About
Michael Dinetz was born and raised in the suburb of Cherry Hill, located in southern New Jersey. Michael has always had a passion for art, whether it be sculpture, painting, drawing, or even cooking. For most of his early life, he dreamt of a career in animation. As it neared time to attend college, he saw the animation industry changing direction toward computer-generated graphics work. Having little interest in this direction, Michael switched tracks and pursued a degree in industrial design at the Art Institute of Philadelphia.
In his second term at the Art Institute, Michael discovered special make-up effects, a discovery that would change his life forever. Upon graduation from the Art Institute, degree in hand, Michael left the east coast for Hollywood. There he would attend the Joe Blasco make-up school with the goal of expanding his knowledge of make-up and special make-up effects. After intensive study at the Joe Blasco school, coupled with private research and study outside of class, Michael graduated, and dove head first into a successful career as a Hollywood make-up and effects artist.
Michael has worked steadily in various aspects of make-up and effects since starting his career, often department heading the projects that he works on. That work has ranged from small commercials and TV pilots to film work that has taken him halfway around the world to China. In 2004, Michael chose to form a small special make-up effects company, which would eventually become Haunted Dreams Effects Studio, a full service make-up and effects company capable of handling projects anywhere in the world. Since that time, Michael has also worked on the first Chinese made sci-fi creature film, an innovative Taiwanese animatronic puppet TV show, and several Hong Kong action films. Projects of particular note include Ghost of the Imperial Palace, a psychological horror film shot on location in China, for legendary filmmaker Roger Corman, Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (the 9th installment of the super popular Puppet Master series from Full Moon Entertainment), FOX's TV series Sleepy Hollow, NBC’s Grimm, Kanye West’s Music Video “Famous”, indie scifi epic Space Command: Redemption, Netflix’s Lost in Space show, and Avengers: Infinity Wars, through Spectral Motion, as well as work for Walt Disney Imagineering, and work done for Star Trek: Picard. A cursory IMDb search will reveal a multitude of other credits.
Michael brings a unique blend of artistic skill, technical knowledge, material proficiency, and integrity to this craft, constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, especially in low budget film, and what can be achieved on a tight schedule.