Mark Cotta Vaz (born September 16, 1954, in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

) is an American author, editor and film historian. He has authored over thirty books, including four ''New York Times'' bestsellers. He has focused on documenting film special effects and other behind-the-scenes aspects of visual presentation. He has written about these aspects for both ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' and ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has expanded into vari ...

''. He has produced a number of movie companion books, such as those for ''

The Spirit The Spirit is a fictional masked crimefighter created by cartoonist Will Eisner. He first appeared June 2, 1940, as the main feature of a 16-page, tabloid (paper size), tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book insert distributed in the Sunday editio ...

'', '' Beautiful Creatures'' and four for the ''

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...

'' series. ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' said about his biography of

Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893 – April 21, 1973) was an American filmmaker and Academy Award winner, as well as a former aviator who served as an officer in the United States Air Force and Polish Air Force. In film, he is credited a ...

: ''The charismatic Cooper, "a man living his own movie," is no longer an obscure, remote figure, thanks to Vaz's exhaustive research and skillful writing.''

Selected works

* (1995) ''From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the LucasFilm Archives'' co-authored with Shinji Hata * (1996) ''Industrial Light & Magic: Into the Digital Realm'' co-authored with Patricia Rose Duignan * (2002) ''The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting'' co-authored with

Craig Barron Craig Barron (born April 6, 1961)According to the State of California. ''California Birth Index, 1905–1995''. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. Searchable aMyHeritage/ref> is an Ameri ...

* (2002) ''

The Art of Star Wars ''The Art of Star Wars'' is a series of books by various editors featuring concept art from the '' Star Wars'' motion picture saga. The books mainly feature artwork accompanied by a short explanation of the scene and the artist's ideas, but also ...

: Episode II: Attack of the Clones'' * (2005) ''Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper, Creator of King Kong'' a ''Los Angeles Times'' bestseller * (2006) ''Mythic Vision: The Making of Eragon'' * (2008) ''The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion'' * (2009) ''Star Trek – The Art of the Film'' * (2009) ''New Moon: The illustrated companion to the movie based on the second book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight vampire romance series.'' A ''New York Times'' bestseller. * (2010) ''The Inheritance Almanac: An A-to-Z Guide to the World of Eragon'' co-authored with Michael Macauley * (2012) ''Batmobile: The Complete History'' * (2013) ''Beautiful Creatures: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion'' * (2014) ''Godzilla: The Art of Destruction'' * (2014) ''Interstellar: Beyond Time and Space''

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotta Vaz, Mark American film historians American male non-fiction writers 1954 births Living people