The NoSleep Podcast - Tales From the Void - Behind the Scenes Podcast - Episode 03

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

This Behind the Scenes Podcast is your chance to go behind the curtain to learn more about the people who have created the new horror anthology streaming series: Tales From The Void. Hosted by David Cummings from The NoSleep Podcast and one of the executive producers of Tales From The Void. He'll be speaking with the various writers and directors who brought these sleepless tales to the screen.New episodes of Tales From The Void will be available to stream weekly on Screambox in the US & Super Channel in Canada starting on Oct 13th.On this episode, we meet Manen Lyset whose tale "I Used to Hack Baby Monitors" was the inspiration for the second episode of Tales From the Void, titled "Fixed Frequency". We'll learn about what inspired that story and how online horror has evolved over the years.Click here to learn more about Tales From the VoidClick here to learn more about Manen LysetFollow Tales From the Void on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and on IMDb.Tales From the Void - The Behind the Scenes Podcast is a Creative Reason Media production, in conjunction with Envoi Entertainment.Music by Alex Cuervo and Brandon Boone.Audio program ©2024 - Creative Reason Media Inc. - All Rights Reserved - No reproduction or use of this content is permitted without the express written consent of Creative Reason Media Inc. The copyrights for each story are held by the respective authors.

From the silence, from the darkness, from your nightmares, Tales from the Void, Behind the Seins 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 is author Manon Lyset. Manon is one of the podcast's most prolific authors, having penned dozens of stories that we have featured on the show, including regular season stories, Halloween and Christmas stories, tales for our live shows,

and the extended series called Tales of the Mooncrawler. We are always thrilled to be able to share the stories from this gifted writer. On this episode, I'll talk with Manon about the story I used to hack baby monitors, which has been adapted for the Tales from the Void episode called Fixed Frequency. We'll discuss how stories are created and what it's like to see your own work make it onto the screen. And so, join me as we delve into the dark world of the void. Man and Lyset, welcome to Tales from the Void behind the scenes podcast where we learn more about the people who helped create this funky new horror anthology show. and we're going to be talking about your story featured on the show, which we've called fixed frequency,

but it was your famous no sleep story with the title, I used to hack baby monitors. One night I learned my lesson. So welcome. Hi, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure to speak with you. And as a fellow Canadian, you know, I think now there's going to be some class in the show, you know. Talking to all these Americans.

Oh, I don't know. You need a little bit of everything sprinkled in. Exactly, exactly. So your story, which was such a hit on not just the subreddit, but we were fortunate enough to be able to adapt your story for the No Sleep podcast as well in audio. And so we have this story where, you know, you have parents with kids and they've got the ubiquitous baby monitors

so they can hear what their kids are doing. What was it about that premise? Where did this idea of this nightmarish situation where you have parents hearing strange things on their baby monitor? How did you conjure that up in your mind? It was actually my co-worker who had a baby monitor at home. She had just had a baby. And she could hear her neighbor speaking to her own child on her monitor. They were, their frequencies matched.

So when I heard that, I was like, this is a great premise for a story. I was also reading a lot of creepypasta and listening to a lot of horror narrations. And I noticed a lot of stories about demonic baby monitors or like ghosts seen on the monitors and stuff. And I wanted to turn the trope around and have a story where the voices on the baby monitor are actually just normal people, making trouble, pranking other people. And yeah, it's interesting you say that because, you know, I'm not a parent. And so I've never used these things. But, you know, we, in the story, it's just an audio monitor. It's just like a speaker you listen to what's happening.

But nowadays, of course, everything is you get video, you get 4K video of watching your kid's sleep. And like you say, yeah, the ghostly images or the images of the kid looking into the camera in the middle of the night. Eyes glowing. Eyes glowing. It's terrifying. It's terrifying. But yeah, and it's amazing to think about a real-life situation where you have cross-frequencies or, you know, shared frequencies. It's ripe for horror, that's for sure. Yeah. I mean, the same thing happens with phones. Like, sometimes I'll get a call.

and I'm essentially receiving a fax through my phone, but it wasn't meant for me. And it's just, it's the weirdest noise that you hear on the other side. It's just weird. Yeah, it is. And it's, yeah, I think I've experienced that too, or even back in the day, I'm an old man, and back of the dial-up internet days where you had the modem and you hear the squeaks and chirps and everything. And, you know, it's almost like you listen to that long enough. And, you know, our brains, we're always trying to figure out patterns or hear things, see things. And, yeah, it's, anything that isn't just a normal sound can be very creepy. I think you might have the start of a horror story there.

