TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Close your eyes. It's After Images.
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You're listening to After Images, a podcast for cinephiles that takes a deep dive into
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moving images. Each episode features a special guest who is invited to explore a film of
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their choice. After Images is hosted by film writers Franck Bouleg and Marisa C. Hayes.
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On today's episode, we welcome filmmaker, producer and writer Nyla Inuksuk, who shares
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her appreciation for Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 horror film Psycho. Often considered the first
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slasher, Psycho tells the story of Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh, that's scream
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queen Jamie Lee Curtis's mother. Having stolen money to join her lover, Marion is on the
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run and stops off at an isolated hotel run by Norman Bates. Played by Anthony Perkins,
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Bates appears to live under the influence of his overbearing mother. At this point,
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the film shifts from thriller to horror and takes the audience on a wild ride. Interwoven
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with our discussion of Psycho, we are privileged to hear Nyla Inuksuk discuss the making of
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her first feature length film Slashback. It's a genre defying flick that merges elements
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of sci-fi, horror, comedy, friendship, indigenous storytelling and resilience within an Inuit
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community that premiered in 2022. Nyla Inuksuk is a filmmaker, producer and comic book writer
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based out of Toronto, Canada. Nyla co-created the teenage superhero Snowguard, a member
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of Marvel's Champions League, with her friend Jim Zub. Inuksuk's first feature, Slashback,
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is a sci-fi adventure about a group of 14-year-old girls from a remote Arctic community who take
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on an alien invasion. The film premiered at SXSW in March 22. Trapped, a short horror
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film shot specifically for 24K resolution, 7 foot high, 270 degree screen, premiered
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at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Inuksuk is currently developing a second feature with her writing
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partner Ryan Caven, set to film in 2024. We're so pleased today to welcome Nyla Inuksuk.
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Thank you so much for being here with us. Thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited
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to chat with you guys. And for today's discussion, you proposed mostly to go into Alfred Hitchcock's
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Psycho and a few other titles that you appreciate. So we always like to start
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off with the question,
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what does Psycho mean to you? Why did you choose Psycho today?
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Yeah, I think that for me, it was just such a foundational movie for me when I was really,
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when I was kind of starting to under see movies as something more than just this, something
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that was this fun, entertaining thing to watch. And I was at that time really starting to
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think about movies more seriously and thinking about making my own. And I was making some
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videos with my friends and my cousins and that sort of thing. And I always loved horror
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and Hitchcock. And I think that there was just something very thrilling about watching
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something that felt like you're kind of getting away with something. And I remember even with
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Hitchcock in particular, one of my very first experiences watching a scary movie was with
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the birds. And I remember I had a girlfriend over for a sleepover and we were eight years
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old. And this is the movie that my mom suggested we watch, which I think is speaking of Psycho,
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I mean, that's kind of crazy because we were the exact same age as those kids who I would
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say the most terrifying scene is when they're having to rush those kids out of school and
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they're all being attacked. And so that movie was really scary, but it just was also so
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exciting to be watching something like this. And then so then later when I was probably
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maybe 13, 12 or 13, I was having another slumber party with a group of girlfriends. And so
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I brought over Psycho, but I hadn't watched it before, but I was just thinking that this
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would be fun and scary. And I had heard that it was really scary. And we started watching
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it and all of my girlfriends were just like, this is so boring. And because for the first
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10 minutes, it's mostly her in her office and she's deciding what to do and then driving
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for a long time. So we turned it off before anything had really happened. And so then
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I went home and I watched it on my own. And I remember I just left my bedroom where I
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would watch movies and I came downstairs to my mom and I was just like, this is a perfect
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movie. This could be released today and it would just be terrifying. It would be perfect.
