Indie thriller Dead Mail, by US filmmakers Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy, begins with the scene of a man, partially shackled, dragging himself to the post box next to the small home he’s burst out of. He’s intercepted, but not before shoving a piece of paper with words written in his own blood into the slot.
It sets off a chain of events that involve a dead letter office, a surreal kidnapping, and the nature of creativity. Music is key to the story; Josh, the unfortunate man, as it turns out, is a synthesizer engineer, an otherworldly soul obsessed with producing the perfect sound for his instruments. He’s been kidnapped by the even more obsessive Trent.
The story celebrates the role of those back office heroes like Jasper the dead mail detective, who doggedly tracks down the correct addresses for packages and letters from the scant clues he’s given, and Josh’s meticulous methods of synth sound creation. The lighting and cinematography create poetic scenes out of everyday and even run down locales like the men’s hostel that becomes pivotal to the story.
An off-beat sensibility permeates the story, and the “thriller” slot doesn’t quite capture its eccentric nature. Essentially, the story of two people tracking each other down is interwoven with scenes that highlight the obsessive nature of creation and other themes.
The Music
Along with the synthesizer pieces, composed by the filmmaker duo, and Four Fantasies for the Synclavier by John Appleton, the soundtrack also includes traditional classical repertoire, such as Purcell’s King Arthur Suite (Act 3 Prelude), Debussy’s Suite Bergamesque, and a handful of pieces by JS Bach, including his Trio Sonata No. 1 in E-flat.
The synth musical excerpts are used to underpin the shifting moods of the film, helping to turn the innocuous confines of a postal office into the weirdly sinister scene of murders and mayhem. The mood ranges from quirky to foreboding to tension on an operatic score as the action ramps up during about the last third of the movie.
The movie got its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and LvT asked a few questions of the filmmakers.
Filmmaker Q&A
Q: I noticed that you are both listed as directors, writers of the screenplay, and also composers. (With Kyle also as cinematographer and editor). Even for indie productions, that’s an unusual combination — so I guess I’m wondering, are you synthesizer engineers/enthusiasts/composers who became filmmakers, or the other way around?
A: Very insightful! Yes, one of our many creative collaborations actually began with music — and synthesizers were very much a part of that experience. We collaborated in an indie rock band and often-times found ourselves with a broken key or note on one of our several late 70s-analog synths… so what else do you do but open the circuit board and see what you can play around with? But we certainly both love synths, and Wendy Carlos was a huge influence for us a composer — we bonded early on over her Clockwork Orange theme.
Q: Do either/both of you have a background in music per se?
A: Yes, that indie rock band (we went by the name Jumbling Towers) was a fun and major pursuit for several years. We also scored our first feature film BAB (2020) which utilized a lot of synth music, albeit with a very different tonal pallet.
Q: How did you come up with this story? Is any of it based on real life experiences (perhaps not murder, but the dead letter office?)
A: The settings — mainly what we viewed as a non-sensationalized authentic 80s midwest — were based on real-life photos and memories, but not necessarily any components of the story. We were actually dabbling with a few different screenplay ideas when we read about the “dead letter office” in the post office. We found it fascinating… and then the idea of the first scene — a bound man crawling toward a postal box with a bloody help note — became the impetus to create Jasper and this sort of savant craftsman of a dead letter investigator. It was a fun world to build.
Q: Is this a realistic portrait of a synthesizer engineer — i.e. obsessive, detail oriented, consumed with coming up with perfection?
A: We did a lot of research to hopefully get the facts right as far as the tech/terminology etc. But can’t speak to any real-life synth engineers and their processes. That said, surely the above descriptions apply to most of them, right? Would love to hear from one if they somehow read this or watch the film!
Q: The synthesizer compositions, I noticed, are used in the film to heighten the emotional parts. It reminded me of the power of synthesizers — would you agree that they’re underused as an expressive instrument, for film and otherwise? So much of what we hear of them is processed dance/pop music.
A: I think generally we love how music can manipulate tone/feel/emotion etc. and with the synth theme of the film it definitely felt like the motivated choice to use synthesizer music. And yes, its capabilities, especially some of the aforementioned connoisseurs of early analog synths like Wendy Carlos and Janet Beat (whose music we licensed for some of the “tinkering” synth sounds) certainly turned the instrument into a new art-form that at least, in our minds, differs from the classic 80s synth-dance riff.
I don’t think we’d fully say the soundtrack is about the “power of synthesizers” but more so utilizing and showcasing synths in a soundtrack that hopefully plays a major role in dictating and influencing tone, feel, and texture.
Q: Thematically, the story for me was about the creative process and ownership of it — or is that reading too much into it?
A: Great observation! It’s certainly a theme for Josh and Jasper — people owning their crafts and processes and I guess that sort of mirrors how we approach filmmaking — but frankly that’s the first time I think that parallel has actually been drawn out, even between the two of us… but it’s pretty spot-on!
Trent’s plight is more one of loneliness and repression of course, and the lengths that people will go for some kind of real connection, and that’s what we’ve cited as the main heme, but it certainly doesn’t contradict the creative process/ownership sub-theme you mentioned.
TIFF Screenings
The film screens September 12, 13 and 14 at the Toronto International Film Festival; details [HERE].
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