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- [00:04]
David Cummings
From the silence, from the darkness, from your nightmares, from the void.
- [00:25]
John Adams
Tales from.
- [00:26]
David Cummings
The Void the behind the Scenes Podcast welcome back to the Tales from the Void behind the Scenes podcast. I'm David Cummings, host of the no Sleep podcast and one of the executive producers of Tales from the Void. Joining me on this episode are the directors of the final two episodes of our first season, the directing team for Plastic Smile, John Adams and Toby Poser, and Francesco Loschiabo, director of Whistle in the Woods. And if you're still a bit behind on the series, you might be presented with some spoilers on this episode. So watching Plastic Smile and Whistle in the woods before listening to this would be the best way to experience them. My first conversation is with John Adams and Toby Poser, collectively known as the Addams Family. They are highly regarded indie filmmakers who have brought us such great horror films such as Hellbender, where the Devil Roams and Hell Hole. Their creativity continues as they have two upcoming movies which will give us more of their unique and engaging storytelling on the screen. We will discuss the episode called Plastic Smile and what it was about that story that spoke to them. Will talk about how making their first short form film like this allowed them to stretch their creativity and learn even more about filmmaking. In the second half. Showrunner Francesco Loschiavo returns to discuss how he directed Whistle in the Woods.
- [02:16]
John Adams
We discuss what it was like working.
- [02:18]
David Cummings
With younger actors and how the final episode came to life in the dark, cold woods. And so join me as we delve into the dark world of the Void.
- [02:36]
John Adams
John Adams, Toby Poser, thank you for joining us on this Tales from the Void behind the Scenes podcast episode.
- [02:43]
Toby Poser
David, we're so happy to join you. Thank you.
- [02:45]
Francesco Loschiavo
Yep, thanks for having us.
- [02:47]
John Adams
I'd like to let our audience learn a little bit more about you folks. You guys are filmmakers first and foremost these days. I've seen a number of your movies and my wife and I have really fallen in love with what you guys create. We've seen Hellbender, where the Devil Roams. Highly recommend movies like that for people to find. They're mostly you guys are connected a lot with Shudder, Is that right?
- [03:09]
Francesco Loschiavo
Hellbenders on Shudder and Where the Devil roams is on 2B. And now also they're both DPR digs on both of those too.
- [03:17]
Toby Poser
And Hell Hole is a shudder film, our newest.
- [03:20]
John Adams
Yes, that's right. Your latest film, Hell Hole, also on Shudder. Looking forward to watching that one. And so you folks, I know you have a background in the entertainment industry, in the media industry. I'm Curious where you made this turn into creative creating films, especially horror films.
- [03:36]
Toby Poser
In 2010, we were living in Los Angeles. Our children were 6 and 11 at the time, and we had decided to take off for a year, homeschool them while making a film. It was something we all were kind of chomping at the bit to do, and we all had creative strengths, and we just joined forces, the kids, too, at such young ages, and we fell in love. And that first film was meant to be really dark, brutal, ghost Western. We weren't quite ready to kill the kids, as we say. So it turned into our stint doing of several dramas until we finally were ready to really earn our place as genre filmmakers.
- [04:16]
John Adams
Oh, amazing. Now, you mentioned your daughters, Lulu and Zelda, who are both a big part of your filmmaking process. I know Zelda, especially doing so much of the writing and acting. And I noticed on one film, she operated the drone, which I thought you can't get more hands on than that. So you folks, obviously, you have a strong sense of family, and we're sort of taught family is meant to be so loving and warm and supportive and kind of that Hallmark movie sentiment. How do you approach bringing the family connection into something like horror, where kids are being killed, like you said, or things like that? How do you create horror with a family vibe?
- [04:57]
Francesco Loschiavo
Well, we like to think of horror as basically just dramas, but covered in blood. And we also like to think of our movies as documentaries about where we are as a family. So, you know, you take the deeper you dig. And it's a movie about a kid that gets hit by a drunk driver and the mother loses her. And it's like, that's because at that time in our life, there was so much fear about all the things that could befall our two daughters. And so we made a movie about those things happening so we could all talk about and Hellbenders, a movie about a young woman becoming a woman. And then the next movie, where the Devil Roams, is about a family literally breaking into pieces, which is both of our daughters going off to college and leaving, you know, me and Toby. And so we just make movies about what's going on. You know, cover the metaphor in blood, and then we can all talk about them. And it's not saccharine or cheesy.
