L.A.-based writer uses Winnipeg winters to her advantage

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This article was published 27/06/2024 (458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s winters, often maligned for their seemingly interminable length and bitter temperatures, have proved to be a winning combination for one Winnipegger who uses the freezing climes as inspiration to spark her creativity.

Writer Andrea Shawcross’s stories often involve women in perilous situations, and while they may not be located in the city, the born and bred Winnipegger — a J.H. Bruns graduate who attended University of Winnipeg — taps into her memories of dark moods and cold weather to highlight her characters’ inner turmoil.

“Slick ice, limited visibility when it snows, or being snowed in, plus the idea that you can freeze to death if you’re outside for too long can really add layers of danger and obstacle to a story and to a character’s pursuit of her goal,” she says.

Shawcross, originally from Southdale, has been selected as a fellow in this year’s Moonshot Pilot Accelerator, a program created by the non-profit organization Moonshot Initiative, which works towards gender equality in film and TV.

For the Moonshot program, previously known as the Women’s Weekend Film Challenge, eight emerging writers were selected out of 515 applicants. The writers were vetted by a panel of industry judges comprising showrunners, TV-series creators, high-level producers and working TV writers.

Shawcross, who is married to cinematographer David Stockton (The Stand, Westworld), will participate in Moonshot’s three-week intensive training program, during which she will learn directly from industry insiders. She will then pitch her show to a number of studios and production companies, including Netflix, HBO, Starz and Amazon Studios/Prime Video.

The writer — who has seven television movies under her belt, including Hallmark’s A Vineyard Romance (2021) and Tubi and Lifetime whodunits My Sister’s Serial Killer Boyfriend (2023) and Dying To Win (2022) — is currently based in Los Angeles’s Venice neighbourhood, but returns to Winnipeg at least once a year to visit her father.

Her latest script, Vanishing Point, one-hour drama about a promising photographer who becomes embroiled in the hunt for a serial killer who murdered her best friend, was the work that snagged her the fellowship.

Shawcross had applied to Moonshot’s Pilot Accelerator program when it was launched a few years ago with a script for a YA mystery, she says.

She made it through to the finals but stumbled at one of the last hurdles during the interview process when she had to admit she hadn’t worked out who the murderer was.

Not one to make the same mistake twice, she took her time writing her second attempt, volunteering as a script reader for Moonshot during its next program cycle while she continued work on Vanishing Point.

Armed with feedback from her first try, Shawcross honed her writing and was gratified to rise through the ranks, making it through to the finals: a personal interview conducted on Zoom.

“Thrillers have really helped me cut my teeth. I consider them my still lives. They are the basic form and they have given me a real foundation that I am now able to break out of,” she says.

”Vanishing Point is much more who I am. This year my script is a different beast. It’s more grown-up, there are higher stakes and the panel could see I have evolved as a writer and I nailed it and I got in.”

Deliberately setting the story in upstate New York because of its Winnipeg-esque weather, Shawcross kicks off the action in September 1994, when warm summer evenings give way to cooler fall mornings.

“There’s a chill in the air that makes you shiver. And since winter is just around the corner, as the show progresses, the weather will get colder and more deadly,” she says.

Her main character is from Minneapolis for the same reason.

“While I understand it’s a completely different city than Winnipeg, weather-wise, Minnesota is very similar, and I feel a kinship with people and places that understand the kind of extreme weather that Winnipeg endures each year,” she says.

Pilot Accelerator workshops started last week and Shawcross and the other finalists had to create a 10-minute pitch, which they first practised on each other before they presented to showrunners and producers.

As the writers progress through the program, each round introduces them to increasingly powerful network executives.

It’s an intense process, Shawcross admits, and one most finalists are juggling alongside their full-time jobs and commitments.

“The reality of TV and movie writing is that, a lot of it, no one is going to see it. Yes, the ultimate hope is for the pilot to be picked up but the other half of the joy is being able to talk about it with other people. It’s about meeting people, connecting with them and working with them on a creative level,” she says.

“It’s a marathon and I celebrate all the wins.”

av.kitching@winnipegfreepress.com