After graduating from Emerson College in 2014 with a BA in Film Production, Taylor Meacham started his career on the production management side of animation at DreamWorks. Thanks to a newly implemented shorts program, he was offered an opportunity to pitch To: Gerard, a story about a postal worker who dreams of being a magician, and a young girl, Jules, who infuses that dream with magic. Here, Meacham discusses imaginative spins, working with industry experts, and the relationship between magic and storytelling.
How did you make the leap from production to writing and directing your own short film?
I had this idea I’d been sitting on for a short film. With all the changeups at DreamWorks, I thought, let me take some time to write this out. If I have an opportunity to pitch, I’ll take it. I figured there was nothing to lose. It was something I felt really comfortable and passionate about, and I just wanted to see what would happen. There’s no failing in that… There was a little opening at the end of all the pitches, and I was the last person to squeeze in there. As luck would have it, they ended up taking it. It pivoted the whole career trajectory at DreamWorks for me.
To: Gerard is a love letter to your father because he encouraged you to follow your dreams even when he wasn’t able to follow his own.
I had the pieces of this idea for a while. The magician, the post office—but I didn’t know what it was about. I remember when it kind of dawned on me: Oh, no, you’re circling this because of how you feel about your father’s situation. I sat down and quickly wrote the outline, and I remember crying as I was writing. This little pocket of something inside of me was starting to come out.
My dad’s life took a hard pivot when he had kids. He was the guy who rode motorcycles and went parasailing. He had to reassess what his role in life was, and he found this great joy in being a dad. I think I can speak for him, that his greatest gift in life is being a father… In the same way that To: Gerard encourages the cyclical nature of paying it forward, it’s also about paying it backward. My dad is a photographer at heart. My sister and I [pay it] backward and encourage him to go out there and take pictures. We encourage his artistic self.
Who inspired the role of the little girl Jules?
I am the middle child of many sisters, and my little sister’s name is Juliana, so that’s why she’s called Jules. My mom is of Hispanic descent, so we tried to put in a little bit of that too. Honestly, with everything in this short, I tried to put the people I love wherever I could. And also the love and care I have for all my siblings and for what I hope they can achieve.
Specifically for the magic—you don’t see a ton of women in magic. It was important to me, if we were going to have a child that grew up and became a magician, that it was a little girl.
There are times in the film when the Post Office feels like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory: a place of enchantment. What made you choose this everyday place for your magical setting?
I’ve always found I had an attraction to stories that are 10 degrees off reality. It’s familiar, but there’s been enough things that are tweaked. Chocolate factories exist, but not like Willy Wonka’s. And the post office—I was fascinated, and as a kid, I would always get excited when bills would be delivered, because I’d want a letter for myself. That’s part of why I held onto wanting [To: Gerard] to be in a post office, and then putting that slightly imaginative spin on it.
For you, what do storytelling and magic have in common?
I think good magic includes good storytelling. A great illusion, a great magic trick, is fun, but if you can get someone invested in the illusion, in making the coin disappear—what is the story behind it, what does it make them feel? A lot of magicians approach their magic like that. Telling stories about themselves and their childhoods. And to tell good stories, you have to have a little bit of magic.
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