Director Justin Decloux and producer/composer Emily Decloux discuss Impossible Horror at the New York premiere at Scary Movies XI.

Oh yeah, that’s us talkin’ about our movie in New York! EEEE!

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Here we are on our first night! We made it!

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And this was the night we actually screened it. You can’t tell here but we’re both about to barf because we’re really fucking nervous.

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We met a lot of super cool people on this trip. I also did a panel on multi-hyphenate women in film, a term I didn’t know about until I was asked to speak on the panel. Three of us produced and composed the scores for our films. Two performed in leading roles. I was not one of them but some day I shall be!

The other really cool thing about this trip was that I had a chance to walk around New York on my own and just enjoy it for the fabulous city it is.

I thought I’d check out 5th Avenue, but it was Sunday morning and not a hell of a lot was open.

So I got a coffee and a croissant at a Barnes and Noble, figured I’d try to have Breakfast at Tiffany’s (it’s something I hear the locals do a lot) aaaand it wasn’t there. Or I couldn’t find it.

Anyway I ended up in this large square with a few stores (Anthropologie) that were just about to open, so I thought I’d park myself in front of a super tall building and finish up my coffee.

As I tilted my head back to finish the last sip, I realized I was standing right in front of 30 Rockerfeller Plaza.

Like, THE 30 Rock.

I had been thinking about what to do next since all of my big projects were wrapped up. And in an instant, it kinda hit me. I’m standing in front of a building, by accident, where SO MANY of my idols have worked. All of these incredible people that have made me laugh my whole life. And for my whole entire life, I’ve always wanted to do comedy.

After I collected myself for a second or two, I made a decision, and decided to sign myself up for writing classes at The Second City Training Centre right then and there. And their website didn’t work, so I called, and they signed me up! Just like that!

This is my next step!

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To finally have this massive undertaking finished, and to know that so many people loved it means so much to Justin and me!

Here’s the Q&A!

Here are a few highlights!

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Thank you so much to everyone that made this happen!

The post The Impossible Horror Premiere! appeared first on Emily Decloux.

J: Did you get enough sleep last night?

E: No. I could use significantly more sleep!

J: I’m looking at the credits and did you actually do ALL OF THAT on those roles on the film!?

E: Yes. Producer, composer, sound design/mixing/foley, transportation, craft services, makeup and effects… you know, the stuff that needs to get done to make a film! But as a producer I was happy to take on the other random things even if I had no idea what I was doing. I did however, elect to do the sound myself which I’m kicking myself for now – I had no idea how difficult that would be. But maybe that’s the beauty of naïvety, when you don’t know what the hell is going on and you don’t know how long it will take, it’s a lot easier to keep plugging away until you do!

Check out Impossible Horror at The Toronto After Dark Film Festival on October 16 at 9:30 p.m. in Toronto! 

The post Emily Decloux – Producer, Composer, and Lots of Other Roles! appeared first on Emily Decloux.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CANADIAN INDIE FILM IMPOSSIBLE HORROR TO SCREEN AT INTERNATIONAL DEBUT IN SAN FRANCISCO FILM FESTIVAL

International screening provides film Impossible Horror with an opportunity to showcase independent Canadian cinema.

Toronto, October 10, 2017 – Canadian independent film production company CANMAKE Productions will bring its second feature film Impossible Horror to San Francisco for its international debut at SF Indie’s “Another Hole In The Head” film festival on November 5, 2017 at 9:00 p.m. tickets available here.

“We’re ready to take on the world and help to bring independent Canadian cinema into the international spotlight,” says producer Emily Decloux. “Bigger budget Canadian films are often passed over in favour of American productions in film festivals, leaving independent Canadian productions with very little chance to be seen. We’re getting the opportunity to show off the talent that exists in Canada and we are extremely grateful to bring our film to SF Indie’s “Another Hole In The Head” Film Festival in San Francisco.”

In 2016, “Canadians produced only 71 fiction features in 2015/16 (a 10-year low)” (source) primarily due to an increasing interest in television and broadcast media in Canada, but this gives independent productions like Impossible Horror an opportunity to stand out on the international film circuit.