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And then I found out that Gus Vinson had actually just remade the movie shot for shot. And so
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it was, yeah, I mean, I loved it from the first time I watched it fully on my own and
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have and the performance of Norman Bates in particular, I thought was so fantastic. Yeah,
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I really, and so for me, it was one of these movies that just as I was thinking about,
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seems crazy that as a teenager, you're having to figure out what you want to be doing with
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the rest of your life, but you do feel that pressure. And I was trying to decide if I
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wanted to go and study film at university, which seems a little bit silly, or if I should
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be doing something more practical and or more, I don't know, something that could benefit
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my community in some way, you know, and so it was just for me in a time where I was really
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just starting to kind of think about movies as something that I was really passionate
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about.
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Would you say that it's the acting that struck you? Is it the story, the filmmaking that
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really touched you that first time that you saw it, or is it the revelation of what is
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at the core of the mystery itself?
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Yeah, I mean, I think all of those things, there's this mystery, trying to figure it
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out with the sister and uncover what's happened to her sister and then this amazingly charming
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performance by Anthony Perkins. And I mean, I had such a crush on Norman Bates when I
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was a teenager, who is, of course, the psycho and psycho. And so it was, you know, it was
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really kind of only now I feel like I've unpacked some of the reasons why and I now see these
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behaviors as problematic, of course.
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But yeah, and I think that that kind of twist at the end was so amazing. And then to kind
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of have this reveal of him at the end in his kind of true form was so great.
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But he's sweet. He's portrayed as-
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He's a counter-vice.
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It's not surprising that you would have found him attractive because he's very pleasurable
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for most of the film anyway.
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Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, but then also in his, he's very like this bumbling and shy
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person who is, you know, and then obviously dealing with an abusive mother and that so
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he's clearly vulnerable. I think also for women can be this thing that we're drawn to
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and wanting to take care of.
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And it's interesting because I do think that there's kind of a fine line between the humor
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and the horror in the film and maybe also the charm that we experience. And I'm thinking
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a lot about how Jordan Peele has talked about that kind of porosity between humor and good
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naturedness and horror. And I'm wondering how you feel about that because I found that
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also in your work as well.
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Oh, thanks. Yeah. I mean, I think that the kind of the similarities between horror and
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comedy, not just the situations that can kind of cause you to feel both, but then also just
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how it can be approached within film and creating tension. And sometimes, you know, you're laughing
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because something is so horrifying or you just don't want this thing to happen. And
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of course, like, I mean, the scene in Psycho with the car going down and then just stopping
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and it's like, Oh, is this not going to work? And then it just continues going, I think,
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is such a fantastic little moment of comedy within this, but really the darkest, the darkest
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moment in the movie. Those elements just, I think, go really well together and including,
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you know, with a bit of the absurd.
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Are there other moments of the film that you particularly like because of the way they
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are shot and are there sequences that stayed with you? I mean, people usually think of
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the shower scene, but are there other possibly sequences that you particularly appreciate?
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I mean, of course, the shower scene is fantastic and great. And, you know, after I've made
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Slashback where we were kind of, well, it was a bit chaotic. It was an indie movie made
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with teenagers in this very remote community. And it was my first time doing that. So that
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I was kind of learning all these lessons every day. Every day, I felt like I was learning
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a million lessons and then just being like, oh my gosh, I guess we just do this again
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and again and again and again. And then it was kind of, I remember just thinking of Hitchcock
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and how just the, and his shooting of almost exclusively on sets. And I just was like,
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oh yeah, okay. Well, like I can see now why something like just this idea of being able
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to have control. And I think that there is so much control within his work and the framing
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and consideration of colors and that it's to me very inspiring to kind of consider the
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work and preparation. But then, you know, it also kind of within these ideas of control.
