Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
Ammonia by@EmCee14
Cinematographer: Julio Lopez
Producer, Arranger: @nickmontopoli9129
VFX and Additional Editing: @OLLYROBZ
Camera/Zoom Operator: @anelfnamedghost4128
Cast
Heroine: Charissa Whillock
Bob, Husband: Brian Whillock
Cathy, Daughter: Allison Memrick
————————
This summer I have been culminating a video for my YouTube channel that I think may be the best representation of my voice and skill that I have captured on camera to date.
This journey began with Olly.
My friend, Olly, is a musical theatre nerd like I am, and he introduced me to a song that would change how I see myself as a performer.
Olly sent me the link to a song called Ammonia by Joe Iconis. On the first listen of this 8 minute manic odyssey of a song, I thought, “What an absolute chaos train. I don’t think I could pull that off.”
Then I listened again.
And again.
And…again.
And I fell in love.
I fell in love with the instrumentation, the vocal lines, the lyrics, the singer, Heidi Blickenstaff’s interpretation, all of it coalesced to simultaneously scream at me,
“SING THIS SONG, YOU NUT!”
This song was everything I’ve worked on for the past two decades of my experience in the performative arts. It’s hilarious, tragic, real—and unreal all in one piece of an all-too-relatable piece of theatre.
Two people immediately came to mind as I dreamed up the idea of making my own cover of this song and debut a visual representation.
Nick Montopoli & Julio Lopez
Nick Montopoli is an incredibly nimble & eclectic violinist. I had previously worked with him on a video game soundtrack pitch and a Bach cantata about coffee. A guy who I know always thinks on his feet and has a deep appreciation for the truly eccentric and twisted things in life. He was my first choice for the production and arrangement of this wacky orchestrational piece.
Julio Lopez is a deeply creative & intuitive cinematographer who I met on the set of my first experiences in front of a camera, a short thriller about a woman killing her husband to save her life’s work. His exploratory nature, warm demeanor, and professional eye made me immediately think of him for the dark comedy I was trying to pull off.
Both of these accomplished artists responded with swift acceptance.
I had the team.
Now we needed to make it happen.
I went to Nick’s studio in downtown Austin after he had sent me several takes of the orchestration he arranged and recorded.
I recorded my vocal line for roughly 90 minutes. We sat on the ground and listened through the whole preferred vocal take.
We exchanged a look to each other.
This was going to be an amazing track.
Then came Julio’s role. We met at my parents’ house at 7:30am and filmed moments in the song for two straight days and finished our elaborate shots on an additional Sunday afternoon. I danced, ran, jumped, faked a seizure--
Note: the physicality for this seizure seen on screen was coached by a medical professional, and the movements are similar to a reaction one may have from a similar overdose
--and set a mandala of trash around myself to create a visual story that tells so much more than what the words in this song could ever say.
Julio sent me the edits as he finished them and then he gave me the 1.15 TB of information on a hard drive to take home and upload to give to my original hype man, Olly.
Olly received the video made by Julio and added his visual effects. We went through several rounds of edits, down to seconds of re-edits to capture this story in its full glory.
Here is my interpretation of the song “Ammonia” from the wonderful mind of Joe Iconis.
Thank you to my wonderful Ammonia teammates.
Now here is your part, internet team.
Watch the video, share it, give it to others that will say yes to this as hard as these creatives did. If you do, we’ll keep making works like this.
Ammonia by@EmCee14
Cinematographer: Julio Lopez
Producer, Arranger: @nickmontopoli9129
VFX and Additional Editing: @OLLYROBZ
Camera/Zoom Operator: @anelfnamedghost4128
Cast
Heroine: Charissa Whillock
Bob, Husband: Brian Whillock
Cathy, Daughter: Allison Memrick
————————
This summer I have been culminating a video for my YouTube channel that I think may be the best representation of my voice and skill that I have captured on camera to date.
This journey began with Olly.
My friend, Olly, is a musical theatre nerd like I am, and he introduced me to a song that would change how I see myself as a performer.
Olly sent me the link to a song called Ammonia by Joe Iconis. On the first listen of this 8 minute manic odyssey of a song, I thought, “What an absolute chaos train. I don’t think I could pull that off.”
Then I listened again.
And again.
And…again.
And I fell in love.
I fell in love with the instrumentation, the vocal lines, the lyrics, the singer, Heidi Blickenstaff’s interpretation, all of it coalesced to simultaneously scream at me,
“SING THIS SONG, YOU NUT!”
This song was everything I’ve worked on for the past two decades of my experience in the performative arts. It’s hilarious, tragic, real—and unreal all in one piece of an all-too-relatable piece of theatre.
Two people immediately came to mind as I dreamed up the idea of making my own cover of this song and debut a visual representation.
Nick Montopoli & Julio Lopez
Nick Montopoli is an incredibly nimble & eclectic violinist. I had previously worked with him on a video game soundtrack pitch and a Bach cantata about coffee. A guy who I know always thinks on his feet and has a deep appreciation for the truly eccentric and twisted things in life. He was my first choice for the production and arrangement of this wacky orchestrational piece.
Julio Lopez is a deeply creative & intuitive cinematographer who I met on the set of my first experiences in front of a camera, a short thriller about a woman killing her husband to save her life’s work. His exploratory nature, warm demeanor, and professional eye made me immediately think of him for the dark comedy I was trying to pull off.
Both of these accomplished artists responded with swift acceptance.
I had the team.
Now we needed to make it happen.
I went to Nick’s studio in downtown Austin after he had sent me several takes of the orchestration he arranged and recorded.
I recorded my vocal line for roughly 90 minutes. We sat on the ground and listened through the whole preferred vocal take.
We exchanged a look to each other.
This was going to be an amazing track.
Then came Julio’s role. We met at my parents’ house at 7:30am and filmed moments in the song for two straight days and finished our elaborate shots on an additional Sunday afternoon. I danced, ran, jumped, faked a seizure--
Note: the physicality for this seizure seen on screen was coached by a medical professional, and the movements are similar to a reaction one may have from a similar overdose
--and set a mandala of trash around myself to create a visual story that tells so much more than what the words in this song could ever say.
Julio sent me the edits as he finished them and then he gave me the 1.15 TB of information on a hard drive to take home and upload to give to my original hype man, Olly.
Olly received the video made by Julio and added his visual effects. We went through several rounds of edits, down to seconds of re-edits to capture this story in its full glory.
Here is my interpretation of the song “Ammonia” from the wonderful mind of Joe Iconis.
Thank you to my wonderful Ammonia teammates.
Now here is your part, internet team.
Watch the video, share it, give it to others that will say yes to this as hard as these creatives did. If you do, we’ll keep making works like this.