“My hope is that we can help to shine a light on the exceptional, creative products that independent filmmakers are developing in Canada,” says Decloux. “Our friends and colleagues in Toronto work so hard, many of us with full-time jobs trying to produce films on the side with little to no-budget. The more that independent Canadian cinema is seen, the more I know we’ll see increased investment and interest in the medium.”

In Impossible Horror, Lily (Haley Walker), an insomniac filmmaker who is facing a crippling creative block begins to hear a sinister scream ring outside her window every night. Convinced that she must find the source of the scream, Lily heads into the darkness of her neighborhood and meets Hannah (Creedance Wright), a veteran scream hunter, close to finding an answer. The women quickly team up to solve the mystery, encountering unsettling silent figures and terrifying apparitions that ultimately lead them to an otherworldly threat that is driving its victims into madness.

Original and inventive, director/writer Justin Decloux explores the pain and frustrations of creative blocks with 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.

Impossible Horror was Written by Justin Decloux and Nate Wilson, Directed by Justin Decloux and Produced by Emily Decloux 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 Decloux. Produced through CANMAKE Productions. Executive Producers Lindsey Boehme and Brooklyn Boehme.

###

Contact:

Emily Decloux

Producer, Media Contact

emily@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.

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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 Decloux.

“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 Decloux, 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 Decloux 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 Decloux. Produced through CANMAKE Productions. Executive Producers Lindsey Boehme and Brooklyn Boehme.

###

Contact:

Emily Decloux/Justin Decloux

Media Contact

647-394-6411

emily@canmakeproductions.com/justin@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.

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A new feature film from director Justin Decloux (Teddy Bomb). Starring Haley Walker and Creedance Wright. Produced by Emily Decloux and Nate Wilson.

For more information visit IMPOSSIBLEHORROR.COM

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 the source of the scream, Lily heads into the darkness of her neighborhood and meets Hannah (Creedance Wright), a veteran scream hunter, close to finding an answer.

The women quickly team up to solve the mystery, encountering unsettling silent figures and terrifying apparitions that ultimately lead them to an otherworldly threat that is driving its victims into madness.

The post Impossible Horror – Teaser Trailer appeared first on Emily Decloux.

Months into doing the foley and sound design for Impossible Horror and it totally feels like it’ll never get done.

Luckily, April is in the know, and did a lot of foley work when she went to school SO she came over to help me out and I thought I’d give you a little sneak peek!

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Oh, and here’s the cool sound booth I made with bed foam and some old Ikea bed slats I found on the side of the road! It actually works really well!

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Alright. Back at it.

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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:

• Detroit – Disasterpeace
• Old Maid – Disasterpeace
• Doppel – Disasterpeace
• Stranger Things – Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein
• The Upside Down – Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein
• Fresh Blood – Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein
• Son of Placenta Previa – Cliff Martinez
• Aortic Aneurism junior – Cliff Martinez
• Abscess – Cliff Martinez
• My Name on a Car – Cliff Martinez
• Main Title: Escape from New York – John Carpenter
• Main Title: Assault on Precinct 13 – John Carpenter
• Witch’s Coven – Mark Korven
• The Goat & The Mayhem – Mark Korven
• Adrift – Tycho
• Resonance – Home
• Night – John Carpenter
• Love on a Real Train – Tangerine Dream

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:

Aalto – Mardona Labs

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.

OBXD

An emulation of OB-X, OB-Xa and OB-X8 synths, sounds like an 80s action movie and has a lot of punch.

PG8X – Martin Lüders

A Roland JX-8P emulator with really great vintage sounds, excellent soft bells and versatility.

Blocks Wired – Native Instruments

A free version of the Reaktor Blocks, comes with a cool, programmable sequencer and a lot of really bizarre presets.

Mikro Prism – Native Instruments

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:

Ableton Live 9 – Suite

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.

Hybrid – Air

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

• iMac (duh)
• Sennheiser MK4 Condenser Mic
• MPK Mini mkII
• Steinberg CI-1 Audio Interface (old faithful)
• YSM5 Yorkville Studio Monitors

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.

The post The Impossible Horror Score: 8 Months of Music Mayhem! appeared first on Emily Decloux.

Now that the crowdfunding campaign for Impossible Horror has wrapped up (YAY WE ACHIEVED OUR GOAL AND THEN SOME!) I thought I’d put together a little compilation of all the shorts we made to promote it!

Enjoy!

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