- [05:49]
John Adams
Yeah, exactly. And one of the things that I've noticed on the no Sleep podcast over the years is that probably the biggest trigger or the biggest response we get is when there's a story that involves a child being harmed or killed. 99% of the time. Those stories are written by writers who are parents, and they're writing about what they know. Their biggest fear is to lose a child, and so they write about that. So with your films, as you said, they're family, but they're covered in blood. I've noticed that you don't. There's not. You even alluded to it earlier. You don't want to kill the kids. You don't sort of take that approach. It's more about how the kids and the parents interact in these horrifying scenarios.
- [06:29]
Toby Poser
You know, I always like to say that horror films are a great way to give breath to a nightmare. We all have nightmares. Films, especially horror films, fill that same purpose. It's a safe playing field to exercise demons. It's a safe realm to hash out all the things that really terrify us. And, you know, we all have families, whether they're positive experiences or not, whether a family of one or family of many. And so we love that complexity, and I think it's something that everyone can relate to for sure.
- [07:02]
John Adams
And, you know, we're here to talk about Tales from the Void and the episode you two directed, Plastic Smile, which is based on the story Betsy the Doll by Rebecca Klingle, or by. A lot of people know her as CK Walker, her pen name. And I'm curious, let folks know, how did showrunner Francesco, how did he connect with you, and how did you get involved in this project?
- [07:25]
Francesco Loschiavo
He sent us the script and said, would you guys be interested in directing it? And we read it, and as soon as it was done, we wrote back, and we're like, if we could, we would love to be a part of this, because it's right up our alley. It's a family. It's a kid. It's nature, and it's brutal, but it's also, to me, quite beautiful.
- [07:49]
Toby Poser
Yeah. And it's something, you know, I'm familiar with the original story, and I think Francesco's adaptations absolutely phenomenal. I mean, Rebecca's original story is incredibly dark and painful. And I think that what Francesco has done, especially putting it into the realm of the forest, is really exceptional and equally dark and just, oh, my gosh, is that story painful? But it can be painful because you're rooting for the character so much. Abigail, the young Abigail in particular, you're just that character. You want her to win so badly. And the amount of love that you feel for her in tandem with the pain and darkness of her life, it's just a beautiful, you know, right from the get Go. It's a wonderful template for great drama and great horror. And I think both authors did an incredible job.
- [08:41]
John Adams
Agreed. And you have, as you mentioned, talking about families, there is the Hallmark movie kind of family where it's all loving and supportive. And in this story, obviously don't want to get too spoiled, but we have a family setting that is anything but traditional. And we talk about a mother who has a lot of her own demons to struggle with. Yet I think you're right. There is something. Even with a woman so broken, there is still, you can tell that there is a loving connection there. And I'm guessing that you folks tried to bring that out to show that even though you're talking about a person who is kind of in the lowest dregs of society, she'd be so scorned and looked down on. And yet you still portray her as a loving mother.
- [09:23]
Francesco Loschiavo
That's so important to us. And her boyfriend was a hope. There's hope in all of them. And we love broken heroes. Broken heroes are what all of us are like. There is no black and white in the world. There's only people trying their best to be as heroic as they can. And I really actually, I gotta point out the boyfriend, I mean. Cause the two female characters are amazing and wonderful. But I love. He plays a small role, but I love the hope he gives. Like, can he save this situation? Can he be a good part of it? He also brings the romance to it. He's the one who makes the videos. He wants the memories, he wants the family. It's like, it's really great the way it was written because there's a lot of characters headed down a very fast downslope that are trying to keep it together.
