him the expertise to open his own company in 1990. Through Creature Effects, Mark has supported feature films for all of the major studios and has traveled crew around the world to puppeteer, manage effects and apply makeup. Mark has managed extensive, multi-million dollar projects requiring crews of 50 to 100 technicians, as well as commercial assignments with limited funds and rapid turnaround. Rappaport creates much more than creature makeups and puppets, he has an extensive inventory of ultra-realistic human baby and animal puppets.

Recent Creature Highlights
The production of The Last Samurai required an animatronic horse capable of performing stunt sequences that would put a real horse and rider at risk of great injury. Rappaport was commissioned to build a horse that could seamlessly replace Tom Cruise' real horse for those scenes. Mark says “It’s probably the most sophisticated horse or animatronic creature ever made for film. It cost $1.5 million to make. It gallops in place. It reared up. It fell over. And it looks completely real.”

Mark Rappaport (creature effects supervisor) and Shaun Smith (makeup effects supervisor) teamed up to create the world of effects for 300. This extensive body of work included prosthetic makeups, animatronic animals, props, weaponry and costume elements. In addition to the amazingly lifelike horse effects for this film, Rappaport created an animatronic wolf puppet for scenes where young Leonidas faces off with the predatory animal. “The filmmakers shot interactions of the practical puppet attacking young Leonidas in a narrow rock crevice. Veteran creature effects supervisor Mark Rappaport and his team mechanized the puppet with: eye-blinks; head, neck, brow, jaw and tongue movement; saliva tubes and glowing eyes.

Poster image: Animatronic wolf puppet created by Creature Effects, Inc. for the feature film 300
 
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Justin-Siena High School

4026 Maher Street
Napa, CA, 94558
United States
T: 707.255.0950 
F: 707.255.0334
Justin-Siena is a Lasallian Catholic college preparatory community that serves young people in grades 9–12.