Scott Essman, a 45-year-old individual with a passion for motion picture craftsmanship and Hollywood history, has been actively involved in writing and producing projects since his university days at the University of Southern California in the mid-1980s.
By 1989, Essman had established Visionary Cinema in New York, a company dedicated to creating multi-media projects. Later that year, he relocated to Los Angeles and assembled a team of writers, directors, and craftspeople to work on his projects.
In February 1996, Essman and his team documented a weekend-long creature effects film titled Wolvy, which was eventually transformed into a 24-minute documentary. The same year, he created his first special live event, a tribute to the renowned makeup artist, Dick Smith.
The following years saw Essman continue to host tribute events, including A Tribute to John Chambers and Planet of the Apes, hosted by Roddy McDowall in 1997, and A Tribute to The Wizard of Oz in 1998, which doubled in attendance each year.
In June 2000, Essman brought together 16 actors, along with a team of production designers, lighting designers, makeup artists, and costume designers, to create Jack Pierce: The Man Behind The Monsters (2002),a staged multi-media play accompanied by a 48-page commemorative program.
Essman's work extended to other notable events, including a tribute to silent film star Lon Chaney at Universal Studios' CityWalk in 2004, and a tribute to the Westmores of Hollywood at the Monsterpalooza convention in Burbank, CA, in 2009. These events are now available on Amazon.com.
In addition to his live events, Essman has also written and directed several films and TV pilots, including Ten Men on the Field, released in spring 2011, and Potluck, released in fall 2011.
Furthermore, Essman has won several awards for his work, including the Rondo Award for Best Feature Film Commentary for his work on the Legacy Set of Universal's The Mummy (1932 version) in 2008.
Throughout his career, Essman has published over 500 articles about people who work behind-the-scenes in movies, and he currently teaches mass media, filmmaking, and digital video editing at the University of La Verne, The Art Institute of California, and California Polytechnic State University, Pomona.
