Shreveport native Evan Falbaum is the Creative Director of Moviesauce, a movie studio and design firm currently working on a variety of projects including new music videos for local bands, Engine and Hwy Lions, along with a new feature length film, “The Paranormals,” scheduled for release in 2015.
Moviesauce’s green screen photo booth creations for “The Rewind” events at the Robinson Film Center have become the stuff local legends are made of. The photo booths were recreations of scenes from classic movies such as “Jaws” and “Batman.” Theatregoers were able to dress up in costumes and take action shots of themselves in the movie scenes.
One event featured an “Alien” inspired photo booth with costumes from the infamous chest-burster scene. The latest event took place on Halloween night and featured a photo booth with a “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” theme, which included a super-sized chainsaw.
Last week, Evan Falbaum took some time to discuss his work, his well-honed talent for making pretty movies on a budget, and the local film scene. Here’s what he had to say:
How would you describe the style or genre of film you like to work in?
“It’s pretty hard to categorize what I do with one genre or style. If there is a pattern it’s probably something to do with taking classic character archetypes and giving them absurd and human stories. I’ve done movies and videos with spacemen, pirates, clowns, ghost hunters, etc. But none of them are what you would generally expect from those genres. I guess I like to take clichés and turn them on their head. And I typically do that through comedy.
As far as the style that I shoot goes, it’s pretty much evolved in an effort to make the prettiest looking images with the least amount of resources. It’s one thing when you have a big crew and a lot of time to light a scene and make it look perfect. But I’ve kind of found my visual style through trying to make the most of what’s already there. I often just shoot with natural light.”
Do you write your own screenplays?
“I do mostly write my own screenplays. I usually come up with an idea I want to do and then carry it through every stage of making it a movie. I think it would be challenging for me to direct a script I didn’t have any input on. “The Paranormals” is a little bit of an exception in that it was written by me and my friend, Keith Shively. It’s based on a concept Keith came up with years ago for a web series that never panned out.
I decided one day that it was time to try and make another feature and Keith’s Paranormals concept seemed like a fun one to re-explore and adapt to a different kind of format. So I approached Keith and he was on board and we worked on it for about 5 months before we started shooting. It went through many iterations before finding something that we were happy with but also was feasible to shoot without any money.”
How did you come up with the name “Moviesauce?”
“The ‘sauce’ is a metaphor for what makes our work different. It’s that special something you can’t get anywhere else. We’re willing to try anything and we put a lot of effort into everything we do… often at our own expense. We realize that film is really competitive and a difficult world to survive in so we try to be the best we can possibly be. Plus, we just really like doing it. We have moviesauce in our blood.”
What is the benefit of shooting films in Shreveport?
“Besides it being my home town, it’s not saturated with other filmmakers. If you try to make it big in a large city there can be a million other people trying to do the same thing.” He also says that the Louisiana Film Prize and Robinson Film Center do a great deal to “highlight a lot of local talent.” In fact, two of his short films have been in the Louisiana Film Prize Top 20 Selection and his first feature film, “Getting Outer Space” was screened at Robinson Film Center.
For more information about Evan Falbaum’s work and Moviesauce you can find him on Facebook or at www.moviesauce.com.