- [10:10]
John Adams
And with a script like this and a format like we have where you're looking at 22 to 30 minutes to portray this story, I think it is a great testament to what you've created and Francesco and the actors for giving that nuance. Because knowing how he wanted to set this up, I think it would have been so easy to portray both the mother and the boyfriend as just so one note addicts and with no sense of redemption. But as you said, there's that sense that you've created that these people are more than you know. We so often want to just give people one label and not realize that there's depth and emotion there. I noticed with your movies and certainly with Tales from the Void, we're talking about productions that. I hate to use the term low budget because I think for a lot of people that creates the sense of low quality. And that certainly isn't the case in your films or Tales from the Void. But when you have a limited budget, when you have to be economical with your storytelling, is there something about that you think spurs your creativity working within those constraints? Or I'm curious, if someone came to you and said, we want you to create a film and here's a 25 million dollar budget, would that be a good thing for you or a bad thing in terms of your creativity, do you think?
- [11:27]
Francesco Loschiavo
Well, we would make 25 movies and actually we'd probably make 2500 movies. So that's kind of the answer. I think we love the challenges of not much money because now you rely on the actors and you rely on nature and you rely on the storytelling and you rely on art. And we've also found that the horror audience in the horror community is very, very art and film educated. And so they don't necessarily, especially in horror, they don't need a shiny thing to come across their eyes to enjoy it. What they need is to be emotionally affected or scared, or they need the art to say something to them. And they don't need it to be every corner of the room to be lit up by Hollywood lights. So I think that we love the challenges of no budget and low budget, and those are the movies we seek out.
- [12:22]
Toby Poser
David we also love shooting outside. And this was a quick shoot in the forest and you've got kids, you know, Beatrice was 11 at the time. I mean, what a tremendous actress. And her double was wonderful as well. And so working, even though we generally take a long time to shoot our films because we have the luxury of doing so as a small, tight knit family. And this was the first short we've ever made. This was a great exercise in just getting to the nitty gritty, what we needed to do. We're used to working with the fickleness of nature and there's something fun and challenging about that. So this was a time to just run with what she was throwing our way. And I have to say too something that helps with that is our wonderful DP Scott McClelland and the VFX team. What they were able to do, considering we had such a short time out there, particularly in the woods, was just phenomenal. I mean, so much of the trajectory of this story has to do with all the team players that you don't even see.
- [13:24]
Francesco Loschiavo
And Scott was wonderful because we went down early, we walked around every single place that we shot four or five times and Talked about shots. So when we showed up there to shoot, nobody asked what are we doing? Or where is this going to be shot? It was just set up and go. And that was. I got to say I really loved working with Scott because he was such a terrific partner in that aspect of it.
- [13:48]
John Adams
Agreed. And being up there around the time when you guys were shooting, for me, not being as familiar as being on film sets and stuff, it was fascinating to see this junkie's apartment built in the middle of an old decommissioned school's gymnasium. I love stuff like that. And shooting the scene at the end, you folks will see when the episode comes out where older Abigail is confronting things, just knowing that that was some principal's office in an old school. I love that kind of movie magic that you guys create.
- [14:22]
Francesco Loschiavo
So fun. It's just great to think of how many people got suspended in that room.
- [14:28]
John Adams
It's interesting you talk about horror especially being such a product of the creativity and not worrying so much about all the glitz and glamour and the high budget stuff and the creativity of art. One of the things I love about you folks is that you, you're musicians and you have a lot of your own music in the films Hellbender especially where you, you're, you're seen performing the music. And as someone who's a musician, myself, also into horror, I'm just curious what inspired you to inject that aspect of your creativity into your movies.
- [15:03]
Francesco Loschiavo
That's a great question. I think it's even in our very first movie, it was, you know what, me and the girls have always been in bands together is really the answer. Lulu and I had a band when she was from age 6 to 10. And then when Lulu quit the band, Zelda took over and joined the band. And then we all became a band together. So music's always been a part of life. We could never afford to have somebody do music for our films. So it was just kind of an obvious thing. We just went through our library on our very first movie and then realized how much music tells a story and how much we love telling a story with music. So now we're very addicted to it. And we're also super thankful that, you know, the horror crowd has encouraged us to continue putting our music in our films.
- [15:48]
John Adams
Yeah. And of course, the kind of music, it's sort of a harder, harder rock heavy metal, if you will. I'm sounding like an old man classifying music, but it just lends itself to horror so well.
- [15:57]
Francesco Loschiavo
It's so fun. Thank you for that.
