By Emily Milling
Meet April Etmanski, actor, colourist, foley artist and overall superstar for Impossible Horror which premieres at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival on October 16, 2017 at 9:30 p.m. She also happens to be one of my closest friends and a seriously awesome creative collaborator. April and I met in high school and acted in Fiddler on the Roof together in grade 11. We also made films together, including our pinnacle piece, an adapted version of Macbeth. Since then we’ve worked on different projects both together and apart, and we had the chance to work on Impossible Horror together over the last two years. April made a huge difference and was a constant cheerleader for the film, encouraging Justin and myself to keep working and get it done. Now, we’re planning a short film that will go into production in 2018.
So, what does it take to be an all-around talented film superstar? I had an interview with April Etmanski about her processes and ideas to find out.
E: April! How’s it going?
A: Very well, thanks.
E: Thanks for taking part in this interview!
A: No problem!
E: Some (me) might say that you’re one of the most crucial elements that brought Impossible Horror to life. You were part of the concept, the crowdfunding campaign, the pre-production, production, post-production and here you are in the final stretch as we start promoting the film talking about your experience. What was it about this project that compelled you to be involved and stick it out?
A: I found everything to be very exciting! I had very little experience with film productions before this. Working in the post world, I never really got to be involved in pre-production or shooting on-set. Making a movie with my friends seemed like such a fun way to spend my off-hours. Also, getting the chance to be involved with the creative process was such a thrill. Whether lending a hand on set or being involved with post sound and colour, I enjoyed every minute of it.
E: And what does the film mean to you?
A: Impossible Horror is a project that I am immensely proud of. I always tried to be a positive influence during the process, offering help and bringing optimism wherever I could. I think the end product turned out so well and I know that is because everyone involved came together with their best work.
[bctt tweet=”Everyone involved came together with their best work. #ImpossibleHorror @apriletmanski” username=”canmakep”]
E: You were both an actor and a production assistant on set. What was your experience like with both? How did you balance them?
A: On the days where I was acting, I tried my best to also be a production assistant as well. Sometimes it’s helping set up a scene, sometimes it’s just offering an opinion. Being a PA often means being ready to help with anything at any moment, and also when to stay out of the way. 🙂
E: And how was it to work with a small team on this film?
A: I liked working with a small crew a lot because it allowed me to observe the process. Being behind the camera while the cinematographer (Aidan) did his thing was pretty cool. We were also all friends, so the crew got along very well.
E: Moving into post-production you were involved in both the visual and audio elements of the film. Can you talk a bit about the different things you did for the film in post?
A: I did the colour correction and performed as a foley artist.
E: How did you come up with the style for the colour of the film?
A: The director (Justin Decloux) shot the film exactly the way he wanted it to look. Most of the film has these amazing moody shadows over everything, with rich greens and yellows popping up all over. So the look was already set. My job became just enhancing the look so the shadows were really dark but the colours still popped. It was also really fun because this was the first horror movie I have ever coloured. So I got to experiment with making the gory scenes look especially gross by adding green and blue tones.
E: And what was the process like working with Justin on the finishing touches?
A: Great! Once the look was set he pretty much let me do the whole movie. Very few revisions.
[bctt tweet=”We needed to duplicate walking on a metal surface, so we ended up using muffin trays. #ImpossibleHorror” username=”canmakep”]
E: Can you talk about the process for the foley work you did? How did you come up with some of the sounds?
A: For most of the sounds I foleyed we just tried to duplicate what was happening onscreen. So for the forest scenes we brought a bunch of dried leaves into the house. If I had to foley a character stumbling and falling, I would just do that in front of the mic. However, sometimes we had to get creative. We needed to duplicate walking on a metal surface, so we ended up using muffin trays. We also had one patio stone and that really came in handy! A small handful of gravel on that stone gave just the right crunchy sound for a lot of the footsteps.
E: And your ability to walk in time with the action in the scene is like some hidden talent I’ve never seen before, have you done footsteps before? How do you step in time with the action so well?
A: I did foley for a few projects in college. There’s no secret to it. You just have to look at the action a few times and then do your best to match it. I guess I just love performing. I love dancing and things that involve movement. For Impossible Horror, I just went for it! It was so much fun.
E: Thematically this film deals with a lot of creative blocks. What’s your strategy for overcoming creative blocks? Did you face any while you worked on the film?
A: For me, I often have a hard time getting started. I procrastinate. But once I’m going, I can work for hours and get into the zone. I think it’s important to have a support system of people who encourage you to be creative. I think that helped with Impossible Horror. Our team was game every night.
