By PT Russell / October 2023
EPISODE 5: STOP MOTION WITH EVAN FALK OF MOOSE MOTION
Episode 5: My first interview with video creator and artist extraordinaire, Evan Falk of Moose Motion Studios.
Evan’s dedication to the arduous art of stop Motion absolutely amazes me.
It’s a marvel the way he animates entire scenes with the clay characters all by himself.
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FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT BELOW
“You’re listening to Journaling with PT.
I am your host artist, PT Russell.
Welcome back.
If you’ve been listening then you would be a part of the journey so far. And so far I’ve been sharing journal entries that were pre recorded.
But today marks the first time that I actually have a guest I’m interviewing.
A guest by the name of Evan Falk who happens to be just an extraordinary creator and artist in his own right.
He is a very successful claymation/stop motion animator from Moose Motion Studios.
I’ll have to introduce you to Evan Falk of Moose Motion Studios: my very first guest.
Another thing that I wanted to add was that in this whole process for me of journaling and to have a listening audience whomever you are. Know that you’re doing a tremendous amount just by lending an ear, being a part of something very important to me. For my growth as a person, as an artist, as a human being. And to have experiences with documenting my life, however it might have looked in the past.
Whether that was in the form of writing, writing short stories, writing poetry. Just words coming out through the fingers, typed out on a computer or written in a book. And there’s the act of actually painting. All of these thoughts come out; ideas, feelings, through splatters of paint, through the fingertips on a canvas, on a piece of paper. Sometimes on the thigh. Sometimes on a sidewalk. It doesn’t matter. Just feelings- where those things that are internalized are expressed.
And everyone needs to find expression.
So however you find your expression, just go with it. Whatever you’re comfortable with, whatever you enjoy – do it. Do it without judgment. Don’t allow yourself to be limited by whatever is in your mind or what other people’s misconceptions or prejudgments are of you.
It’s important to do what is best for you as a creative. And we all are creative in our own ways.
I just wanted to share that, just a little bit today, a little bit of my process, of the journaling.
Because having my guests included as a part of my journey, is a part of my journey.
The journaling includes my guests. And my podcast is in essence an opened book into my life; at least a part of my life that I’m sharing with the general public.
And that is the part that processes my experiences somewhat through the art of journaling. It is an art form and one that I’m learning and enjoying along the way.
Without further ado, I present to you my first guest.
THE INCEPTION OF MOOSE MOTION STUDIOS
PT: Today is a special day, because it’s a major achievement this week. There’s a major achievement this week!
This makes a month, a whole month since the podcast started, can you believe that?
It’s unbelievable how fast time flies.
And another milestone. Major.
This is the day that I have my first guest.
My guest happens to be an extraordinarily, extraordinarily talented artist and video creator, Evan Falk of Moose Motion…
EVAN: …Studios
PT: Welcome.
EVAN: Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure to be here.
PT: That is wonderful so I’m, I’m so happy to have you here as well. And Evan can you tell us a little bit about Moose Motion and what it’s all about?
EVAN: We’ll, it’s gone through a lot of changes throughout the years, I must say. Mainly stop motion I might say, and claymation modeling.
I’ve been a sculptor for about 25 years plus at this point, and I’ve been doing stop motion kind of off and on between those time frames. And about four years solid I’ve been basically doing stop motion animation cartoons.
From cars to monsters. There’s a little bit of everything for you know, everyone there I’d say.
PT: Yes, I think that’s how I first came across your video. It had to have been two years ago, correct me if I’m wrong. On Facebook, I just saw this video with a car and this little guy kind of waving. I said this is so freaking’ cool! What is this, what’s happening here? And I started following you, and then I would comment and we started a little connection right there. And it’s been great.
I listened to your video that you sent about the makings of Moose Motion, but I’d like for you to share with our listening audience…
EVAN: The happy accident as it were.
PT: All right,and can you go into more detail about that without recanting everything, all of the…
EVAN: Yeah, without getting too graphic about it, yeah sure.
Well it all kind of like started. The time I bought my house, I was literally moving the last load of moving towards I think it was at 7:30 at night- and unfortunately I got into a car accident that day with a moose of course. And I was in a 2004 Cavalier and it’s not exactly a very large car. If I were to take an estimate, he was maybe- I was maybe 300 lbs more than the moose, so not a lot of weight distribution between us. Unfortunately I was coming straight up the hill- all I could see were these big long legs. I immediately knew it was a moose and I’m like you gotta be kidding me. Like really ,of all days it has to be today, okay.
So unfortunately I had literally just like seconds to basically react to what was gonna happen. It’s like I’m gonna hit this moose head on and there’s a truck coming in the oncoming lane so I can’t go that way or hit the ditch. So I immediately started trying to hit the ditch, which was you know a smart reaction. It’s gonna hurt and it’s gonna suck and it’s gonna right off my car probably but it’s a lot better than getting your head taken off by a moose.
