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A VFX clapperboard and script from the production of Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. Both originate from the collection of Academy Award®-winning special visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson, who received a BAFTA® nomination for Best Special Effects among several other prestigious awards and nominations for his groundbreaking work on the film.

This lot consists of one clapperboard with pink, yellow, and black tape adhered to the back; and one 129-page script dated August 1995 credited to Besson with revisions by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen within a blue folder. The clapperboard exhibits a chip in the lower right corner as well as chipped paint. Dimensions: (largest) 12.5" x 9.5" x 1.25" (32 cm x 24 cm x 3 cm)

About Mark Stetson

Visual effects maestro Mark Stetson's singular run in Hollywood began in 1978. After graduating from the prestigious Art Center College of Design, he immediately began a position as an effects props and miniatures artist for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, for which his responsibilities included building such memorable vessels as the workbee, the Constitution-class shuttlebay, and a studio model of the Enterprise itself. After filming concluded, Stetson continued working as a modelmaker, and later model shop supervisor, for Entertainment Effects Group (EEG), hand-making miniatures and other groundbreaking optical effects for acclaimed productions like Blade Runner, Ghostbusters, and Brainstorm under founder Douglas Trumbull.

By 1989, following a stint as model shop supervisor for Richard Edlund's Boss Film Corporation - including positions on such blockbuster productions as Die Hard and Poltergeist II, among numerous others - Stetson had founded his own effects company, Stetson Visual Services, Inc. Over the next 35-plus years SVSI became known for producing pioneering effects sequences for dozens of hit films, running the gamut from action classics like Total Recall, Waterworld, and The Fifth Element to acclaimed franchise installments like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and Superman Returns to cult comedies like Coneheads and The Hudsucker Proxy. Stetson's work in this period earned him three Academy Award nominations (and one win), two BAFTAs, and the Visual Effects Society Awards' Founders Award for innovations in the field.

Today, Propstore is proud to offer a hand-picked selection of memorabilia from the personal collection of this once-in-a-generation talent. Accumulated over nearly five decades in cinema, these lots represent a wide range of production materials, including ornately detailed model miniatures, hand-drawn artwork, and rare behind-the-scenes photographs, as well as Stetson's own production paperwork and crew gifts. Stretching across different eras, genres, and styles of production, the Mark Stetson Collection is nothing short of a testament to one of the world's most successful and imitated living visual effects artists.