E: Thanks, April! You’re a superstar!
A: Thanks! So are you!
TORONTO INDIE FILM IMPOSSIBLE HORROR TO HAVE WORLD PREMIERE AT TORONTO AFTER DARK FILM FESTIVAL
Two women search for the source of a sinister scream each night while challenging creative demons in this original horror story.
Toronto, October 3, 2017 – Independent filmmaker and Toronto resident Justin Decloux (Teddy Bomb, 2014) will be premiering his second feature film, Impossible Horror, at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival on October 16, 2017, 9:30 p.m. at the Scotiabank Theatre in downtown Toronto. The screening will include a Q&A with cast and crew of the film, which was produced and shot in Toronto.
In Impossible Horror, Lily (Haley Walker), an insomniac filmmaker who is facing a crippling creative block, begins to hear a sinister scream outside her window every night. Convinced that she must find a way to help the person that is screaming, Lily heads into the darkness of her neighborhood and meets Hannah (Creedance Wright), a veteran scream hunter, obsessed with putting a stop to the nightly occurrence. The women join forces to solve the bloodcurdling mystery and quickly discover that its true source may be an otherworldly threat that is driving its victims into madness – and Lily and Hannah are next.
Original and inventive, Decloux explores the pain and frustrations of creative blocks in this horror allegory. Through Lily and Hannah’s pursuit of answers and inspiration in a world where creative resources are scarce, this story invites us to imagine the monsters we conjure ourselves, coming to life.
“The need to create gnaws at me, forces me to put pen to paper – I wanted to make a film about that struggle,” says Decloux. “But what if the passion was stoked by something external, something unknowable, something that could drive you insane? Something you had to catch.”
Impossible Horror is Justin Decloux’s second feature film as a Writer/Director and the first under his production company CANMAKE Productions which produces independent genre films in Toronto, co-founded by Producer/Composer Emily Milling.
“To have the opportunity to work on a story that reflects my own experiences as a creative person told through the lens of female characters, legitimizes my creative ambitions,” says Emily Milling, Producer. “My goal for this film was not just to help tell a great and original story, but also to empower other creative women with on-screen examples of ingenuity and problem solving uninhibited by any need to have the characters rely on male intervention, and I think we achieved that.”
Impossible Horror was Written by Justin Decloux and Nate Wilson, Directed by Justin Decloux and Produced by Emily Milling and Nate Wilson. Cast includes Haley Walker, Creedance Wright, April Etmanski, Alex Chung, Adelina Pipher and Aleks Vujosevic. Director of Photography is Aidan Tanner, Editor is Justin Decloux and Composer is Emily Milling. Produced through CANMAKE Productions. Executive Producers Lindsey Boehme and Brooklyn Boehme.
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Contact:
Emily Milling/Justin Decloux
Media Contact
647-394-6411
[email protected]/[email protected]
About CANMAKE Productions
CANMAKE Productions is an independent film production company in Toronto, Ontario. Focusing on genre narrative films, the company tells stories that are original, unique and character driven.
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By Jonny Bunning – Bloody Disgusting
It’s been a while since we last heard from indie Canadian title Impossible Horror, that successfully met their crowdfunding goal back in July 2015. The silence has been broken but a goo spluttering one sheet from Alabean ART.
Read original on Bloody Disgusting.
I’ve just finished the Impossible Horror Score. That was a seriously bumpy ride. I’m not even sure how I got to this point, but I’m actually, doing the final touches on my mixes and getting everything ready to be mastered.
If you asked me six months ago, whether I thought I’d ever make it to this stage, I probably would have laughed, then cried, then curled up in the corner whispering to myself about the principles of compression and why I can’t figure it out to save my life. But eight months ago, I couldn’t wait to sink my teeth in and get started.
I started compiling reference tracks in my head and on my various devices that I’d listen to constantly. I sat in cafes trying to break down structural elements from my favourite pieces, trying to figure out why I loved them so much. On my daily drive to work I played the Stranger Things OST so many times I got sick of listening to it.
Eventually I settled on a tone that would be the roadmap of my aural journey. It was a mix of Mark Korven’s “The Witch”, Tangerine Dream’s “Risky Business” and Disasterpiece’s “It Follows”. Other influences like John Carpenter, Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein, and Cliff Martinez fleshed out the rest of the tonal beats.
And then I sat down to write the Impossible Horror Score.