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And I think a lot just, but the cool thing about being able to make movies and make horror
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and write horror is that you kind of get to process feelings about fear and anxiety and
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in a way that's kind of creative. And with my co-writer, we've actually started to kind
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of question how healthy that is for us actually, and whether we should be maybe thinking about
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things that are not just tension and fear and that sort of, you know, I do think that
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for me with both Slashback and this next project that we're doing, it has really been a helpful
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way to kind of process these feelings of anxiety and then control. And I think that it is really
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interesting also with directors and obviously with Hitchcock and you kind of look throughout
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his movies that he's obviously someone that, and I think directors, we like a certain amount
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of control and that he is processing certain things and themes throughout his work. And
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with the birds or psycho, I feel like there's these men with mothers who are a little bit,
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a little bit extremely overbearing and questioning of the women that are coming into the men's
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lives and have such influence over the men in their lives. So I feel like that is just
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something that I have definitely related to in my work. And then I think that also then
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translates to themes and also to the cinematography and playing with control and letting go of
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control and within the frame and consideration of those things.
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I'm really glad that you mentioned thinking about Hitchcock while filming Slashback because
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that means we can get right to it. There are a couple of things I wanted to ask you about
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because when we talk about psycho and Hitchcock in general, we've got these wonderful title
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credits that were done by Saul Bass and I think that your opening title credits are
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just so gorgeous and creative. And I wondered if you could tell us a little bit about that
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and if by any chance Saul Bass's work was an inspiration for that too, the way that
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you integrated the design and the opening title sequence of the film.
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Yeah, definitely. That was really kind of fun to play around with. And that's the coolest
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thing about making movies, I think, is it's a real team sport. You're collaborating with
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these amazingly talented and creative artists who are really expert at what they do. And
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so at every stage you're getting to work with, you know, whether it's your production designer
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or your cinematographer or the person that you're designing the credits with. It's really
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exciting to have these conversations and figure out what works best. And so we had this idea
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to play around with syllabics, which is the Inuktitut, which is the language that we speak
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up in Nunavut, where I'm from. And the writing of Inuktitut is often done in syllabics. And
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so we had the syllabics translated first and then it kind of does this kind of matrix-y
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switch over to the English titles. Actually, it plays with that. I think there's a couple
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versions. I think there's one at one point the titles are kind of slashes through and
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then at another point it does a kind of matrix-y thing. But yeah, it was fun to play. For me,
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it was very important to consider the fact that this community that we were shooting
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in and the communities up in the Arctic, that they've never had a movie like this made there.
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And my nephews are from the community of Pang. And at the time they were, I think, four and
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six years old. And so I just thought that it would be really cool for them to have a
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movie that this kind of alien invasion, Goonies style movie set in their hometown. And in
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that community where their mom is from, they speak Inuktitut and they don't speak English
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at all. And my sister, Julie, she didn't learn how to speak English until she was 13 or 14.
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So it was just important for us to consider the community and that this movie was really
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kind of made for them. And so they see the Inuktitut first. And then we also kind of
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played around with this idea of subtitles and
whether or not to use them. We ended up
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putting in subtitles just to be fair to all audiences. But we also kind of scripted it
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in a way that if audiences were to watch without the subtitles, that they would have enough
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sense of what was going on. But then there would just be this version where Inuit audiences
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would just have this different kind of layer of understanding.
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Fantastic. To come back to this comparison with Psycho, I also really love the use of
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sound in your film. And Psycho, of course, is really celebrated for Bernard Herrmann's
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wonderful composition that really hits the rhythm of the film throughout and provides
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so much tension. And there's this wonderful percussive quality to the sound design in
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your film as well. Do you want to maybe talk a little bit about what you think of the music
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in Psycho or also how you approach music in film?
