Made by humans for humans

Tucked away in our county is a premier multimedia, full-service production company specializing in original video, visual effects, music and digital content – offering cinema quality films, professional editing, content creation, and storytelling.

The Lab Fx relocated three years ago from the West Coast to a studio in the heart of Carroll County where they work remotely with local clients as well as clients around the country, having just wrapped a project for Dick Wolf (FBI, Law & Order, Chicago franchises creator), and provided background plates and visual effects for Oscar-winning director Michael Bay’s upcoming true-story war movie, Epic Fury.

On the local scene, The Lab Fx’s principal creative force, Dennis Boal, was delighted to see the subject of their first area video get picked up by television news and blossom into a longer project.

“Right here in Eureka Springs, we partnered with Aviation Cadet Museum over a year investment project and were able to provide a catalog of sixteen films. We were honored to take part in preserving a little-known history for all time,” Boal said.

Videos for the Cadet Museum and others created for Harley-Davidson, Turpentine Creek, Todd the Music Guy and more, can be found on youtube.com/@TheLabFx/videos and several media platforms.

From the beginning, Boal has been adamant about creating fresh content with no AI motion graphics in any of his films. That doesn’t mean he’s anti-tech. In fact, he was a pioneer in the early digital music revolution, working as an electronic drummer and programmer, percussionist and sampler.

He founded a digital recording studio in the 1980s and worked on thousands of productions for film, video, and digital media, eventually producing a Gold Record.

As a drummer Boal was in great personal demand, working with Tina Turner and Stevie Wonder among other major performers of the day. He also owns a small museum of drums, from antique to a 14-in., 12-lug Colosseum given and signed by Mötley Crüe member Tommy Lee.

Boal’s portfolio includes directing and producing films and videos for both commercial and independent markets. His expertise lies in music production, sound design, animation and motion graphics.

“Productions created at The Lab Fx are a finished, polished product,” Boal said. “Digital audio recording is produced at our studio with complete surround sound, et cetera. Even when we do original new music we love to work with local musicians.

“Our job is to represent you. We sit down with a client in the pre-production process and find out what they envision in depth –from favorite colors and fonts, up to crucial content concepts. Our clients want to get noticed online and they hire our services to make sure they are.”

So why film? What moved an accomplished musician and studio founder to be the creator of a thousand films now totaling upwards of a million views on YouTube alone?

“In 1989 the Eagles put out a CD video,” Boal explained, “and at that point I knew that to be in the modern world, you need moving pictures; and I knew even putting out the worst video was better than having none. I knew that was the future and I wanted to learn this amazing art form of moving pictures.”

And, having accomplished that, what’s next? For one thing, The Lab Fx will soon add a cooking instruction channel, but also important to the team is connecting a community of Northwest Arkansas artists.

“Our work is online and there is no need to be in a hectic lifestyle,” Boal said. “Our team agreed the mountains provide a perfect, clean setting for creativity. We can work anywhere via the internet and would like to create an environment for, and network of, local filmmakers, multimedia artists, movie camera operators, actors, voice-over artists and musicians; and perhaps start a Facebook group like Motion Picture Productions, or NW Arkansas local artists.”

Meanwhile, check out a couple of The Lab Fx’s 8 channels on YouTube, including The Lab Fx, Learn Live Be Healthy, and Wise One Media. Contact Dennis Boal at youtube@thelabfx, email thelabfx@gmail.com, or call (951) 484-8489. Otherwise, just type Dennis Boal and The Lab Fx into Google.