As a child, once you start crafting words into some kind of readable ramblings, you never know where writing might take you.
For Canmore’s Meaghan Hotz, early writings in school led to an early book, writing throughout school, a high school play, work with local mentors, graduation from the Vancouver Film School (VFS) and in October, a stage in Hollywood where she and a production team claimed a Golden Skull Award for Best Short at the annual Screamfest.
Screamfest began in 2001 as an outlet and showcase for horror/science fiction filmmakers and writers.
Within that genre and while attending VFS, Hotz wrote the seven-minute The Little Mermaid, which was entered as a Screamfest candidate by director Nicholas Humphries.
As you might expect, a Screamfest version of Mermaid differs from the popular Disney animated children’s offering of 1989.
“It’s loosely based on the movie,” said Hotz, who graduated from VFS in August. “But it’s a pretty dark adaptation about a pscyho princess. It’s a dark fantasy, not a slasher film.
“The idea was of a mermaid in a freak show; being held captive. There were similarities to the movie, that’s what they liked about it. The ending is bittersweet.”
The synopsis for the $1,500 budget The Little Mermaid reads: In a barren wasteland lies a circus tent. Inside, a ringmaster forces a mermaid to perform for a group of spectators. The mermaid, a lovesick, caged animal, prays for release from her torture. Unwilling to surrender his meal ticket, the ringmaster rejects her pleas for compassion. With nowhere to escape to, the mermaid must make the choice between holding onto the hope of freedom and putting an end to her abuse.
The international Screamfest is one of the largest of the genre, said Hotz, “and they don’t usually accept student films. They turned down shorts by some big names, so it was an honour.
“We were all surprised. It’s the first time VFS got one into that festival. It was shot while I was at school in an old museum and was set in a circus tent.”
The Little Mermaid, which was chosen as one of four to be entered by students and alumni of the school, featured VFS acting grads Trevor Gemma and Jovanna Huguet and a supporting cast. Humphries taught a web series class at VFS.
At VFS, Hotz studied writing for film and television, which included shorts, sketch comedy, genre studies, sci-fi, video games and comics. “Going to school there is great,” she said, “better than I thought it would be.”
And, while her Golden Skull is a career highlight thus far (“it looks good on the resume”), while home for Christmas, Hotz said she realizes how much community support meant to her.
Her first mentor was Lawrence Grassi Middle School teacher Carol McTavish, who was impressed by Hotz’s writing of Lunar Defenders when she was 11 and took it upon herself to approach the Soroptimists about a scholarship.
That led to Camp Kiwanis writing summers camps for seven years, where she wrote with many others.
At Canmore Collegiate High School, drama teacher Sabrina Harper supported and encouraged Hotz to write a play which drama classes performed.
In the local arts community, Hotz has worked on illustrations of Spinechillers audio books for Alexander Finbow of Renegade Arts Entertainment and during Grade 10, worked with Oscar-nomainted Tab Murphy, who wrote Brother Bear and wrote and directed Last of the Dogman.
“That’s (working with Murphy) when I realized screenwriting was actually a job,” said Hotz. “I’ve always loved writing, but in a visual sense, like movies, and VFS offers screenwriting as a course.”
Community support, said Hotz’s mom Lee Ann DeCoteau, was huge while her daughter was in school. “The Soroptimists are wonderful, they promote young women in the community and as a single mom, I couldn’t send her to camps, so that kind of support was amazing.”
Now 19, Hotz is living in Vancouver while working at a Starbucks outlet, writing shorts and compendium projects and speaking with production companies as to future writing projects.
Among her recent projects are shorts of Jabberwocky, Zombies in Oz, Yellow Brick Road and No Place Like Home; post apocalyptic Alice in Wonderland offerings.
The director of Jabberwocky, she said, worked on the last X Files movie. “There’s a lot of movie and TV work in Vancouver and VFS grads are in a good position that work.”