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Yeah. Well, I mean, the music in Psycho is just so fantastic. We see both that title
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sequence and the music we see referenced in so much. I think that for me, the approach
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to the music was I knew that it was going to be just a really important... Well, for
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horror, I think the music is just such an important part to consider. And then this
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was also a kids adventure movie. Lots of genres mixed in, but kind of the approach to music
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was going to be really important. And the cool thing about the Arctic and our music
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is that we've got a lot of throat singing, which is two women. Usually it's two women
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performing at the same time. Someone like Tanya Tugak, who is an amazing Inuit throat
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singer who she performs all over the world. And she has done something very different
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in that she performs on her own and kind of incorporates all styles of music within her
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work. But we worked with Tanya actually to get a bunch of her vocalizations to then play
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around with, incorporate into the creatures sounds. But whenever there was an alien or
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something nearby, then we also had Tanya's vocals somewhere within the music. And then
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the other instrument that is really common within the Arctic is the drum. And so that
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was really kind of fun to play around with the drum. And that was all done with... All
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done. We also had other percussive instruments, but most of the drumming that you hear was
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done with traditional drum, different sizes of traditional drum. And we had the amazing
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musicians, composers and DJs hallucination, compose a lot of the score. We kind of placed
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that throughout. And then we started working with another composer and some musicians to
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expand the music. And it was such a neat process to see that come together. And I mean, we
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were also doing this over Zoom because of the pandemic happening right in the middle
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of our post-production. So we had to be having lots of Zoom sessions and then just kind of
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sharing things digitally and then kind of coming together to listen and give notes and
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that sort of thing.
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Incredible. And can you tell us a little bit about how you worked with different rhythms?
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Because in horror, oftentimes there's a kind of acceleration for creating tension. And
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is that something that was done live organically during recording? Or did you also enjoy doing
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sound mixing in post-production to match certain moments? Or how did that work?
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Yeah, it was almost exclusively done with drums that then we had the composers work
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with and manipulate. And that was done to the edit. So certainly there were scenes that
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benefited from added tension and heightened, just the heightened emotions around, whether
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it's the, there's certain alien attacks or emotional moments between characters. You're
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wanting to try and bring that out with music or with silence in some moments. And there
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were times where the composers and I would stop and look at a scene and it seemed like
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this would be this, maybe this is this big explosive swell in the music, but then it's
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also like, what if we were to go to our sound designer and instead ask for a swell in the
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sound design and the natural sounds of the environment? So playing with that with between
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all of the different creative people involved was this ongoing conversation. And my favorite
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part of the process was, I mean, it was, it always feels too short. And we, you know,
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these things are with low budget filmmaking. It's like you have a certain amount of
days,
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but this, the time spent in sound design was so much fun. Because then at that point, the
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edits locked and the color's been done. And so you're really starting to see the pieces
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all come together and the edges kind of get smoothed out with the sound design. So for
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me that part of the process and playing with the mix and bringing in elements and taking
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some out is such a fun part of the process. And then we're also bringing in, of course,
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when it comes to horror, sometimes it's monster sounds and all of that. And so it's really
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fun to play around with like how much blood splatter you want it to sound like.
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Am I right in thinking that besides the influence of Hitchcock, perhaps John Carpenter might
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have been an influence on the film?
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Oh yeah, for sure. The thing definitely influenced the movie. And we, the girls had never watched
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it before. And then the night before we started filming, the crew and the cast, this is kind
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of crazy. This town is so small that there wasn't enough housing or anywhere for us to
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stay. So for us to actually make the movie and live in the community for a couple of
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months, we had to ask the principals at the high school and the grade school to let us
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live there. And so everyone lived in, we shipped up 55 beds and mattresses and turned all of
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the classrooms into bedrooms. And so everybody had a roommate, which is insane to me. And
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they had two beds per classroom and we had all of our meals in the gym, the high school
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gym. And so the night before we started filming, the girls and I all stayed in one, we put
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beds together and stayed in one room in the school. And we watched the thing and ate,
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it was a mistake. We ate way too much candy and then felt terrible the next day. But that
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was another lesson we learned is candy with kids, you just have to just not have it around
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or they'll find, they find ways to sneak it on. But it affects, it definitely affects
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your ability to work. But certainly John Carpenter and then in the score as well, we were thinking
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of John Carpenter for sure. And now that you've made your first feature length film, when you
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go back and watch some of these iconic films
of the past, do you feel like you hear and
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see them differently? Yeah. I mean, honestly watching movies now, even when people talk
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about, I hear people talk about a movie and they just don't like it and it could be anything.
