Jason Sondhi
Whoa. Like truly, a big Keanu-esque Whoa!” That adequately sums up my impression of Sam Balcomb’s high fantasy short Evenveil, and while this rudimentary language is ill-befitting a critic who writes as a trade, it is entirely appropriate for a visual storytelling piece this unlikely. Set aside the pandemic, set aside the historic difficulty of producing good fantasy genre work in the short film medium, Evenveil just feels big in a way that belies its humble origins, its green-screen heavy approach making this proof-of-concept a worthy entry in the annals of DIY blockbusters.
Now Balcomb is not a kid with a computer in his basement spinning up these VFX worlds. That was the stereotype that kicked off last decade’s sci-fi short film boom, a trend which I trace back to Fede Alvarez’s seminal 2009 work Panic Attack. Balcomb is a co-founder at Rainfall, a small, but notable production company in LA that is used to working on promotional media for major entertainment brands. Approaching two decades of experience in the field, we first encountered his work via fun, viral fan-film pieces like his viral Zelda Trailer in 2008, his Wonder Woman concept film in 2013, and, most notably an 11min Metroid fan film in 2015.
“Evenveil became a very personal and intense experience for me”
Those works did not prepare us for Evenveil though, an original fantasy concept that is thoughtfully conceived both visually and narratively. A longtime ambition of Balcomb’s, he first conceived of the character of Kaeja in film school, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that he was allowed the time and space to realize his dream. Explain to Short of the Week that, “Evenveil became a very personal and intense experience for me, something I could focus on during the pandemic, while also becoming a father for the first time. At first, I thought it would just be a fun experiment, but it ended up altering the course of my life. I think some of that ended up mirroring what Kaeja goes through in the film.”
Evenveil is visually stunning, but I found myself surprised at how much I enjoyed the story and world-building. While the short is undeniably trope-heavy—chosen one, mythic weapon, secret power, etc.— as a long-time fantasy fan, I accept that is somewhat necessary for a 10min short, and also that it goes with the territory of the genre. What’s important is how an artist tweaks and puts their own spin on various key tenets, and, most importantly, whether they can sidestep the inherent sense of ridiculousness that nips at the heels of any fantasy production. After all, as a culture, we didn’t really accept that high fantasy could be filmed well until 20 years ago with The Lord of the Rings (doesn’t mean I love Willow or Ladyhawke any less of course).
Alexis Peters cuts an imposing figure as protagonist Kaeja in Evenveil
This is a sort of uncanny-valley problem, however—it’s hard to know whether you’ve succeeded until you actually try. Three elements help though: first, you need acting that takes the material seriously (this is why Game of Thrones casts so many Shakespearean stage actors), and Alexis Peters as Kaeja is up to the task of providing gravitas to her lead role. Second, you need to protect those actors by not putting ridiculous dialogue in their mouths. This sounds basic, but wooden expository dumps in order to aid your world-building often can kill a work in its tracks. Lastly, you need an obsessive level of attention to detail in order to allow an audience to suspend its disbelief. Fantasy, by its very nature, is the genre furthest from our day-to-day experience, and thus the task is most challenging here. For the Evenveil team that meant meticulous testing. As Balcomb describes it, “all of the environments were created ahead of time, in detail, and when it came time to film, we had a monitor showing a realtime composite. That way we could refine lighting, camera angles, and movement to match. This was tested, and tested, and tested over several months before cameras rolled.”
Evenveil is 3 for 3 on these fronts for me and is one of the most impressive fantasy short films of recent memory. Because of the very clear difficulty to produce these works, this is a somewhat low bar, but it does not diminish my surprise and pleasure at the short. I sincerely hope that it is the start of future explorations of Kaeja and the world of the Red Veil. Sam tells us that, in addition to his work at Rainfall, he is writing a feature film script, and also developing a potential cyberpunk short film.