I just might. If only there was a way to share that horror story with others, perhaps an audio format. Maybe. So tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you kind of got into this world of, whether it's creepypasta or the no sleep subreddit. You know, you mentioned you're obviously a very prolific writer. What is it about writing and more specifically about horror that, has drawn from you this incredible well of great stories.

First of all, thank you. That's very kind. Secondly, I guess I've always loved to create, whether it's horror or I used to draw webcomics long, long ago. As a kid, I absolutely loved, Are You Afraid of the Dark? It was one of my favorite shows. My parents used to give me coupons to stay awake later at night, like a half an hour later, and I would always use them to watch Are You Afraid of the Dark?

And then one day I stumbled on a podcast and I ran out of episodes and then I googled horror podcast. I found your podcast. I found the No Sleep podcast. I think at that point you were season three, you were just finishing season three. I binge through the entire thing. I bought the season pass or season four. Freakin loved it. Ended up looking up the subreddit and I started posting stories because I was secretly hoping that someday I'd be on the show and it happened and it was the best moment of my life. Well, that's a great connection that we've had. And, yeah, I was thinking this morning, back in the early days, you know, I would go through

the subreddit and I would find stories that were obviously good quality stories and stories that I thought would adapt well to the show. Was it me who reached out to you? Did you get one of those DMs on Reddit that was like, hey, I'm David Cummings and we'd like to do your story? Yes, I got a DM from you. I was at work that day. It was just before lunch.

I was about to go to the gym. and I absolutely destroyed the gym because I was so excited. I was like running a mile a minute on the elliptical. That's awesome. Well, I'm glad the, you know, that all worked out because, yeah, back in the early days, it was it was such a jankety system where I would reach out to these people and not even seeing their real names. It's just, you know, Dr. Blood and Guts, four, five, six.

And it's like, hey, we like your story. Can we do it? And of course, back then, too, it was like, you know, what's a podcast and what's, you know, how does it all work and everything? And I think back in those days, we paid the princely sum of $25 for the story or something like that. It's still more than most people who try in the writing business start off with, which is pretty cool. And it's interesting. You've been around for long enough to see the transition. And I'm curious to get your impression of going from the early days, like you say, where people would just reach out and, you know, hey, I've got a podcast. or I've got a YouTube channel and I can throw you a few dollars to do it. And now, of course, it's become so much more of a business, it seems. You have people from Hollywood who are scanning no sleep all the time. Everyone is looking for this IP, this intellectual property that could be

adapted for screen or audio and bigger productions and stuff like that. How are you seeing the landscape change in terms of that type of thing, the business and people reaching out and saying, hey, I want to use your story. How can I work with you? I think part of the The problem is I haven't posted much in about a year, so I haven't seen any of that recently. But just in general, the way it's shifting, it's more everyone wants a piece of the pie and not everyone cares about the authors. Sometimes, you know, there's YouTube channels that will just, they'll use an AI bot to read the story with free music and they never once ask the authors. And that's awful. At the same time, there's amazing projects like this one where

you just get approached by someone and they're like, hey, we want to make a short film of your story. And then it turns into like a series and you're an episode in the series. And it's just, I don't know. Yeah, it's that feast or famine. Yeah, it's interesting too. And obviously, for so many years, focus just kind of on our show and you're trying to keep it running, that kind of thing. But as you said, there is now this advent of AI everything. And so they can take your story, just copy it from the internet, paste it into an app, and boom, you've got a relatively realistic sounding narrator. And as you say, you throw some stock music on there, throw it on YouTube. And it's frightening to think that there is that sort of appropriation

of this content without scruples. And so I guess for any writer out there and people who are thinking of sort of starting to share their own content online, you have to be aware of all the little snares and traps that seem to be growing every day. Right. And it used to be that they're actually stealing your stories, but now because of the prevalence of AI, now it's like they're stealing all the stories and they're using that content to spit out their own, you know? So it's, I don't know, I just feel like everyone has their hands in everyone else's pockets. Maybe if you want your own channel, if you want to create something, just create something or pay someone to create something for you. Yeah. And it's interesting.