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Like it could be a terrible movie, but I just am like, you guys don't know how hard this
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is. But it's, when I watch, when I go back and watch and I'm hopefully shooting another
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movie this fall, it's really taking the lessons that I learned from my experience and trying
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to apply that to this next movie and just prepare myself in a way that I just wasn't
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able to before, just because I didn't fully understand the job. Certainly I'm watching
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lots of movies and considering processes, not just in framing and sound design, but
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then also how you work with actors. And I think it's, I find that I watch movies in
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a very different way. Earlier in the discussion, you were mentioning the level of control that
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Hitchcock had over his films and he was famous for storyboarding everything beforehand, for
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having everything ready in his head before he started shooting. Is this also, or are
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you more, is there more improvisation when you are on set? Yeah. I think that for me
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with Slashback, just because of budget restraints and timing of budget, and then also when we
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had to film, our final casting happened very soon before we started filming. And so having
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enough time for rehearsals and blocking within the location, these are things that hopefully
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I'm not terrifying my new producers too much, but it's really important for me to be having
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as much of an understanding of what's happening beforehand, just because it is emotional work
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on when you're doing it on the day. And there's so many people involved and the camera team
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will really appreciate it if they know exactly what they're doing that day. And the sound
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people will really appreciate it if they, if you've talked it through and it's very
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clear what it is we're trying to capture. And as a director, your job is to really take
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what you can see and hear and make people feel something. And so it is kind of our job
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in advance to kind of be doing that work to figure out, okay, how can I make people feel,
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what am I wanting people to feel here? And how could I be doing that with the tools that
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I have? And then also with the actors, I've been working with this amazing coach who works
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with directors on preparing their scripts to work with actors. And it's depend, and
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each actor might approach their job differently. And so it's understanding the best way to
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empower the different team members you're working with to be bringing their best, but
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also in the direction that you want. And so I think for actors to be able to have time
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to consider the character, and this is also sometimes the characters are going through
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a lot emotionally, especially in horror. And so to give them the time to process what it
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is that that character is feeling, and it might be something that is reflected in their
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own life. And that takes time to adjust to, and some work for yourself so you're feeling
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mentally fit on the day. Creating an environment where everyone feels like we're supporting
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each other as a team in the creation of something that either tells a cool story or has an impact
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on people. I mean, when it comes to the way Hitchcock works with his actors, I definitely
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think there's a different way of approaching it. But I think it's, yeah, how can you get
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the actors to the place where they feel comfortable on the day bringing that emotional performance
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and then making sure the rest of us have all of our stuff figured out so that they can
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do their work on the day in a way that is consensual.
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And it must have been especially challenging because you were working with actors for this
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film. It was their first film for most of them or for all of them?
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Oh yeah, for all of them. And so, and it was, yeah, but it was for some of them I had been
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kind of working with a little bit longer and they had been around even the script development
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phase. Things that they said or were referencing directly came from them. So some of them,
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it was a little bit maybe easier to kind of perform as their character, but it was really
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funny actually promoting the movie with Tessiana who plays Micah, the lead, and people would
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meet with her and they're like, wow,
she's nothing like her character. And I'm like,
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I know she's acting. But it was really, it was such a joy to work with the actors. They
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were, it was for all of them, their first time. Frankie was eight years old and then
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I think the next youngest was 11 and the rest were 14. So it was a young cast and they were
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all away from their hometown of Haluik. They were living in Peng for the summer and living
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in a school. So it was really fun and exciting, but it was also exhausting at times. And,
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but what I think was so great is that the girls had developed and Rory, I should say,
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had developed a real relationship. And so they were able to just support each other
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throughout the process. And we never had any crazy, crazy fights or blowouts, which is
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kind of amazing for, for working with a bunch of teenagers all summer.
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And I'm curious to know if any of the teens that acted in the film had seen or were familiar
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with Hitchcock. Did you ever have that discussion with them? I'm told that people today are
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not so into Hitchcock, but...