But unfortunately the moose panicked and he decided that he was gonna go back into the ditch where I was going so a last split second decision I made-grab the wheel as hard as I could-ripped it back onto the road-ducked beneath my dashboard and just hoped for the best. I remember opening my eyes for like a split second and I could see was just metal and glass crashing down and I’m like nope, closing my eyes again. I don’t want to see what’s happening until it’s all over. And yeah, the longest five seconds of my life I would say.
I’m kind of getting goosebumps just talking about it a bit. But luckily for the most part I was okay, my dogs were with me too, unfortunately in the car. And of course my immediate reaction was oh my God, I hope they’re okay.
My little pug comes crawling up to me, broken glass everywhere so I immediately pick her up, check her, she’s fine. My German Shepherd in the back is okay, a little agitated obviously , she’s a little upset someone messed up her car.
So she gets out and immediately wants to confront the guy who messed it up., and I’m like no don’t do that , come back sweetie please. This is already a bad situation let’s not make it worse , but luckily everyone was okay for the most part except the moose obviously.
The guy who was coming the other way stopped and was like are you okay. I was like I just hit a moose was the only thing I could basically say.
I sat in his car for a bit and made a few phone calls. It was kind of in a pitiful moment where I just about died. And after that I kind of just remembered having a train of thought, that was really close and unexpected, anything could happen at any point, so maybe it’s time to start doing these things you want to do. And starting a YouTube channel for stop motion was one of them so after that I started doing stop motion cartoons essentially one handed. And ever since then I’ve been doing it.
A lot of fun, quite an adventure.
STOP MOTION!
PT: So you said you started stop motion. Why stop motion specifically?
EVAN: I’ve always had a big passion for it personally. Probably my biggest influence growing up would have been Wallace and Gromit in particular. I remember being young and just watching, like because I played with clay too obviously, right? And just seeing what this person was able to do and create an entire world on his own with just his own sculptures.
I just found it fascinating,that’s something I want to do. So Wallace and Gromit for sure and Pingu. Pingu is probably another one I remember watching quite a bit.
PT: Was he the one with the chicken, I forget what it’s called.
EVAN: He was a claymation penguin.
PT: But there’s Chicken Run as well is there not? Chicken Run is claymation?
EVAN: That one’s called Chicken Run. I could go into a bit of a spiel about that one because I’m a bit of a movie freak too. There is a new one coming out for that but I’m guessing- because there was a big rights problem between Aardman Animation and Universal Studios which is why it took so long to make a sequel for that. Everybody knows Chicken Run I’ve noticed
PT: Yes, I have a copy of it myself so I’m not ashamed to say it.
EVAN: It’s a great movie, I love that one too. It’s just kind of one of those deals, that kind of went sour and this is why we unfortunately haven’t gotten a sequel until recently so. I’m kind of excited to see that too personally. So I’m guessing Aardman probably purchased the rights to it, because they’re making money off that, I guarantee it.
ENTER THE DINOSAURS
PT: And so which project are you working on?
I know there was something with dinosaurs for sure, Godzilla. You started with the cars. I remember way back, there were the cars but now there are dinosaurs.
And how’s that going?
EVAN: Well pretty good. I know it’s kind of a big switch from where things started, obviously because it was mainly doing drafting competitions. *Little races with play cars and burnouts and stuff like that, using cotton from my dogs old de-stuffed stuffy toys actually.
So it works quite well for smoke.
That’s a little tip for any stop motion artists who may be listening.*
Any rate. I was going over my analytics , I had done a couple Dinosaur things in the past, you know, I’ve always been kind of a bit of a dinosaur enthusiast. Going over between the dinosaur projects and car projects, the dinosaur stuff was just reaching far more people and getting much more clout. I was reaching a bigger audience . So this year I was like basically, this is where the numbers are going so this year I’m basically going to basically start focusing my content basis.And it’s really paid off ever since.
PT: Are you enjoying it though?
EVAN: Oh,Yeah
PT: Because I watched-I binged a lot of your videos, it’s such a meticulous process. I was flabbergasted, I’ve never really delved in the world of stop motion, I just kind of admired it from afar. Watching your videos, you just bring everyone right front and center, such an immersive experience .
How do you go about documenting your process? Besides video, is there another process? I know you storyboard , but is there another process that you do?
EVAN: A lot of homework and watching other creators I would say is a good thing. It’s almost a bit of a flaw at this point because you can’t just sit and watch anything and enjoy it anymore because you’re like sitting there critiquing it, and taking notes about how you can apply other methods to what you’re doing.
Is another big one I like to use essentially for that, just watching other creators and kind of figuring out what the tricks of the trade are.
And the big one is frame rate.
