Little Ruckus, an Iowa musician best known for making high-energy dance pop, has completed work on “Wrong Doing”, a short film that will be screened at the Iowa Music Store on Oct. 26. 

The film is the first foray into long-form video for the artist, who goes by Dominic Rabalais when he’s not performing as Little Ruckus. It strings together 30 minutes of music videos into one cohesive piece, with a plot that focuses on revenge and rebirth.

“It’s kind of about the cyclical nature of everything in life,” Rabalais said. “It’s about Little Ruckus emerging from the pools of the unified field. I go out into the world and try to do some wrong, and then people try to get revenge on me and kill me. Then I come back to life and get revenge on them.”

Rabalais has made dozens of music videos in the past and is currently in the midst of a project to record 40 music videos in 2014. No one has approached the length or scope of this project.

Rabalais said that in the world of Facebook and YouTube, it can be difficult for an artist to get and keep an audience’s attention. This has affected his approach to making songs and their corresponding music videos. 

“Instead of making a five minute song, I’ll make a two and a half minute song. Which is cool, because I totally love two and a half minute songs. But everything I’ve made so far has been really hyperactive and really attention grabbing,” Rabalais said.

“All that is different with a movie, because if someone is going to the screening, they’re clearly already invested in it. We can work the concept a lot more because people aren’t scrubbing through the video.”

In addition to exploring broader concepts, Rabalais said working on a long movie like “Wrong Doing” allowed him to view the filmmaking process in a new way, from behind the camera as the director. Rabalais enlisted several friends who have attended film school to help with the production of the film, overseeing camera operation and lighting. 

“Normally when I make things, I’ll set up all the cameras, click record and jump in front of them. To have an actual director of photography was really amazing. I’m pretty much in it throughout the whole movie, but there were scenes that I got to put on my glasses and direct,” Rabalais said.

“It was my first experience of directing people and having the action be exactly how I visualized it in my mind, which was super rewarding.”

The movie was shot almost entirely at Rabalais’s Fairfield, Iowa home, a former Catholic rectory which now houses eight young artists and musicians. Rabalais said the home and surrounding property were a fantastic resource for filmmaking, providing a creative environment and a plethora of backdrops to film. 

“There are so many rooms and different areas. Each side yard of my house looks like a completely different location” Rabalais said. “It’s great for all of the filmmaking tricks, like making it look like something was shot in a completely different place when it was actually just on the other side of a door.”

While filmmaking may seem like a departure from his normal creative outlets, Rabalais said that screening the film has been like putting on a perfect musical performance.

Though concertgoers in dive bars may not always be fully engaged in his onstage antics as Little Ruckus, filmgoers have been much more willing to immerse themselves in the creative experience. Rabalais said the response to the film’s premiere at the Orpheum Theater in Fairfield, Iowa on Oct. 9 was overwhelmingly positive.

“Having the screening was kind of like having a perfect show,” Rabalais said. “Everyone that watched the movie was completely invested in it and completely willing to surrender themselves to the experience.”