Jake Hotaling

Jacob K. Hotaling was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. His mother, Theresa Hotaling, works as a school counselor, while his father, Keith Hotaling, works as a Mechanical Design Supervisor. His sister, Abigail Hotaling, is pursuing a Bachelor's Degree at Springfield College. Jake's interest in cinematography began in high school as he began to pursue portrait photography. He fell in love with the idealism behind fashion photography, which lead to his creativity to be able to thrive.

Although he had early interest for cinematography, Jake attended the University of Maine in pursuits of a degree in Biomedical Engineering. In his first year and a half, Jake found incredible interest in creating "travel" videos, inspired by the creator Indy Blue Severe. He took opportunities on every trip he took, as well as events with school admissions and greek life to continue pursuing his videography passion. His sophomore year, he created his own five minute short film which then sparked & emphasized his passion for cinema, thus leading him to pursue a degree in New Media with a minor in Film/Video.

In this time period, Jake wrote and produced several short films, leading to the production of his first feature-length film. He first wrote the script and knew he wanted to bring it to life, in which he opened up auditions to the University of Maine community. Through this process, Jake directed, shot, and edited the entirety of the film, and met his extremely talented colleague, Ethan Rhoad, in the process as well. This zero-budget film accumulated over one million views on Youtube, and won four awards at the IndieFEST Festival based out of San Francisco, California. The categories won were for LGBT, Film Feature, and Lead Actor in the Merit Award category, and Lead Supporting Actress in the Recognition category.