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I know, no, they, none of the kids had watched Hitchcock necessarily. Yeah, they, they do
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like horror. Some of them, Frankie in particular, the youngest one, she likes scary movies the
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most, which is kind of funny. But Chelsea is someone she wouldn't, who's, who was the
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tallest one of the group. And she, she doesn't like scary movies. Alexis, she is, I think
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she has Alexis and Nala Joss, I could see them both making their own movies. They liked
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the being around sets and, and our storytellers themselves. And Tessiana really liked the,
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liked acting and is going to continue doing that. She's, I mean, these kids, it's so amazing.
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Well, now they're not so much kids. They're 18 years old and going to university and wow.
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Interesting that from the beginning of this conversation, you mentioned both Psycho and
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The Birds as the films that were important to you because Psycho is mentioned sometimes
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as the first slasher of the sort. And I think that for Slashback, this is an interesting
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thing. But while watching your film, I was struck by the way you film that bay near Peng
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that reminded me a lot of Bodega Bay in The Birds. I don't know if that was something
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conscious on your part, but you know, there are those trips that they take in the boat
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that are very reminiscent of what Melanie does in The Birds. So this is really something
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that struck me. And also, I mean, I think that The Birds is a very apocalyptic film.
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Yeah, I think so too. And I, yeah, I love The Birds and I've always been just drawn
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to the themes and the characters. I also just, you know, this, to be Hendren in that, in
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that movie, it was just with her getting on the boat and driving across the bay. I, I've
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always just, I thought that she, she was such a cool character. And I know she's kind of
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seen as a, as a little bit, you know, silly in the movie, but I've always thought that
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she was kind of great. And then also just, yeah, the, the kind of securing of the house
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and, and preparing for this, this invading threat. I think that that, that is something
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that I definitely was thinking of and The Birds, Jaws, of course. And then I still actually,
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I, I like this, the mystery of, you know, this kind of small coastal town dealing with
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this strange thing that's, that starts happening. That's something that I think is, it's something
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familiar and then to kind of place it in this place that's also familiar to me, but obviously
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maybe not familiar to lots of people was, was fun.
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It's a group of people, as in your film, it's not just one person. It really is a community.
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Yeah, but it's impacted.
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Yeah, yeah, definitely. And, and that was, that was also kind of fun to play around with
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too, just in, and then it was this, the threat kind of at first it, it, it starts with affecting
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this kind of outsider, the police officer, but then moves towards closer to home to,
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to the father and, and to the fishermen, of course. It was, it was definitely an interesting,
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but also just, just for myself and a process for, I had just been coming out of a bit of
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a, not a bit of a big health scare and, and this, it, this kind of invading threat and
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having to kind of figure out how to fight it was something that I was just also on a
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personal level, just having come out of, it was, I
think important for me to kind of process
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that and kind of have these girls succeed and in kind of, you know, getting rid of the,
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the invasion.
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And I love the way that you build on the slasher mythology in terms of normally a slasher
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film is really anthropocentric in that it's about humans dying, but here we also have
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animals that have been parasited. So the entire land itself and all life forms have been,
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you know, endangered by this, this alien presence that's not been invited, of course, onto the
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land and the, the young women are not just defending themselves, but their entire community,
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including all of the life forms that are there. And I really, really appreciated that.
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Thanks. Yeah. When I was thinking about this movie, I was thinking about these really amazing,
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resilient women. And I thought, you know, if, if anyone was going to be able to handle
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an invading threat, these, these gals, you know, would, would, it would be tough to take
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them on. So I was definitely inspired by, by a lot of, of amazing women up in the Arctic.
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And there is a real feeling of fighting for, or just, you know, the recognition of the
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importance of, of our relationship to the land and, and having, having a meaningful
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and respectful relationship with the land. And that it's something that is also has,
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you should have a healthy fear of as well. But the, the, the, the mood of the film is
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very positive and it, it's interesting to contrast it with Saiko, which is a night slasher,
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whereas yours is a day slasher, isn't it? Yeah. By almost by necessity, because in the
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summer, the sun basically doesn't go out and go down in Nunavut. And yeah, it was really
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important for me for this movie to feel really empowering just because it was especially
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made for kids. And also that are recognizing that there hasn't always been empowering representations
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of our communities on screen. And to have that represented was really, was really important
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to me and, and to have people feel really proud of, of being from, from the Arctic.
