A Tribute to Mark Zarate (

A Tribute to Mark Zarate (1959-1998)

Visual effects supervisor for Lois & Clark

Mark "Oso" Zarate was the Emmy-winning Visual Effects Supervisor/Henry Artist for Lois & Clark The New Adventures of Superman from the 94/95 season to the close of the series in 1997.

Zarate's career in television began with commercial design, graphics and promos. Lois & Clark was his first venture into a weekly television series, "I really love the fact that I can supervise effects from the scripting stage through production and post," he said of his work at L&C, "but it keeps me very busy." He was often still working on the finishing touches Friday morning for an episode that would air Sunday night..

Lois finally found out that Clark wasn't lowering his glasses due to an astigmatism. Clark's x-ray beams weren't added until Mark took over as visual effects supervisor.

"We have two types of effects," he explained. "Things we do every week, like the rotoscoped blur when Superman flies at 'superspeed,' and Superman's X-ray vision; and the special little things the different villains can do, like shrink people. Each episode's villain has different effects."

"When I'm on set," he commented, "I like to free up the director to fully utilize his limited time without ever having to worry about whether an effect will work."

The time machine, doubling here as an interdimensional transport, wavers and distorts moments before it vanishes

Tim Minear, 4th season writer for the series, had a few touching comments about Mr. Zarate and they are posted here with Tim's permission:

I read with deep shock your post about Mark's death. Mark Zarate was as big hearted as he was talented. A big bear of a man, he drew people to him with his gentle nature and infectious humor.

When I met Mark during my year at Lois and Clark, we discovered that we came from the same the town -- Whittier, Ca. Mark still lived there with his family, wife and children, (he was very young, in his thirties I'm certain) and in fact some of his siblings even attended the school where my mother is the principal.

I remember when we were working on "Meet John Doe." He was like a kid at Christmas showing me the effect for the time window. I liked that guy. He'll be missed.

For more information on Mark Zarate, check out the excerpt from the UK magazine SFX

Clark spins into Superman while Lois looks on. This scene not only requires special effects for Dean to change from Clark into Superman, but also special effects to make it look as though Teri is in the same scene with Dean, even though she is not.

Below are video files that highlight some of Mark's work on Lois & Clark

Incorporeal Superman

Clark escapes his 'cage' in Don't Tug on Superman's Cape by literally turning himself into loose molecules: dtosc.rm

Spin Thing

One of the many 'day to day' type of effects Mark had to create was Clark 'spinning' into the Superman costume. One of the best scenes is where Clark finally gets his wish to do that 'spin thing' in front of Lois in Tempus Fugitive: tf1.rm

Morphing Taz

Ever get the feeling you were being watched? Well, in Virtually Destroyed, even movie posters couldn't be trusted: vd.rm

Shadow Man

One of my favorite Zarate effects was the menacing 'shadow man' from Shadow of a Doubt: soad.rm

Nightmare Time Window

In Meet John Doe, Clark is plagued by nightmares of losing Lois through Tempus' Time Window: mjd.rm

Vision Gizmos

Clark could cook breakfast, x-ray, magnify objects, and all with only his puppy dog eyes. Enjoy a montage of 'vision gizmo' effects: vgizmo.rm

Extra

When Dean's episode, Virtually Destroyed was being filmed, EXTRA visited the set and spoke to Dean and Mark Zarate about various special effects the episode required: extravd.rm

The Real Player option for video viewing

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Acknowledgments

I'd like to thank Andrea Gidusko for making the video files. Anne Ciotola for providing the EXTRA footage. Georgia Walden for providing the SFX article, and Di Kidd for providing the Hollywood Reporter's obituary mention of Mark. Thanks too to Tim for sharing his memories of Mark.