- [16:00]
John Adams
That's great. So what we mentioned, Hell Holes, your latest movie, Find it on Shudder. What's next in the creative quiver that you're going to release upon us?
- [16:09]
Toby Poser
We have two things cooking in the cauldron right now that we're very excited about. One is called Slug and the other is Mother of Flies. They're both features shot upstate New York in the Catskill Mountains where we live. I would say Mother of Flies is a sorceress thing. It takes. It has some of the DNA of Hellbender in that it's a lot about a witchy mythology, but it takes it, I would say, up to 10, 11. And slug is really kind of a psychological dark beauty. And so we're very excited to bring both of those out into the open.
- [16:43]
Francesco Loschiavo
And we have our girls back in, both of them, and that's really fun. They both kind of went off to college and then said, hey, we're going to keep doing stuff, right? And so they've both been coming home and finishing these two movies with us. And that's really fun because we learned so many great things from shooting Plastic Smile, like, really a lot. And we're applying those wonderful lessons to our type of filmmaking. It's been a great couple of years.
- [17:10]
Toby Poser
It's so true because we're used to doing all the post John edits and he does all the coloring and sound and getting to work with the team out of Red in Toronto. This team was just so tremendously talented. I can remember sitting there next to John, looking at him going, did you even know that you could do that?
- [17:31]
Francesco Loschiavo
And now I'm so bummed about how much I now know that I don't know. Because before we worked with this team, we thought we were kind of cruising along, knowing pretty much. And now we realize we're so dumb.
- [17:46]
Toby Poser
I mean, cavemen can get things done. And we were basically cavemen.
- [17:50]
Francesco Loschiavo
Yeah. And it was great. It was great working with artists that have such high professional standards.
- [17:55]
John Adams
It's so true. And that's one thing that when I was up there on set or when we visited another set, another episode. Yeah, I agree with what you're saying. Just seeing what can be done and seeing the kind of ease it seems at which special effects can be kind of the invisible CGI as a lot of people talk about these days. But, yeah, it's phenomenal. And like I say, even for me to see a set that can look completely different from where you're actually filming, it's remarkable.
- [18:22]
Francesco Loschiavo
And things like lighting, you know, we don't use lights. Because we can't afford them. And plus, it would just be too hard to move lights around and do that. So we always use available light. Well, what I loved about working on Plastic Smile was. And I was a little nervous because I get nervous about things looking like a TV show or looking too fake there. The lighting department was exceptional. So, you know, it was just because it looks natural, it looks like we're using available light. It looks correct. None of it's given away. The ghost. It's really fun. And that was great.
- [18:54]
Toby Poser
I have to mention, too, real fast. The prop master, so great and so much fun to work with. And the production team, the art direction, everything worked in tandem. So beautiful. It was just this beautiful nest of silky bats, you know, and that you were just like, oh, my God, this is great, great stuff.
- [19:13]
Francesco Loschiavo
And then when it was all over and color corrected beautifully, Di Hexen rocks down this wicked ass soundtrack that suddenly you're like, you know, we thought we had the movie all figured out, and then suddenly this soundtrack comes back. It's like, oh, God, this is far deeper than we knew.
- [19:32]
John Adams
Yeah. Full credit to everyone involved, but Francesco has pulled together a group of people who. It's not just the talent they bring, but every time I've been around these folks, you just see everybody wants to bring their A game. Give that 110% we talked about and the passion for the project. I never got the sense from anybody on the crew that this was just, let's get this over with. This is just a paycheck. People wanted this to be an amazing thing, and I think it really shows on the screen.
- [20:05]
Toby Poser
Yeah. And, you know, I mean, we're familiar with a lot of Paper street films, but to kind of be involved, they have a golden touch. It was just such a privilege and pleasure to be invited to join everyone for this.
- [20:17]
John Adams
Well, I know our listeners are going to be super excited to see not only all of the episodes, but, you know, there's something special. Betsy the Doll was one of the stories we did, I think, back in season three on the podcast. People know and love Rebecca's writing, and I know they're gonna love the way you guys have brought it to the screen. So thank you both for joining us and for sharing these tidbits of wisdom and your own approach to horror. And I hope we're hoping for a season two, and it would be great to work with you folks again.
