LAKE OSWEGO, OREGON – – Imagine a vast wasteland in rural Oregon, fallout filling the air and barren, destroyed roads ahead; this is where Evan Clark, a Junior at Lakeridge High School, wants to take you through his filmography. He wants to capture the action and terror, the thrills of a post apocalyptic world and make it come to life to his viewers.

Clark has been interested in making films since he was very young.

“When I was really young, around six or seven, my dad gave me his old 8mm camera,” Clark said.

It had meant a lot getting something like this from his father. When he first received the camera, he started by making short, silly commercials.

He said he would stand “in front of the camera talking about made up products,” and said that when he was younger he didn’t take the filming as seriously.

“I only started taking [it] seriously in 8th grade when I started writing screenplays for short film ideas that I had” Clark said.

Clark was never really inspired by the common filmmakers or movies, but more an inspiration himself. He had just always enjoyed making videos. However, he did consider some of his inspiration to be from YouTubers.

“They basically taught me the entire process of making films and promotional videos from preproduction to release. I learned everything I know from them,” Clark said.

Although, there is one filmmaker that could be considered an inspiration to Clark: John Seale, known for Mad Max: Fury Road and many other famous titles. Not only did his work inspire Clark, but it inspired a genre for him.

“I really like making post-apocalyptic stuff. There’s just so many things you can do with it, and it often creates a setting that the viewer probably won’t ever experience except for in film,” Clark said.

Besides John Seale, Clark said some other inspirations for the post-apocalyptic genre were: “games, like the Fallout series inspire post apocalypse stuff, and as for documentaries, I don’t really have any, I just find a topic I’m interested in and work on it. I’ve been working on a doc about freight train hoppers for the last few months, for example.”

Clark is also very interested in documentaries. He generally just likes filming in general, although his two favorite genres are post-apocalyptic and documentaries.

“I’ve always enjoyed movies for their ability to create a whole new universe the audience gets to experience and be a part of. As a filmmaker, I get to do exactly that,” he said.

Clark plans on taking this further into a possible career level, and said, “I’m already building up a portfolio and starting freelance work, so hopefully this will turn into something real!”

Clark seems to have big plans for the future.

“So far I’ve made a short film, worked on a short series, and helped direct and edit a few pieces for friends. In the future I would like to work on TV shows and feature films,” he said.

It’s likely he will be seen in the future if he continues working as hard as he’s already working.

John Seale himself said, “You have to be balanced and ready to go in any direction.” Evan will surely follow in the footsteps of his idol if he listens to those wise words as he has done so already.