So probably like two years ago when you first started watching things. I started doing a lot of research on big studios too and that’s a good thing because there’s a lot of information out there for that kind of stuff. It all depends on what you’re doing too as style, frame rate will change too depending on what you’re doing too but the majority of the time I use 2 and 24. But at the beginning I was using 3 and 30. And with that one you can still kind of see a little bit of choppiness, but I find the 2 and 24 is a lot better. But I find that it takes a painstaking more time, so that’s the downside. Because you are essentially working with 1 and 12, so you’re dealing with single frames. So if you do make a mistake it does show up a lot more, and it is a little harder to correct at that point.
Basically just take a lot of homework from a variety of studios, there’s a lot of how to stuff out there. And myself obviously included, has a decent amount of tutorials on how to do stop motion as well.
Just gather as much knowledge as you can from any source,that’s what the internet is there for right.
PT: I was surprised at how many videos you have amassed over such a short time. And they’re so organized! I was saying oh my goodness, this guy is the real deal!
If they go onto your YouTube channel. Your YouTube channel again is?
EVAN: Moose Motion
PT: You have these playlists…
Go into Moose Motion and you can see all of these wonderful videos and the dinosaurs. And if you go back into the history you can see the cars and there are so many other things there. It’s really fascinating this wonderful world that you’ve created and it’s completely and totally understated as well.
EVAN: That’s one of the downfalls too. Stick to a certain niche I find. That’s how I’ve gotten a lot more momentum recently, sticking to that audience to a degree.
Before it was I was kind of figuring out where I belonged and I think that’s obviously going to be a part of the process too.
PT: As I was looking through the videos I noticed that your hands are very tidy and you are a very good artist. I saw the renderings you did of-
EVAN: You have to keep your hands really clean or the clay will literally absorb anything inside your pores which is unfortunately a bit of a challenge for me sometimes because I work trades for the most part so. Usually when I get home my hands are pretty dirty. I’m always the guy who’s wearing gloves. Unfortunately I do get bugged for that sometimes.I’m like nah,I’m an artist, my hands are much too valuable for that.
PT: I can attest to that as well.
The drawings caught my attention ,how well you can render them- the vehicles.
One of my favorite drawings that I saw was of the Skin Walker.
What inspired that skinwalker?
EVAN: I just think they’re cool.
A lot of my inspiration comes from folklore and stuff like that, and obviously I like monsters so. That was one is honestly, probably the coolest piece of Canadian folklore that we have. So I was like I have to kind of do something with it.
For one, it’s fairly popular on YouTube, but it’s just something pretty cool and it’s a little underrated. I just wanted to give it a little more notoriety, and hopefully offer a little bit of inspiration to people. I mean the only issue with that doll-when you’re doing things more skeletal, building the frame you know certain parts are going to be visible, you do have to take more time and attention to detail at that point because the skeleton’s a part of the piece.which is semi-relaxing for the monsters and dinosaurs in comparison.Because you make a mistake on the skeleton it’s okay, it’s going to be covered up, but not in that case. It’s going to be seen.
PT: I’m telling you that’s a whole world you’ve created. It would be interesting to see the dinosaurs and the people from the previous video and that come together like some kind of mashup
EVAN: That’ll be coming together actually pretty soon with the Godzillas in particular. I don’t want to give too much away.
I have some not so friendly plans for my Lego city.
PT: I’ll have to have you back on when that comes about.
EVAN: I’ll definitely enjoy coming back. That’ll be a lot of fun.
PT: Well we’re almost out of time and I’m gonna let you go because, I know you’re a very busy man. As you mentioned, you get up very early for your job, and you have your studio and you have the pets.
EVAN: Small petting zoo, yes. My house is basically set up as a studio at this point. I’m actually using my sound proof room for this recording as well. It’s where I do all of my recordings and like sound effects for my stop motion stuff as well. So I was like okay cool, opportunity to use this again.
Although that’s probably my least favorite part about stop motion, honestly doing sound recordings. Because that’s the part where it really comes to life but it’s really meticulous and you’re just kind of sitting in a dark room by yourself all day going Oh God, is this going to end soon.
PT: But you get satisfaction out of the results right?
EVAN: Yeah, that’s true. It’s just the part-it’s hard because you have to be very patient right. You’re sitting there. If you so much as cough or make a sneeze you have to start over. So you’re like ahhh, don’t move. So if anything, I still say the sound work is probably my least favorite out of it all. It’s where it comes to life so it’s a very important step.
THE NITTY GRITTY
PT: One thing I was very curious about and I had no other opportunity to ask any other stop motion specialist. That is, how long does it take to film 60 seconds or a minute?
EVAN: That’s a good question.