too when I've talked with authors and people who post on the subreddit. So many of them, they're either, hey, you want to use my story? I'm cool with that. Just ask me. Just even that. And then it's, hey, you want to use my story? That's cool. If you're going to generate some money from it, how about sharing a little bit of that? So I wish these people realize that authors are more than willing to collaborate and to do things like that. But as long as there's just some communication and some word we hear a lot these days. If you just get consent, then things become so much easier and more, more just better for everybody. And it's funny too, you mention about how just taking content and back in the day, I'm sure it still happens, is you go on Amazon and it would

be horror stories to keep you up at night. And it's this jankety self-published novel that's just literally stories pulled off of the subreddit. And so yeah, it seems no matter what technology is out there, going to use it to scam other people. It's a shame. Right. Just be creative. I mean, there is a skill to it, but literally anyone can write. Like, you just, just write your story, post it, use the feedback to get stronger and write more. It's true. And I think especially with horror, you know, there's the label, creepy pasta is, you know, it's used. It's kind of become almost ambiguous these days. Everyone has their own understanding of what that term means. But to me, creepy pasta in its truest form is it really isn't about like great prose that you're writing.

It's just this breathless, I always think about it. You know, somebody's walking home at night and something scary happens to them. They race home, they turn on their computer and they just breathlessly type, I did this, and then I walked down, and then I turned the corner, and I saw this. And it's just that kind of breathless, true recounting of a story. And so, not to disparage creepypasta writers, but you don't have. have to begin with some sort of degree in creative writing, you can just share a nightmare that you had or just adapt it. And so, yeah, I would agree with you that just do it, just get just stuff

out there. And as you said, get the feedback and grow from that. And I'm sure you have experienced that on the subreddit within the community as well. You talk to other writers and you, you kind of help each other and build each other up. Absolutely. Yeah. And I don't have any formal training and writing. I mean, I've always done like text-based role-playing, which is a little nerdy, but I mean, that's, that's the training I have, that and posting on a separate date, you know. Sure, sure. Well, we talked about, you know, how someone reached out to you and the next thing you know, many years later, I assume, but all of a sudden there's, you have an episode of your story on the screen. Tell us a little bit about how you originally got contacted and how did you become a part of Tales from the void. I believe that was just like with a podcast, I just happened to get a DM on Reddit.

And it was Francesco saying that he was thinking of doing it. I believe at the time it was a web series, maybe like five minutes long or something like that per story. And he was interested in one of mine. And I was like, sure, no problem. After a while, I signed something that's called an option agreement, which is you're basically promising that they can reserve the rights to do it. I think we had to renew it a few times because the project just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And it ballooned from this little web series that was supposed to come out the next year to, I don't even have words, but like an actual like TV series that's going to play on TV,

that's going to be on a streaming website. Like, amazing. Yeah. Yeah. And you're right. And I remember Francesco, the showrunner, reached out to me probably around the same time many years ago. And yes, it started with, hey, we're thinking of putting together this web series. even back then it was for me, because running the No Sleep podcast, people would reach out to me and

they say, hey, that's a cool story I heard on your show. I'd like to make a video version of it or whatever. And so I would get that a lot. And so with Francesco, I kind of foolishly kind of lumped him into that same thing. Oh, it's just some guy with a video camera and he wants to create a YouTube channel. And as you said, he has, Francesco is so driven and so passionate. And the quality and the passion that he puts into this project has seen it grow and grow and grow and grow. And, you know, you can say what you will about things like grants and tax cuts and things like that. That's why a lot of Hollywood films are filmed in Canada. But so being supported by the Canadian tax system with grants and different things like that, we've been able to create

this series very much in Canada with a lot of Canadian actors and all the crew is Canadian. And so that has allowed this project to grow from a YouTube. channel to a full-blown streaming TV series. It's amazing to see. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Now you have, you have seen a release version of your story and I'm fascinated to know how you felt watching it and how'd you feel seeing your story come to life. Well, first of all, I was shaking because I was so freaking excited. I have zero chill. Okay. Like if something thrills me, I will, I will just internally scream, maybe externally grumble in like a, like a, I don't know. I was just, I was very excited about it, is what I'm trying to say. Of course. I thought, I thought it looked absolutely amazing.