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And just thinking too about in one sense, how Saiko is a bit of a cautionary tale in
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terms of the fact that the protagonist, you know, she's done something really uncharacteristic
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for her, which is to steal this money, assume that she doesn't have any kind of criminal
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record and then the result, as we know, is what it is. And I'm just wondering if in a
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very different way, if you've also thought about cautionary tale in terms of a cautionary
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tale in terms of invasion and then what these women defend and the way they take care of
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business or if the cautionary tale has played an important role in your own writing.
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She shouldn't have. Yeah, definitely. Sorry, what was that?
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She shouldn't have stolen her friend's cell phone.
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Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, I think that that is, I definitely love playing with the idea
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of the cautionary tale and that's something that is quite common in horror and Hitchcock
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definitely does that. She steals the money and then gets murdered almost immediately.
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And the I was going to say no, sorry for the spoiler, but I feel like if you haven't watched
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it yet. And for me growing up, we have these scary stories that were told all the time
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that the Arctic is a very, very dangerous place to live. There are certain rules that
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are just important to follow. And of course, you don't always follow them. Like in the
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springtime, the ice breaks up and it's really fun for kids to jump in between the ice, the
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floating ice, as it's kind of breaking up in the springtime. And they do it in shallow
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enough water that it's going to be fine. But we have these stories about how the ice breaks
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up, these women who live underneath the ice and steal children. They just kind of wait
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for children to jump so they can steal them and take them as their own. And they wear
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these amounties, big hoods so they can carry the children in their backs. And so it was
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playing around with that idea of these cautionary tales. And also, but just I think that even
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in the work that I'm working on right now, one is a documentary and we're playing around
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with these ideas of the importance of learning lessons from mistakes. We also have, I think,
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within our communities, if we don't want to talk about something, we might create a cautionary
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tale around it as an easier
way to talk about the thing. But sometimes it's important to
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talk about these scary things in order to heal and not to be afraid all the time. I
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mean, but then it's also, fear is also kind of a warning of danger. So it's something
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that's important to be listening to. But these are things that I think that are so fun to
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kind of play around with within storytelling, especially if you have someone that has kind
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of the tension that comes with this, the kind of the making of the mistake is also very
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an important part, I think.
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Adults are almost absent from the film. I mean, it's really told from the point of view
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of the children. What is it that made you choose to write a story from that perspective?
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Yeah, I think that that was just something that was very early on, something that was
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fun to play around with, especially, mostly because of partially my experience growing
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up and having adventures with my brother and our friends. But when we got there in Topang
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for the very first time, when the sun kind of rises up in the sky and then doesn't set
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for 24 hours, or actually doesn't set for 11 days, the kids, they just have basically
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free reign of this place. And the adults still have to go to work in the day and they kind
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of live their normal lives. But the kids, they're just out of school. And because this
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is the one time of year where the sun, it's just up all the time and it's beautiful and
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the kids can be out exploring that they're encouraged to do so. And so you just see these
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like gigantic packs of kids at three in the morning walking around playing and it's like
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a ghost town. And so to be able to kind of showcase that side of the community was something
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that we wanted to explore.
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And is there anything you can tell us about the next film? Is there anything you would
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be able to share at this point? Is it going to be more genre defying narrative with a
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bit of horror? Or what can you tell us?
