Animator, visual effects artist, and cinematographer Pete Kozachik began collaborating with Henry Selick in 1990, and was the director of photography on the director's features James and the Giant Peach (for the stop-motion portions) and The Nightmare Before Christmas. On the latter, Mr. Kozachik was also part of the movie's visual effects team, and as such was an Academy Award nominee.
He was the cinematographer on Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton; that stop-motion project was lensed with digital SLR cameras, which had never previously been used for an animated feature.
The Michigan native began his career working as an assistant to an industrial filmmaker while studying graphic arts and physics in school in Arizona. By the time Mr. Kozachik moved to Los Angeles circa 1980, he had directed local area television news and variety shows; shot and edited documentaries for a PBS affiliate; and produced and directed commercials as well as two low-budget animated films. He has since worked on over three dozen features, including James Cameron's The Abyss and George Lucas' Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and several hundred commercials.
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