Scott Schirmer started his pursuit of writing and filmmaking before the age of ten.  He began to receive recognition for his work in the fifth grade when he received first prize in the Courier-Journal Young Authors Awards for his short fantasy novella Prism.    

	A scene from The Gargoyle (1990)

During the same year, he also began his eight-year participation in the Association of Indiana Media Educators' annual media fair.  His multi-media presentations, Hollow Eyes (1989), The Gargoyle (1990), Anything Can Everything Will (1991) and The Gallery Surreal (1992) were awarded top honors by the organization.  In addition to receiving these awards, Mr. Schirmer was also invited to judge at the competition in 1993. 

	A scene from The Gallery Surreal (1992)

During his first year at Indiana University, Mr. Schirmer's short-subject feature Maybe the Sky is Falling won third place in the International Student Media Festival, sponsored by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology.  A year later, he received a university grant to produce his first feature-length video movie, Variations (1995). 

At IU Mr. Schirmer received excellent marks in screenwriting from the theatre department's in-house playwright Dennis Reardon.  He also received a scholarship for his work in video art, under the tutelage of Georgia Strange.

As an actor, he has appeared in high school stage productions of A Castle in the Village and Voices from the High School. 

Outside his high school and college education, Mr. Schirmer has benefited from attending the Media Workshops, a week-long seminar at the campuses of the University of California in Los Angeles and the University of Southern California.  During the seminar, he was given the opportunity to spend a day at Twentieth Century Fox, where he met with actors, producers and directors of television and movies.

When he's not working on DarWest and other motion picture projects, Mr. Schirmer can be heard on community radio WFHB as host of the film music program "Sounds of Cinema".

Be sure to check out Scott's Director's Diary, a regular feature of this site.

© 2000 Dan Dixon, Scott Schirmer, & the DarWest Team.