Mark Shostrom
Fangoria
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Contact Mark
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Past articles by Mark:
FANGORIA | Mark Shostrom’s War Stories: Getting 'Evil Dead 2'
Diary: 1983-1986 B ruce Campbell sat in the barber chair at my shop. He pumped the handle until he was as high as he could go. He had a desk calculator on his lap. “Well, let’s see…” he said. “We’ll take 3,000 from the prop budget… 5,000 from the costume department… another three from…” His calculator went ka-click, ka-click, ka-click. There was a usage rights issue with cutting in footage from… → Read More
FANGORIA | Mark Shostrom’s War Stories: "And They Need It When?"
Iconic makeup FX on a deadline. → Read More
FANGORIA | Mark Shostrom’s War Stories: Rubber Monsters in the Lumber Yard: ‘Forbidden World’
Diary: Early 1982 I had landed a job at Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. To this day, I don't remember who called me, but in the spring of 1982, I ended up at Hammond Lumber in Venice, a few blocks from the beach. New World Pictures had taken over a few buildings in the rear of the lumber yard. They had sound stages, production offices, an art department and a makeup effects department. I… → Read More
FANGORIA | Mark Shostrom’s War Stories: How to Win an Emmy
Diary, 1995-1999 I have a method for this. Go to the Emmy awards, don’t win. Don’t go, win (most of the time). Actually, there’s more to it than that. But I’m still not sure exactly what. A year after I started on Star Trek Voyager, our boss, Michael Westmore, put those of us on the makeup staff - Greg Nelson, Scott Wheeler, Tina Kalliongis, Michael and myself - up for an Emmy. It was an episode… → Read More
FANGORIA | Mark Shostrom’s War Stories: The One Time I Should Have Ignored My Dad’s Advice
Diary, 1981-1982 A t the start of the 1980s, if you were lucky enough to be arriving in Los Angeles to try and get into the relatively new field called Special Makeup Effects, you were coming into an era that was absolutely sizzling with excitement. I met lots of folks on American Film Institute sets[CI1] in 1980, but it wasn’t until Christmas that I encountered my first true compadre in makeup… → Read More
Mark Shostrom's War Stories: More Adventures in Life-Casting
I needed to take a face cast of Scott Glenn for a film called Shadowhunter. Silence of the Lambs had just been released, so Scott was in the spotlight. My girlfriend, Michelle, happened to be production coordinator for the film, and it was through her that I would schedule Scott’s visit to my studio for the cast. I rang Michelle to arrange it. She told me she had met Scott that morning and he… → Read More
Mark Shostrom's War Stories: False Promises
O n the last day of class in my teaching years, I would usually go outside to say farewell to my departing students. As they bopped gaily to their cars without a care in the world, off into the new world of working in movies, I envisioned a giant hand coming down and crumpling most of them like a ball of paper. Sadly, I knew many wouldn’t last long in the business. Occasionally, I’d get… → Read More
Mark Shostrom’s War Stories: Self-Teaching
A nyone hoping to get into movie makeup - or any area of the film business, for that matter - has endless options of how to learn: internet sites, magazines, books, YouTube, Instagram, makeup schools, indie films… I began my makeup FX career on American Film Institute student films and low-budget Roger Corman pictures. I had little experience when I did them; but by the time I worked on films… → Read More
War Stories By Mark Shostrom: First Impressions
Diary: North Carolina, The Mutilator (1983) and Evil Dead II (1986) F irst impressions count. When you have to perform for the first time on a new film, it can be stressful. Although everyone working on a movie knows filmmaking is a juggling act of problem-solving, and that glitches happen, the producer and director who brought you aboard nonetheless expect you to accomplish miracles out of the… → Read More
Mark Shostrom's War Stories: Why It Pays To Read Genre Magazines
Diary: The Amityville Horror: The Lost Tapes, 2011 M y partner Maria and I had just gotten our first gig with our new company Hello Boss Effects. It was a trailer for a horror film, and we needed several gallons of blood. I decided on one Saturday morning to get the blood supplies at Smart and Final Iris restaurant supply. Although various makeup suppliers had dozens of types of movie blood, I… → Read More
Mark Shostrom's War Stories: Handling Difficult Actors
Mark Shostrom's War Stories, Part 3. → Read More
Mark Shostrom's War Stories: The Actor Whose Makeup Would Not Stay On
Makeup legend Mark Shostrom has a million stories from his career making up actors for some of movies and TV's greatest hits. This has been one of them. → Read More