I first met Shannon in an acting class. What caught my attention about her was her smile and quirkiness. Of course she was talented and as an actor she took risks as actors should. We got to talking and ended up exchanging emails & cell numbers, promising each other that one day we’ll work together. That came to pass when I was casting for a short film I wrote & was going to direct called “Scared Stiff”. Shannon accepted the role of the teacher “Ms. Prosser”. There was a scene where the Principal character, another teacher, and Shannon’s character meet and stop to have a chat before the 9 AM bell rings. It was a last minute thought I had, and since I knew from the acting class that she was great at improv, I asked her to lead the way and see if it would work, which it did, and it’s in the film. She was on a roll. As we filmed one of the class sequences Shannon did what Shannon did best. Her character gets called to the principal’s office and as she leaves, she looks over at the kids and added the line: “Try not to burn down the classroom while I’m gone”. It was brilliant. That line and that take are in the final film.

I had written a western called CALICO in 2014 and I contacted Shannon to be in it. That was in July of last year. We were scheduled to shoot in October and as the shooting date approached I was having difficulty getting normal responses I was used to getting from Shannon in the past. I even asked my dad to contact her, which he did, but he hit the same brick wall I did. Then, out of the blue, Shannon messaged me from Edmonton telling me she was editing the 2014 Calgary Comic Expo footage for the 2015 video promo and that my question to actor Bruce Campbell was going to be in the video promo. Of all the footage taken by the Calgary Expo people Shannon made sure that this footage was going to be in the video promo. I thanked her for thinking of me like that and that was the last communication I had with her.

When I heard that Shannon was missing my heart sunk and I prayed that she was somewhere safe and she would return. As the months went by I often thought of her and talked about her with my parents, especially my dad, who attended every acting class I was in and was the cinematographer for “Scared Stiff”. He really thought that Shannon was a great actress and would one day make it in this crazy biz, as did I. Then we heard the news of her body being recovered and her husband being charged with her murder. I had feared that would be the case, as the months went by and we still had no word about Shannon’s whereabouts or safety.

I’ve never lost a close friend before, I can’t put into words the pain and sorrow I feel, and I can only imagine what her family is going through. I can never watch “Scared Stiff” again, with all these thoughts going through my head, knowing that my friend and colleague Shannon Madill was taken from us by a brutal and senseless act. I’ll always remember the woman she was, how good of a friend she was to me, and how she took me seriously as a filmmaker despite my age, qualities which I’ll never get to thank her for.

Shannon will forever be in my thoughts and my prayers, and I hope that we meet again one day. Brandon Watson