Let me paint a picture for you. I was working a very demanding full-time job at the time, and I also wanted to do the sound mix which seemed like it would be easy (HA! Oh dear… past Emily, you silly goose), and since I had written the score for Teddy Bomb previously I was totally convinced that I’d spend a month, tops, writing the score for Impossible Horror. I also thought that all the sound would be done by summertime and we’d absolutely make the deadline to get into festivals like Fantasia, Fantastic Fest, you name it.
What actually happened was we had to submit the film with half original score, half temp music.
But I digress.
After a few failed attempts at writing a title track I eventually landed on something that felt visceral and powerful. I could see myself sitting in a theatre with an audience, hearing that track, feeling the intensity it would bring to the start of the film. WHAT A GREAT MOMENT. Obviously it freaked me out so much that everything I wrote after the title track basically paled in comparison and nothing felt right.
So I kept researching while I tried to write/mix/work full-time/do everything else that humans do, and it stumped me hard. Whether this was just something I had to go through or a job well done by my ADHD brain, I don’t know. I have at least three versions of 32 different cues sitting on my computer now, because literally nothing was sticking. Either it felt too rushed or too slow, too bass heavy or to flimsy and useless.
Every couple of weeks I’d manage to crank out a track that did sound good though, and we’d hastily rush to put whatever new music was available on the next export to send out to festivals. The movie suffered for it, I think.
I wanted to quit almost every single day.
About four months in I hit my threshold of work and frustration and stress with the film. No music would come out anymore and I had to force myself to sit in front of the computer and make horrible noises with endless freeware synths I’d download to make myself feel like I had some sort of advantage over the creative block beast.
I listened to Love on a Real Train on repeat trying to figure out why it was so good. I read interviews with screen composers to understand their work process, knowing full well that theirs would never work for me. I also cursed Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein for being so flippant about the silver platter that Stranger Things was handed to them on. I was mad I didn’t have a hardware synth to keep me focused, that I made my options too broad and that I couldn’t find the right sounds.
I wish I could tell you that there was an aha moment where things just clicked and I finally figured out my secret sauce that led me to finishing the Impossible Horror score. If I had, I would have shared it with you so that everyone could write awesome horror film scores. But that moment never came. The moment that did finally come where I felt relief, was realizing I had 16 solid tracks I could press on vinyl, that sounded like a complete album. Everything finally flowed and was cohesive.
And I learned a hard lesson about creativity. No matter how hard you try to push ideas and notes through the synapses of your creatively constipated brain, nothing will happen unless you sit down and force yourself to do it.
Here’s a list of reference tracks for the Impossible Horror score:
Or you can just listen to the playlist on Spotify. I’ll probably add to it as I remember more tracks.
Here’s a list of freeware synths/VSTs I used to create the music for Impossible Horror:
A semi-modular VST that can create killer soundscapes and SFX. You can get a souped up freeware version if you buy Computer Music Magazine issue 191.
An emulation of OB-X, OB-Xa and OB-X8 synths, sounds like an 80s action movie and has a lot of punch.
A Roland JX-8P emulator with really great vintage sounds, excellent soft bells and versatility.
A free version of the Reaktor Blocks, comes with a cool, programmable sequencer and a lot of really bizarre presets.
The “kid sister” of Reaktor’s “Prism” with about 70 rad presets, makes for some really excellent warped sounds.
The not-so-free VSTs/Programs I used to create the music for Impossible Horror:
You can do a lot with the Intro version, but Suite comes with Operator and Tension which I used a lot. This version also lets you work with a video track in your session which is instrumental (ha!) in composing for film in my opinion.
This actually came with my MPK Mini mkII, but since that’s a very decent starter midi controller you may want to check it out and get the two VSTs that come with it.
Hardware
Bonus fact: I used a couple of pencils and my desk to do a lot of the percussive work. I am a terrible drummer so I quantized the rhythms that were most in time with the beat, then I layered on thick reverb and delay.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
INDIE FILM IMPOSSIBLE HORROR ACHIEVES $7000 CROWDFUNDING GOAL IN FINAL HOURS OF CAMPAIGN
Independent filmmakers Justin Decloux, Emily Milling and Nate Wilson prepare to go into production after close of successful campaign.
July 5, 2015 Toronto, Canada – In a dash to the finish line, Toronto indie film Impossible Horror achieved its crowdfunding goal of $7000, surpassing it with a total of $7290. The film is currently in pre-production, and will begin production on July 17, 2015.
“This is the outcome we were hoping for, successfully raising over $7000 is going to make this project possible.” says director/writer Justin Decloux.
