The company was formed in 1979 by partners Kent Shelton, Robin Wood, Richard "Dikki" Ellis, R. Vincent Park, Taso N. Stavrakis, and Stephen "Omms" Ommerle.
He instead took an opportunity to create special makeup effects for He Knows You're Alone, an early thriller by Armand Mastroianni (and incidentally Tom Hanks's first feature film), with whom Stavrakis would work again on the 2006 cinematic adaptation of The Celestine Prophecy.