Filmmaker Bios

Scott Dawson
Special Make-up & FX
sdawsonfx@gmail.com

Scott Dawson was born in Torrance, CA, where he later in life attended Torrance High School. After answering an internet ad seeking a special f/x artist for a feature film, Scott met directors Andy Signore and TJ Nordaker, who were filming their Troma-esque trash epic, “The Janitor”, which had a cameo from Troma Entertainment legend Lloyd Kaufman, while Scott was still in high school in 2003. A year later, he wrote, produced, and did the special F/X in the now legendary short “The Torrance Sledgehammer Massacre” with Tyson Gilmore while still in high school in 2004.

After his experience with Columbia College of Hollywood Alumni Andy Signore, Scott moved north to Los Angeles to attend the school where he met fellow Infested Films team members David Sherbrook and Sean Canfield, also bringing his friend Megan Harmon along for many of the team’s shoots. While at Columbia College Scott tried his hand at writing and directing, with the infamous short film “The Drawer” that blew away students and staff alike. During his short tenure at Columbia College Scott worked on many projects for many different filmmakers, including “The Stranger”, the girl gang short “Violent Desires”, a Joker short entitled “Birth of a Clown”, and the grindhouse short “Red Pool”, doing the special f/x on each of those films in addition to numerous other jobs.

Towards the end of his tenure at Columbia College, Scott designed and created the special f/x on David Sherbrook’s first film, the body horror short “It’ll Clear Up By Morning”. In 2007, Scott once again teamed with Andy Signore to design props and do Special F/X on “United 300”, which won the MTV Movie Award for Best Movie Spoof.

Realizing the limitations of a film school for an F/X artist, Scott left Columbia College and enrolled in the legendary Dick Smith’s Advanced Professional Make-Up Course, taught by one of the all-time greatest movie make-up men, Dick Smith, the artist responsible for the F/X in films such as “The Exorcist”, “The Godfather”, “Taxi Driver”, and “Altered States”. The course is a prolonged study of every facet of make-up and special f/x for movies, and Scott continues his education to this day.

After leaving Columbia College, Scott worked on numerous projects for Columbia College Alumni Patrick Merrick, doing the special f/x for his films “Handfuls of Dust”, “Sallow Creatures”, and “Alice Ascends”, the last of which he also did the creature design. Later in 2008, Scott met up with “Black Devil Doll” director Jonathan Lewis and did some Special F/X work on his latest short film, the giallo “Darkness of the Night”.

With the dawn of 2009 and the official formation of Infested Films, Scott began designing creatures and Special F/X for David Sherbrook’s body horror sequel “The Morning After”, which Scott also acted in and produced. Upon completion, Scott immediately started work on Sherbrook’s next short film, the supernatural thriller “Theodore”, once again working with Lloyd Kaufman, this time on screen portraying the title character, in addition to designing the character’s costume and doing the F/X for the film.

After completing these projects, Scott has been busy developing numerous other Infested Films projects, including writing his own projects which he intends to direct as well as design numerous Special F/X for the various films. Even with all of these projects on his plate, Scott still makes himself available for Special F/X work on new projects amongst the horror community, recently working on the feature film “Framed”, which is now filming in Los Angeles.

CREDITS:

Special F/X Artist:

The Janitor (2003)

The Torrance Sledgehammer Massacre (2004)

Attack of the Killer Cows (2005)

The Drawer (2005)

The Stranger (2005)

Violent Desires (2005)

Birth of a Clown (2006)

It’ll Clear Up By Morning (2006)

Red Pool (2006)

United 300 (2007)