- [20:51]
Toby Poser
We would love that.
- [20:52]
Francesco Loschiavo
We'd be there. Thank you for inviting us and thank you for the great conversation.
- [20:57]
John Adams
John and Toby, thanks For being with.
- [20:59]
David Cummings
Us.
- [21:06]
John Adams
Francesco, welcome back again to the behind the Scenes podcast. And you're joining us on this episode to discuss the sixth and final episode of this season of Tales from the Void, in which you direct the story Whistle in the Woods. Based on the story, something walks whistling past my house Every Night at 303 by Travis Brown. Again, thanks for being with us, Francesco.
- [21:29]
Francesco Loschiavo
Thanks for having me, David. Excited to be here.
- [21:31]
John Adams
So let's talk about Whistle in the woods once again, co showrunner John Thomas Kelly has penned a great script. And given the title, it's no spoiler to say that there is indeed a whistle heard in the woods. And you said previously you kind of wrestled with how to make a whistle be scary. So talk a little bit about how you came up with that key element of this story.
- [21:54]
Francesco Loschiavo
Yeah, it was an interesting one. Like, we brought on Alex Cuervo really early. Our composer and I had the pleasure of working with him on the intro music to the show as well that he did. We talked a lot about the whistle, and I think the two things we wanted it to be, like, simple and melodic. We wanted it to be able to work into the score. But then as we kind of were doing a lot of the editing of the episode, it was like, it gets repetitive. It feels like music. It doesn't feel like a monster. So we had to slow it down, speed it up, have it be offbeat. And then a big thing that we talked about in terms of making it creepy when we decided to make it a Wendigo was we wanted to be able to have it believable that a creature could make this noise. And the idea was the reason, like, we could have made the monster anything. But the reason we. We picked a Wendigo is like, it has kind of a bone structure and it's like, like hollow kind of. My thought was like, could a creature make this noise if the wind was going through bones? And he used some of that as an influence in some of the sound design for the episode. I think when Sawyer first opens the window, we have that loud, high pitched squeal that's actually like this interesting sort of like, I think it's like an Aztec whistle type thing that we use that actually is just wind going through it to make the noise. So we. We tried to have it be authentic to what the monster would be.
- [23:18]
John Adams
It's very effective, and that's fascinating. And it makes perfect sense to think of wind blowing through bones could make that whistling sound. Now, in previous episodes, we've talked about the great cast of young actors that we have. And on this episode, being on set with you, I could see that. You know, you have these really challenging shoots that run late into the night and you're filming exteriors in inclement weather, but these kids are so professional and game to really make the horror realistic. And, of course, the parents of the actors are always on set to make sure the kids are well cared for. But I'm curious if you struggled with making the kids go through some tough emotional scenes in, you know, whether it's outside in the cold and the rain and that type of thing, what was it about drawing these great performances out of the kids under really demanding circumstances?
- [24:08]
Francesco Loschiavo
I honestly, like, we were blessed with such a great cast on this episode. Like, I don't feel like I had to work with the kids too much around, you know, specifically, like, with. With Molly, who played. Who played Sawyer. I think she brought her a game to every scene and had really done her homework and if something didn't feel kind of authentic, oftentimes would speak up before I had a chance to even give her a note. So I think the kids just did an amazing job. And, you know, we did the amount of takes needed kind of to get it right. And yeah, and Anna, who played Nola, just did an amazing job of, like, conveying fear with very little kind of in her eyes or kind of in her reactions, and again, just broke down the script, really understood the beats. I think where we did have some challenges this episode is we filmed this handhelds, one of the first episodes we did with a lot of the scenes where the window goes attacking the house, and that was blocked out well in advance. And we discussed, you're going to have a bang at the window here, you're going to have a rattle at the door here. And making sure everyone knew when something intense was happening. And being able to plan for that, I think was a big part of it. But, yeah, like, if I'm honest with you, I thought the kind of intense sequences were manageable with the actors. I had a tougher time going through and explaining to Molly what a blockbuster sleepover was in the 90s, and trying to be like, this was how this goes. This is what happens. And just the idea of people going and renting movies is just not a thing anymore. So it was fun kind of trying to kind of get the kids into the world of like, the elementary school kind of playroom with a video game system and a TV and movies and, like, how much of a treat this would have been to have this in Your room as a kid versus, like, you got all this on your phone now. Right. So that was kind of. It was. It was a funny part of kind of like figuring that out together.