I’ve broken it down to a different ratio, not necessarily a minute long film. It really depends on what you’re doing right? It’s really hard to give you a definitive answer. I would say- like I’ve broken it down to an average of say I’m working for an hour to an hour and a half or 45 minutes on a not so complicated scene. I get about one second of footage. So yeah, it adds up pretty quickly. So if you want say 2 seconds to 3 seconds that’s about 2 to 4 hours worth of work and that’s not including any of the sound work, that’s just straight taking photos and moving things very very slowly meticulously. And not to mention there’s the set up too. That’s one thing that you really need to nail down before getting things. You really need to get a couple test shots before getting into the animation, because if you make a mistake during the process and you’re really far in, you’re stuck with it. You either have to accept it or you’ve got to start over.
Set up is very important and take your time, that’s the best thing. It takes me about a week or so to do an entire minute, maybe a little bit better. But it really depends on what you’re doing. If it’s more complicated then it’s going to take longer obviously . If you have multiple characters in a scene then you can expect that ratio to almost double right ? Because then you have to work with not only the character itself,whatever’s going on in the story as well as the camera if that is in motion if not too. And then there’s the whole aspect of making things talk. That’s an entire other nightmare on its own. I don’t even know the ratio for that. I’ve done that occasionally, that’s like not impossible. For that you basically write down your script ahead of time, break it down syllable by syllable and word for word. And you’re gonna be sitting there for hours.
To make my Wendigo talk for example like I did a little- obviously this was a little more gruesome than what I normally do for my content, so I was like okay I should probably do just a little bit of , hey this may be a little more graphic for more of my sensitive viewers. So I gave a warning for it and I wanted him to do it but have a unique spiel on the entire so it isn’t nearly as boring right. Instead of me just going hey, yeah be careful, shocking content blah blah blah but making him do it. That took me about say 16 or so hours and that was about 22 seconds. So yeah, it’s very meticulous it all depends on what you’re doing. But a good average for 2 and 24 frames per second is about 1 hour per 1 second of footage to get something of pretty decent quality.
PT: Or somewhere thereabouts.
The video that I really liked. I can’t remember what it’s called right now. But it’s the Godzilla and he kind of either barfs or something.So if anyone wants to see that it’s really fun.
Anyway I won’t give it all a way you’ll have to go and see it.
EVAN: It was practical effects with the atomic blasting. Essentially what that stuff is, is just long strips of clay hey. All I had to do for that is- being productively lazy so you find little short cuts if you can. So I basically have a bunch of extension pieces that will come out through the mouth frame by frame and once it gets to the point that it’s hitting the ground you only need that one piece of fire or atomic breath in this case. You basically sit there and rotate in between the frames and as long as you’re moving everything else a long as it’s jarring, moving everywhere that’s normally what fire is supposed to look like right so you can kind of basically be productively lazy with your animations is what I like to call it at that point. Because it looks just as good.
PT: And how long did that take? That particular video?
EVAN: That animation took me about a little over two weeks. I think about ten days. About a minute and 20 seconds.
PT: It goes by super fast.!
EVAN: Yeah very fast. Unfortunately, with the YouTube algorithm too I have to always make sure I have a certain amount of pack log in order to do those projects cause I know okay, this is going to take a long time.
In order to keep things active I need to do you know x number of back up videos before I can dive into one of those projects just because the algorithms are fairly unforgiving in that stature. Which is why I do a lot of the how to stuff, but in retrospect I think that’s just as good. Because it’s motivated a lot of the younger kids especially to start their own stop motion animation cartoons. And honestly that’s probably been the most rewarding experience for me personally. Especially in 2020 when like when I was in the early days of starting this I remember there was a kid from the Czech Republic who made a replica Spinosaurus of mine and that just made my entire year. So a shout out to that kid, I still think about that to this day.
PT: Hey
That is great. This is something else, I can talk to you forever because it’s such a fascinating industry and I wish you all the best. We’ll definitely stay in touch.
It was a pleasure speaking with you again. So much fun, it’s always fun hearing your voice and talking about the dinosaurs.
Thank you so much.
EVAN: I look forward to doing this again.
That’s another topic we can entirely go for. I’m fairly fluent in Greek and Latin at this point with the dinosaur content. I remember our phone call before the podcast. I remember throwing a couple(dinosaur names) and you were like what.
PT: Well that sounds like a lot of fun, I’m definitely looking forward to it.
And where can folks find you, Evan and Moose Motion Studios?
EVAN: I have like obviously several social media platforms. I’m surprised you found me from Facebook because that’s probably one of the weaker platforms unfortunately so it would be good to get a little extra push on that one in particular. Instagram as well both are Moose Motion the only difference is there’s an underscore between the moose and motion on Instagram. And just capitalized M’s on Moose Motion on YouTube.
PT: Awesome!
See you at Moose Motion. Take care.
EVAN: Have a great day.
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