Mark Rappaport (born 1954) is an American special effects/makeup 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. Mark 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. Mr. Rappaport was born in Yokohama, Japan. At the age of three Mark’s family moved to the Napa Valley in northern California. Mark graduated high school in Napa and attended San Diego State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree. Upon graduation 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 and Magic. 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 effects shop for 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, Inc., 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. His latest effects include the creation of two ride-able animatronic horses that have been used in numerous film and commercial productions.
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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."[1]
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."[2]
For I Am Legend, starring Will Smith Mark Rappaport developed full body, silicone makeups for the primal, aggressive beings known as "Darkseekers". The translucent makeup creates the look of infection and spiked metabolism desired by director Francis Lawrence. The makeups were to be applied to very thin performers to create the look of zero body-fat and protruding veins. The makeups included rotting teeth dentures and full dilated pupil contact lenses. In addition to the creature makeups, Mark's studio created animatronic, likeness puppets of "Sam" the German Shepherd, a digital scan model for the infected dogs, scar and knife wound appliances for Will Smith and numerous other effects for the production.
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