- [26:06]
John Adams
Nothing makes you feel like an old man. Then having to explain to kids what VHS tapes are.
- [26:11]
Francesco Loschiavo
Exactly, exactly.
- [26:13]
John Adams
And speaking of that, there are some fun little Easter eggs in this episode where you do a few callbacks to earlier episodes, particularly as the girls are choosing which VHS tapes to watch. And whose idea was that little nod to the whole series with the titles of the movies they're looking at.
- [26:30]
Francesco Loschiavo
It's funny, we had picked some of our friends films and put it in there. And then we had said, why don't we nod to the other episodes of the series? And it's a little bit meta to do it. And I thought it worked. And I like the idea of describing each of the episodes as if it was like, you know, a pitch to your friend at a sleepover of, like, why you would watch this. So we thought that was a lot of fun. And John and I had a little bit of a dig at our. At our first feature film, which we're super proud of. But we thought it was funny to kind of tease ourselves a little bit in it. But we're still super proud of that film. You know, it brought us together to make this project, which has been great. So, yeah, it was kind of an idea on the fly, but I think it worked and just reminded me of standing in front of my DVD Rock as a kid, arguing with my buddies, or having an argument in a blockbuster about, we're only going to rent four movies, but we've got seven and who's given one up sort of thing right now.
- [27:30]
John Adams
I don't think it's a spoiler to mention that in this episode there is a gun used. And when I was on the set during the filming, I was really impressed by how professional the crew was and how serious everyone was when dealing with the use of the gun. You had an armorer on set. That's the person who is in charge of handling weapons. And even though the gun used was decommissioned and completely incapable of being fired, it was treated like a real gun. And of course, we hear stories in the news these days about, you know, tragic events happening on film sets with guns being mishandled and misfired and that type of thing. Was there ever any concern on your part about using a gun in this episode?
- [28:07]
Francesco Loschiavo
No, I think we. We did a lot of interviews with the armorer to make sure we have the right person. Obviously, the whole rust thing was, like, fresh in the news when we were shooting. And we made sure, you know, everything was properly decommissioned with the rcmp. And I think it's, like, filled with cement, that gun. So it's like it can't fire even if you. Even if you wanted it to. And, yeah, it was a discussion with the crew as well. Like, I. We take that stuff really seriously. Like, we're making movies here. We're not trying to risk people's lives for the shot. And there's always a creative solution to get around things if people aren't comfortable. But I think Kara did an amazing job handling it and Sawyer kind of reacting to it. And it played super authentically in the scene. And I'm glad we were able to use a real firearm but have it done in a safe way. And I give testament to the crew for that. So it's always safety first with stuff like that.
- [28:56]
John Adams
Oh, of course. Absolutely. And going back to what we talked about earlier, about these great actors and the way they are and handling these tough scenes, it was amazing for me to see how, again, you've got these kids, they've got a gun pointed at them. They're crying, they're terrified. And then you yell cut, and they're just right into it. Oh, I think I need my makeup adjusted. Or they're right in the moment. So they're in character, but they're also part of the filming process. And it's. Again, it's such a testament to these kids. They are professional beyond their years.
- [29:28]
Francesco Loschiavo
Yeah, it's definitely. There's definitely a few moments you get lost in the scene on set where you're just watching it, and then we, you know, we stop it, and you're just, like, just blown away at some of the performances. I was. I'm always, like, surprised when you get such a great performance and then, you know, you have one of the kids, you know, come up to me and say, like, you know, do you want it another way for this, or did you get what you need here? And it's like, they're doing such a great performance, but then also clocking, like, if we got the right coverage. So it's just. Yeah, it was so impressive working with all of them. And I think we were blessed with such a great cast for this episode. Even Ethan, who played Holden, I thought was fantastic in so many moments in this episode and really kind of brought the whole thing to life.
