Paul M. Sammon

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<p>Paul M. Sammon's distinctive career can best be described by the film industry expression "hyphenate."<p>As a writer, Sammon has published numerous articles, short stories and books. His many film journalism pieces have seen print in <em>The American Cinematographer, Cahiers du Cinema, The Los Angeles Times, Omni, Cinefex, </em>and <em>Cinefantastique. </em>Sammon's fiction has appeared in <em>Peter Straub's Ghosts </em>(1995), and he recently edited both the 1994 "dead Elvis" anthology <em>The King Is Dead </em>plus the "no limits" anthologies <em>Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror and Splatterpunks II: Over the Edge </em>(1995).<p>But Paul M. Sammon does not only write about movies--he works in them as well. He first entered the industry as a publicist in the late 1970s, before moving on as a second-unit director, special effects coordinator, still photographer, electronic press kit producer, and Vice President of Special Promotions. Some of the scores of motion pictures on which Sammon has labored include <em>RoboCop, Platoon, Blue Velvet, Conan the Barbarian, </em>and <em>The Silence of the Lambs. </em><p>By the late 1980s, Sammon was working in Japanese television, where he coproduced popular entertainment programs like <em>Hello! Movies </em>for the TV Asahi network. By the 1990s, Sammon had served as Computer Graphics Supervisor for <em>RoboCop 2; </em>he recently was Digital and Optical Effects Supervisor for 1995's <em>XTRO: Watch the Skies. </em><p>Despite this background, however, Sammon still likes nothing better than sitting down with a good movie. And <em>Blade Runner </em>remains one of his favorite films.</p>