محل تولد
New York City , New York , USA
Mark was born in 1964 in what used to be Czechoslovakia. His love of cinema saw him at every projection in his small town cinema in Southern Moravia. Later on they would re-enact entire scenes from films with his friends in the forrest surrounding his town. In his desire to see the world Mark has joined the merchant navy at the tender age of 17. His love of cinema led him to become the ship's projectionist. As he jokingly claims it was his first film school. After five years of crisscrossing the world's oceans Mark had decided not to return to his then communist homeland and defected to Australia. Upon arriving in Sydney Mark enrolled at the North Sydney College where he studied cinematography under Terry Byrne ACS earning the best camera student award along the way. While still at school Mark got the opportunity to shoot several music videos and short films on his 16mm Arris ST which would ran out of sync ever so often. Mark joined the Australian Cinematographers Society as film student and remained a member ever since. His second short film as a DOP the "Mourning Hours" which involved dreamy underwater sequences earned him a Silver Award for short drama from the ACS. Since graduating Mark has worked extensively in all various genres of the film industry in Australia moving between music videos to short film, industrial, corporate and commercials. His first opportunity to apply his skills on a feature lengths production came four years after graduation in 1998 on an US - Australian coproduction directed by Joe Tornatore The Game Room. Mark got then approached to shoot an indie film to be shot in 13 days. Never one to shy from a challenge he developed his own lighting fixtures so he could deliver the film on time without compromising the look of the film. During the following years Mark had been behind the lens of further six indie feature films and many short films and music videos. Many of these bringing awards from film festivals and cinematographers societies around the world. He shoots music videos for Midnight Oil, George, Vandalism, Guy Sebastian, Room 11 and Local Knowledge. The last two earn him the ACS gold awards for best music video in 2006 and 2007 respectively. On one of the music videos Mark teams up with director Michael Wong and for the next ten years they criss cross the world shooting commercials for clients such as Vodafone, LG, J&B Whiskey, Nescafe, Toyota, MTV, BMW and many others. Their MTV effort earns the London Midsummer Festival Best Foreign Film award and prompts their move to Europe. In 2010 Mark gets invited by Jan Sverak, the only Czech director with two Oskars to his name to join him on a feature film entitled Kooky. The film's technique combines live action with muppets and marionettes and proved extremely difficult on several different levels. The film's schedule tripled and Mark was unable to complete the film. Vladimir Smutny had finished the film which earned the Czech Critiques main award in 2011 and a nomination for the Czech Lions. Apart from Jan Sverak, Mark worked with directors such as Vadim Perlman, Michael Petroni, Jonathan David, Kevin Smith, Michael Spiccia, Laurence Dunmore, Jonathan Herman and many others. In 2007 Mark gets accredited by the Czech Cinematographers Society and for three years sits on the presidium of the ACK. The five part docu drama "Ja Kajinek" (2017) which he lensed became the most watched documentary of the network upon its release. Mark's last feature film Standing Up For Sunny (2019) starring RJ Mitte, will premiere at Sydney Film Festival in June 2019. Mark has been awarded for his work in all different genres of the film industry, being for documentaries, commercial, music videos, corporate or feature films. AWARDS "Kooky" - Feature Film Czech Critiques Award for Best Cinematography Nomination for Czech LION for Best Cinematography Crystal Globe, The 45th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, A Special Jury Award The 42nd Ota Hofman Children Film Festival, Best Picture The Czech Film Review's Awards, Best Cinematography Czech Lion for the Best Film Editing, Best Music, Best Sound, Best Film Poster, Finale Film Festival, The Main Prize (Golden Kingfisher) for The Best Feature Film Kinodiseea Festival, Romania, Special Mention ECFA Cairo International Film Festival, Golden prize National Muzeum - TVC Bronze Lion Cannes Grand Prix Moscow Grand Prix Portoroz Shark Award Zlata Pecka Montreux Gold Golden Drum Room Eleven - Music Video Gold ACS Award (best music video) Local Knowledge - Music Video Gold ACS Award (best music video) Vanda - TVC Silver ACS Award Vodafone Nescafe Noir - TVC Highly Commended ACS Budgie Smugglers - MTV promo Midsummer's Awards London (Best Int. Production) Don't Say A Word Drama - Short Film Espiga De Oro (Jury and audience award Valladolid, Spain) Aerosol - Short Film Silver ACS Award Summer of love - TVC Highly Commended Vodafone ACS award Reach - TVC Gold Award ACS (state, national) Painting With Light In A Dark World - Documentary Best Documentary 2 AFI Awards (Australian Oscar) Golden Gate San Francisco FF Where's my Biro - Drama Best Cinematography Bay Fest Wet Dream - Drama Buzz Film Festival Best Cinematography Final Squeak - Drama Bathurst FF Mourning Hours - Drama Silver ACS Award - IMDb Mini Biography By: Mark Bliss