Like, Hollywood quality, I don't know much about the cinematography, but like I was looking at the shots that they took and absolutely just gorgeous, like just, just, I don't have the words to describe, but like, just this beautiful sweeping shots of like the streets and, and the actors were amazing. as well. I love some of the things that were added to the script. There's one line that made me laugh out loud. It was just fan-frigand-dastic. But the whole thing, I was so excited. Oh, that's great. I'm glad that you liked the way it came out. And yeah, as you mentioned, obviously, so we're taking a story that had your vision of it and, you know, you crafted the story. And then we said, okay, we're going to take this story and we're going to adapt it to a, say, 25-minute screen adaptation. And as,

so often happens, you hear stories about novels getting adapted to a movie. And of course, there's always changes and cuts and stuff like that. So I'm curious how you felt about seeing the way your story was changed and adapted to fit into that format. I'm all good with everything. I thought it was good changes. It's always nice to see different interpretations of the same story. And the story itself, like I was saying, like I had myself read a bunch of stories about a baby monitor. So that was my interpretation of something that would happen with a baby monitor. So I have no problem with it being changed around a little bit. Yeah. And one thing I found about pretty much every episode of Tales from the Void is that you're taking stories that have, you know, work really well on

the page or the screen, if you will, just in written word form. They're very solid. And then when they've been adapted for Tales from the Void, there seems to be a real emphasis on the human connection. And with fixed frequency, you know, whether people are waiting to see this episode or maybe they've already seen it, so I'm not going to spoil anything, but you have a group of teenage boys who are, you know, pranking around with these monitors. And it's the interaction with the boys and one of the, sort of the main kid and his mom and stuff like that. It's fascinating to see that when you bring a story to the screen, there has to be, to me, an enhanced aspect of how the people, interact with each other, maybe even more than how they react with a serial killer or a monster

in the woods, that type of thing. Yeah, and the interaction between the three main characters, I thought was great. They added one of the characters is a little bit more of a bully towards the main character. I thought that was pretty interesting. He was being such a little shit, and I loved it. And I love the way the main character is very sympathetic. Like, I felt bad for him. And the character in the original story, I don't think you can really feel bad for him, but this guy, like, the actor, like, hit it out of the ballpark. John, who worked the script, did a great job adding more oomph to the character. And it's interesting because I think you need that when you're telling a story in this format where if the kids who were doing these pretty cruel pranks, if they were, as you said, just like shitty little kids that you didn't really care about, it wouldn't have the same impact. you needed that kind of sympathy or empathy with a kid who, you know, he wants to fit in,

one of the kids a bully and all this kind of stuff. And he really knows he shouldn't be doing this, but he does it to fit in. And so if there are consequences to his actions, you know, you have that sort of connection where you actually care about this kid. It was interesting for me. I was fortunate enough to drive the six hours up to Sue St. Marie. And I was on set when one of the day, or I guess a couple of the days when this episode was being filmed. And yeah, I share your sort of awe and wonder of seeing how a story like this is filmed. And what I love about it, and this really isn't any spoilers, but there's a scene where the kids have had their first rough night and it's morning and he walks into the kitchen to talk to his mom. And it's a bright, sunny day.

