Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1514626
8 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4 C O N T R I B U T O R S M A R K R I C K E R grew up in Colorado and North Carolina, where he began designing community theater and college productions. He discovered the Art Department in between handing out hot dogs to ballfield extras in Bull Durham while studying English at UNC-Chapel Hill. In due order, Mark was interning for set decorator Jan Pascale and designer Tom Walsh on the original film version of The Handmaid's Tale in 1989. Production Designer David Gropman hired him to hold the other end of a tape measure, which led to further propping and set dressing gigs on Once Around, Passion Fish and The Last of the Mohicans. During a truce on a blackened mountaintop battlefield, Mark began application to NYU-Tisch and received an MFA in scenic design in 1995. As a Set Designer and Art Director, Mark again worked for David Gropman, as well as Mark Friedberg and Jess Goncher on The Shipping News, Kate & Leopold and Far From Heaven. Ricker has since designed over 35 projects for film and television—including Rustin, Bombshell, Snatched, Get on Up, The Judge, The Way Way Back, The Nanny Diaries, The Hoax, Prime, Sunshine State and The Ballad of Jack & Rose. He has received five nominations by the Art Directors Guild—for period projects Julie & Julia, The Help, Trumbo, Halston and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom—and three Emmy nominations for Halston, You Don't Know Jack and Ben Stiller's acclaimed limited series Escape at Dannemora. He received an Academy Award nomination for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 2021. Mark's latest project is Capote vs. The Swans, the second season of Feud for Ryan Murphy Productions— directed by Gus Van Sant. He lives in New York City. S H A E S H AT Z Shae is a Senior Illustrator in the Art Directors Guild, Local 800. He resides in the Los Angeles area and has been a professional designer since 2007. Shae graduated from Art Center College in Pasadena, California. He received a bachelor of science in product design with distinction. After some time in automotive studios, he relocated to Seattle to pursue his passion for making video games, working internally at 343 Industries. He enjoys developing stories that move audiences for film and games. When he is not in the office, Shae enjoys traveling, teaching and spending time with his family. Clients: Marvel Studios, Disney, Netflix, Sony, Lionsgate, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, 343 Industries, Monolith Productions, Honda R&D Americas, Audi Design Center, WB Interactive, Pubg and Midway Videogames. R YA N WA R R E N S M I T H is a Production Designer who grew up enamored by movies. When he was 7-years-old, he got a VHS copy of Stand By Me for Christmas and played it over and over. He grew up in Tempe, AZ, where he loved laughing with friends, skateboarding and making amateur movies. He went to one semester of film school at a local Arizona community college before deciding to travel instead. He spend the next few years traveling and working odd jobs along the way before landing in Los Angeles, where he lived in a tent in his brother's backyard while working as a production assistant. Things changed when he became a personal assistant to music video director Wayne Isham, who pushed him to jump into the Art Department. Ryan then started as an art PA, before working his way up, working as a on-set dresser, propmaster, scenic, art coordinator, and Art Director before moving up to Production Design. Ryan moved to Oregon to get married and two years later, landed his first Production Design job on a film, Wendy and Lucy. From there he worked other small films until Green Room opened up his career to bigger budget projects. He lives happily with his wife, Kate, and two kids, Sunny and Jade, in Portland, Oregon.