Donors rushed to contribute in the final hours of the campaign. One contributor, Edmonton, Alberta native Lindsey Boehme, kicked in $1000 with six hours to spare. Boehme will be credited as an executive producer, joining her sister Brooklyn Leigh Boehme who also contributed $1000 to the campaign.
“We have a lot of people to thank for this, it really takes a community to rally around an idea and bring it to life.” says producer Emily Milling. “So many of our friends and family stepped up to the plate and encouraged their networks to get involved – we couldn’t have done this without them!”
The funds were raised on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Thanks to the successful raise, the campaign has now moved into the “In Demand” category, allowing for more contributions. Donors can receive perks exclusive to this campaign, including a special edition blu-ray with commentaries, a making-of featurette and more.
Synopsis
Every night a scream rings out in the same neighbourhood. Two insomniac strangers, Lily the filmmaker and Hannah the game designer, head out together into the darkness to find the cause. Is it a psychotic killer claiming a new victim? A murderous ghost out for revenge? A flesh eating monster? All of the above with extra chainsaws? Before they know it, Lily and Hannah have gone from being the scream hunters to the scream prey and an evil force wants them dead. If they can both survive the night, they may just find the answers they’re looking for, but the price will have to be paid in sanity and blood.
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Contact:
Justin Decloux
[email protected]
647-294-6411
About CANMAKE Productions
CANMAKE Productions is an independent film production company in Toronto, Ontario. Focusing on genre narrative films, the company tells stories that are original, unique and character driven.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES FOR THE FEATURE LENGTH HORROR FILM IMPOSSIBLE HORROR
Indie film production team Justin Decloux and Emily Milling set out to tell an original horror story.
Toronto, Canada, June 9, 2015 – Justin Decloux, director of the splatter comedy Teddy Bomb (2014), launches crowdfunding campaign for the feature length horror film Impossible Horror on Indiegogo today.
Impossible Horror is a new feature length horror film from Toronto indie filmmakers, writer/director Justin Decloux (Teddy Bomb, 2014) and producer/composer Emily Milling. The project is currently being crowdfunded on Indiegogo and the campaign kicked off to a booming start with over $2000 in donations.
“We are thrilled that the campaign had so much uptake in just the first day, we’re really excited for it to grow!” says Milling. “People seem to be excited about the story that we want to tell and the fact that we have really strong female characters to drive it.”
Impossible Horror features two female leads, searching for the source of a nightly scream that echoes throughout their neighbourhood. The characters soon find themselves being hunted by the very thing that they are hunting. Stylistically the film is a mix of Evil Dead 2, Phantasm and The Ring with a dash of artistic obsession straight out of Fitzcarraldo.
The production team have previously worked together on several projects, capitalizing on local resources and their own ingenuity to make micro-budget pictures. In order to finish financing Impossible Horror, Decloux decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign.
“We took our campaign to Indiegogo because we want to bring Impossible Horror to the next level,” says Decloux. “We want this film to be on par with other productions like Mike Flanagan’s Absentia.”
The campaign will run until July 4, just before the film begins pre-production. Contributors will be treated to exclusive updates and behind the scenes footage during production.
Justin Decloux is the director of the short film We’re in a Fight, co-host of the Laser Blast Film Society at The Royal Cinema in Toronto and is a rabid lifelong cinephile. He has promised to stuff every second of Impossible Horror with his love for the horror genre and terrifying storytelling.
“Horror films are the most visceral form of cinematic expression,” says Decloux, “and I’m incredibly excited to bring my love for the genre to the screen.”
The campaign includes perks such as an exclusive Blu-Ray version of the film, soundtrack, t-shirts and an opportunity for funders to have their screams featured in the film.
Synopsis
Every night a scream rings out in the same neighbourhood. Two insomniac strangers, Lily the filmmaker and Hannah the game designer, head out together into the darkness to find the cause. Is it a psychotic killer claiming a new victim? A murderous ghost out for revenge? A flesh eating monster? All of the above with extra chainsaws? Before they know it, Lily and Hannah have gone from being the scream hunters to the scream prey and an evil force wants them dead. If they can both survive the night, they may just find the answers they’re looking for, but the price will have to be paid in sanity and blood.
###
Contact:
Justin Decloux
[email protected]
647-294-6411
www.impossiblehorror.com
www.canmakeproductions.com
About CANMAKE Productions
CANMAKE Productions is an independent film production company in Toronto, Ontario. Focusing on genre narrative films, the company tells stories that are original, unique and character driven.