Well, that was filmed about midnight. And I pull up to this house where they were filming. Yeah, in in the middle of this subdivision, there's all these trucks and everything. And the way they do it is they just put this huge square, this rectangle of massively bright light right up against the window, shine it in. And there's your sunshine. Wow. I never would have guessed that that was an actual daylight. Exactly. It's phenomenal. And yeah, there's being able to hang around various different sets. One of the stories, there's basically a cracked den, you know, this decrepit apartment with broken furniture and stuff. like that and I walked through this place and it was just amazing not that I spend a lot of time in cracked ends but I can only assume that that's what it looks like and and this this set this incredible realistic crack den was in the middle of an old high school gym and so it's just the magic of movie making is is awesome if anyone ever gets a chance to experience it what they do and the other thing that really impressed me and kind of getting back to what I said about, you know, having these, the financial freedom to do stuff, like the quality of, like the cameras and the lights

and the crew, if they were filming a movie, it wouldn't be any different. Oh, for sure, yeah. This could be a high budget movie and they would have the same kind of gear, the same kind of crew. And so I have such a small part in the overall creation of this project, but even that small part, I'm just so proud of what Francesco and the team have put together. And such amazing work. I have to ask, how was it to see like the scenes from like a different angle and then later on see the, the movie version of it?

It's funny because there's a scene, you know, referring back to the scene about the kitchen, you know, and there's the boy who says, hey, I'm, you know, going to go to the movies. And she goes, okay, here's some money. And he goes, thanks, mom. And he runs down the stairs. And, you know, we were all huddled. They call it the video village. the monitors to watch it. And so you hear him upstairs and then th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th-th- He comes down the stairs and then it's cut and that and that's it. So yeah, to see this scene, like you say, just kind of watching the end of it as he comes down the stairs out of camera range. It's kind of cool. And the other thing that amazes me is just even though this is a very short filming schedule, they have to go, go, go,

there's still lots and lots of takes. And so it's like, you do that scene, cut, reset, do it again, cut and then, you know, change certain angles and different things. And yeah, Francesco directed that episode. And he's so gifted. And, you know, again, everybody knows what they're doing. I'm standing there just in awe like a like a dog, you know, fireworks going off and not knowing what to do. And the crew and the people are just so professional and so amazing. I'm just thrilled that you, you've enjoyed and loved seeing your story come onto the screen. How could I not? I mean, you saw it. You saw how amazing. it turned out. Like, I could only be happy. Except, except the bikes, okay? That, why are you just leaving your bikes on the middle of the road? Unlocked? I guess maybe I'm a little too, um, of an anxious

person. I would always, always lock my bike anywhere I go. Right, right. And it's funny because I'm, I do a lot of cycling. And obviously these are, these are kids with just the, you know, probably cheap little BMX bikes. I know what it was like as a kid riding your bike. But for me, they get, they ride along, they get off their bike and they just drop it. You know, just falls under the asphalt. And it's like, oh, those are bikes. Treat them more and better. Kids. Oh, my goodness. Oh, those kids. I would, my kickstand would be up. I would lock it. I would double check, triple check the lock. Exactly. Exactly. See, they treated their bikes poorly. Exactly. That's the real comeuppance here. Not because of the whole baby monitor stuff. It's because

of how they treated their bikes. That is, that's the true story or the true moral of this story is to treat your bikes better. Absolutely. Well, Mennan, thank you for taking the time to be a part of this and sharing this fun adventure of seeing your story come to the screen.

And who knows, fingers crossed, maybe we get a season two and maybe there's more adaptations in the future. Maybe. I'm excited to see the reactions to my episode. I'm excited to see the other episodes because I haven't seen those yet either.

That should be pretty cool as well. Yeah, I'm obviously, I'm biased, but everyone that I've seen has just been amazing. And again, no spoilers, but it's like every story just, as I touched on before, there is such a human element to it. And what it's inspired me to think about is to make sure that when we adapt a story, which is very different, obviously audio and video is very different, but to make sure that there is that human element and there is that sense of caring about the characters

rather than even if it's just a guy walking through a haunted house one night, there needs to be that real sense of humanity. And that thread goes all the way through all six episodes. So I can't wait for people to see it. I also cannot wait. Well, again, thank you, Manon. And hopefully we can collaborate again in the future. And we'll do a feature-length film.

How's that? I'm down. Anytime, any day. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. We'll talk soon. I want to thank Manon Lyset for joining me and letting us listen in to that creepy, hacked baby monitor. Tales from the Void, the Behind the Seans 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. Join us next time for a deeper plunge into The Void. Thank you.