- [30:10]
John Adams
Absolutely. All the kids were just. They were great on set. They were just. They were kids, you know, they're fun. They're goofing around and being silly, but they know when the camera's on how to act really well, and it's inspiring to see. We talked about the Wendigo in this episode, and there are some great makeup and prosthetic effects in this episode. Talk a little bit about the team that brought this creature to life and what goes into making something so realistically creepy.
- [30:38]
Francesco Loschiavo
Yeah. So on this one, we gave Dan Baker the impossible task of building as the Windigo in a week, and he did an amazing job pulling this together. He actually built the doll in plastic Smile as well, and he 3D printed both of them. So he 3D printed the head of the Windigo, built the body suit. I actually had asked him to make the antlers, I think, two or three times bigger than we had originally designed. So we had to, like, extend it with pipes and everything to make it, like, as big as possible. And then, you know, the only thing that was in Travis's story that I thought alluded to what the monster could be was arrowheads. So that's why we chose to make it a Windigo, and we tried to give it a little bit of a design to kind of, like, go with the lore of kind of like a native monster, like a skinwalker, which is all kind of from that lore. So he did just an amazing job, you know, on our kind of tight budget, figuring out how to make the creature look realistic. And then, you know, Chris Hagen, who played the Wendigo, like, we did a lot of work on, like, his movement and stuff. And it's funny. Like, it's just less is more with that thing.
- [31:54]
John Adams
We.
- [31:55]
Francesco Loschiavo
We shot a ton on that, and we barely show it in the episode. And just every edit that we did was just taking it out, taking it out, taking it out. And it's amazing how with the right lighting, six frames instead of 12 frames, it's a lifetime on screen. So I think he did an amazing job, which is. It pains me with this stuff that they do such a great job with the prosthetics. And it's always show less of it makes it kind of more real. And you always want to show as much as possible. Like, look at how amazing this looks. But it's less is more, because I think your mind fills in kind of the edges of the frame.
- [32:26]
John Adams
It does. And I will say that as someone who was on set that night and when we were filming the outdoor scenes with the Wendigo, it was freezing cold. It was crazy windy, and it was raining. And so I'M just furious that all of that work, it was so short on the scene or on the screen. I'm kidding, of course. But, yeah, it was fascinating to see that, like you say, it's way more effective if all that work, all of that filming is condensed into exactly what it needs to be, even as short as it was on screen.
- [32:56]
Francesco Loschiavo
Definitely. Yeah. And I think that was, it was a tough night that night. I think it's very fitting of the last day, of the last shoot, of the last episode to be, you know, pouring rain in the woods and just having to say, I'm not calling it till we get it. And I, you know, I hate being that guy, but sometimes you gotta be. And it was, I think it was worth it. And yeah, I think Molly was such a good sport, kind of sticking with us, I think getting her to scream at the top of her lungs in the woods kind of all night. But she did an amazing job. She's so talented. So, yeah, we were really, really, really happy with it. And I just, I love the way that episode turned out. The contrast of her scream into the silence of the end is just, is, I think, really, really great and goes with the kind of thematic elements around music and kind of the whistling and all these different things. And just having that hurt shriek and then take us out into silence was, I think it was really powerful. So, yeah, it turned out great.
- [33:49]
John Adams
It really did. And yeah, the last scene of the last episode, a great way to wrap up the first season. So, again, Francesco, thanks for joining us and sharing your insights into yet another episode. And who knows, maybe there will be more episodes in the future. But we can't thank you enough for being on the show and of course, for being the driving force behind Tales from the Void.
- [34:13]
Francesco Loschiavo
Thanks, David, for your partnership on this one and I definitely hope, fingers crossed we get a. We get a season two and maybe a season two the podcast together. But thanks for all your help and excited to see how our audiences react.
- [34:25]
John Adams
Indeed. Thanks, Francesco.
- [34:31]
David Cummings
I want to thank John and Toby and Franchesco for joining me and sharing how they were able to create such intense films for Tales from the Void. Tales from the Void. The behind the Scenes Pockets podcast is a creative reason Media Production in conjunction with Envoy Entertainment Music by Alex Cuervo and Brandon Boone. Thank you for being with us. This concludes the first season of the behind the scenes podcast for Tales from the Void. But be prepared. New episodes with new guests might just be coming from. From the Void.
- [35:30]
Francesco Loschiavo
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