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Yeah, yeah, it's I would say it's a comedy tragedy disguised as a horror. It is more
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of an adult horror for sure. That was a goal of mine to kind of do something a little more
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mature. And it was written at a time of kind of confusion. It happened in the middle of
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the pandemic and the summer of 2020, specifically when the world was just changing. You know,
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the death of George Floyd changed the way we talk about race and and representation
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and the get out had come out and every and changed everything and parasite had won best
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picture. And so I found that a lot of people were really interested in racialized storytellers
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talking about race, but in a fun way. And I was struggling a little bit with the ethics
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of drawing from trauma for entertainment, whether it was my own trauma or what felt
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so much worse was my community's trauma. Again, the cool thing about working in in making
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movies and horror is that I got to take that anxiety that I was thinking and just have
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that be the focus. And so it really kind of is is something that deals with with a bit
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of those issues and in a bit of a meta way. And where will the film take place? We're
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going to film it in Toronto ish. It's going to be kind of it's called In the Heart of
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the South. So it's not filmed in the Arctic because we basically call anywhere that's
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not the Arctic, the South. And I know that when you agreed to come on the podcast and
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you suggested to speak about psycho, I'm wondering if you might give our listeners who might
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not have already seen psycho. Can you give them in your own words a reason why we should
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watch psycho today? You know, we know about what's problematic about Hitchcock, but why
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should we still watch Hitchcock? Yeah, I think that I mean, and you know, I think it's important
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to get to to recognize that Hitchcock is a controversial guy. But, you know, there are
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these really amazingly strong performances by these women that that drive the movie and
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and this, you know, love of these two sisters. And I think it's such a fun and influential
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horror movie on and and it's really one that I feel like the themes that are within it.
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I mean, I can watch it now as a 37 year old. And my understanding of the themes are so
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different than what my understandings must have been when I was 15 and watching it for
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the first time. Yeah, I think that it's it's really kind of interesting to, you
know, these
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these dynamics and are so interesting to be considering and exploring. And I feel just
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as relevant today. Thank you. And it's as you said earlier, too, that filmmaking is
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such a collective effort to that we don't, you know, it's really important to emphasize,
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as you said, those powerful performances from the actors, what we get from the musical composer,
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the editing, all of these elements that work together to make the film this cohesive unit.
432
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Yeah, yeah. And I think, you know, we talk a lot about a tours and that sort of thing.
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But my little brother who directs animated stuff is we kind of joke that people that
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identify as tours are probably overestimating their importance to the project, which directors
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probably do anyway as a personality trait. But it is it really is such a team sport.
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And and the so it involves so many amazingly talented people coming together and bringing
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their ideas. I think for me, what I try and focus on in the in the process of making movies
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really is that collective effort that it is so amazing that work, this group of people
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are coming together and making something from just an idea and that there was nothing that
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existed before. But we kind of came together and created something. I think that that process
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is so special that it is to me almost, you know, that is the thing. Hopefully, then we
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00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:35,720
feel proud enough that we can be sharing it. And and I sometimes I'll watch a movie and
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I know that I had said that, you know, I watch movies differently, but I still will sometimes
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just turn on a movie I haven't seen before and then just be so delighted and just feel
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like, oh, wow, I just like someone presented this little gift. And I mean, this team of
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00:51:56,320 --> 00:52:03,720
people have presented this created this little this experience and it's and story and it's
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and so it's so kind of I do still believe in this kind of magic of the story.
448
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:16,560
And this relates to what you were saying about the fact that sometimes people are too harsh
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when they don't like a film and they forget the huge amount of work and love that the
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00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:25,480
people making the films put into them.
451
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:34,960
Yeah. And it's certainly with with Slashback where we were trying to do something that
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was a bit different and and, you know, considering how we did it and how the community was involved,
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00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:50,320
I think that it was. Yeah, I mean, but also I should say that if if I was to do it again,
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I would do it entirely differently. It's but that's I think also just for myself, I can
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can only be super grateful for the for the experience and the lessons and just try and
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get better, really.
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Is there a question we haven't asked that we should have asked?
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No, no, no.
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We really thank you for spending this hour with us. We really appreciated hearing more
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about your process and how it relates to your own cinephilia and the films that have been
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important to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
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Thank you for listening to After Images. Please subscribe on your favorite podcast app and
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