At just 16 years old, Ethan Clerc already has director of two feature films on his resume.

Clerc, a junior at Windom Area High School, is premiering his second film, “Mousetrap 2,” next month at the theater in Windom. His first movie, “Mousetrap,” came out in 2013 and is available to rent through Amazon Instant Video.

Clerc’s father and grandfather are businessowners in Marshall.

Clerc said his first try at filmmaking was not as successful.

“I picked up my dad’s old camera one day, and we started making little skits and videos with our friends,” he said. “These videos were terrible, but we had to start somewhere. I filmed as many short films as I could with that camera until I broke it from using it so much.”

Clerc loved the idea that you could hold a small device, and it would keep memories forever. His father taught him the basics of video editing and from there, his love for film was born.

Back in 2010, Clerc learned about uploading videos to YouTube.

“We started posting our short videos and skits on YouTube, and then we would tell our friends to watch them,” he said. “My brother and I and our friends became addicted to getting views on YouTube, and I remember the day one of our videos got 200 views.”

Clerc said his goal was to make a video that would become viral, so he set out on that journey. At that time, Angry Birds came out, and people were obsessed, he said.

“I made an Angry Birds in Real Life video with 3-D animated birds, and I released it to YouTube,” he said. “Within a week, the video had over 10,000 views, and I could not believe it. By the end of the month, the video had reached 200,000 views.” He said the viral video now has 2.5 million views. Clerc said that first viral video took a little time to create. He spent about a month making the birds and shooting the film, and the animation took a few weeks.

“After this, we started to upload Real Life Video Game videos and movie remakes every week,” Clerc said. “I have done remakes of ‘Rocky,’ ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘Back to the Future,’ ’21’ and ‘Gremlins’ to name a few.”

The idea for Clerc’s first “Mousetrap” film came one night when he and his dad were sitting around the kitchen table. The ambitious teen told his dad he wanted to do a full-length or longer movie and have it show in the theater.

“It sounded crazy as I had just been doing YouTube videos and nothing that big,” Clerc said.

Then they started to pice together the story that a group of friends get dared to spend the night at an abandoned high school in town that has a killer janitor living in it. Clerc started filling in the pieces of the story to compile a 40-page long script.

“I started to add up the costs, and I soon found out I would not be able to make this movie with the money I have laying around,” he said. That’s when he discovered Kickstarter, a website where you set up a project, and people can send money to you in return for a reward, like a DVD or T-shirt. He set his fundraising goal at $500 and had 30 days to get it. Clerc said he made the goal and exceeded it by $155. He filmed “Mousetrap,” and it was showed in theaters in May 2013. He said the movie was well-received.

“We had around a 100 people come to the premiere at the Windom State Theater, and it was an overall amazing experience,” he said. “It was the moment the ending credits of the film rolled up the screen and a huge applause and cheers came from the crowd that I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

For “Mousetrap 2,” Clerc wanted to go 10 times bigger than his first film. He created another Kickstarter, raising the goal to $1,500 and ended up getting $1,776.

“I actually invested around $1,000 I had saved to buy a 1985 Ford Fairmont, explosives and materials like flour,” he said. “This was for a scene that happens toward the end of ‘Mousetrap 2.’ I invested the money before I even did a Kickstarter. For the scene, we rolled the car down a hill out in the middle of nowhere and then loaded it up with Tannerite, legal explosives you shoot with a rifle.” Clerc said they had a few members of the Mountain Lake Fire Department come out and shoot the explosives and blow up the car. The explosion was so big, they had a mushroom cloud, Clerc said. “The firefighters underestimated how powerful the explosion was going to be, and the whole prairie around the car started on fire. They rushed to Mountain Lake and got a fire truck and came back to put the huge fire out.”

Clerc had gotten that event on film, and that was even before he had the script written. He said he spent around four months writing the script and getting together sponsors for the film.

“I reached out to many film companies that make equipment for films or do some kind of work for films,” he said. “I ended up getting around seven sponsors like IntelligentUAS, who sent us a $1,500 Quadcopter, which is a remote control helicopter with a mounted camera on it. We were able to get some amazing aerial shots for the film.”

Clerc said filming for “Mousetrap 2” started in May, and he had gotten a few of the same actors, which included friends and family, who were in the first “Mousetrap,” along with a few new actors from the community. Cast members included a U.S. marshal and a judge for the courtroom scenes.

“We started the first night of filming with a SWAT truck pulling up to a tax service building used in the first film,” he said. “SWAT kicked open the doors and ran into building arresting the killer janitor, the Mouse. We then moved down along the Des Moines River where we filmed a crime scene that would take place later in the movie.” Clerc said they spent the rest of the summer filming the movie in various locations around Windom but focusing on the old high school, the Business, Arts and Recreation Center.

Clerc said “Mousetrap 2” is about a high target criminal, nicknamed the Mouse, who is captured after a 15-year search and is sentenced for execution. On the way to prison, he stabs the driver of the SUV, which flips off the road, killing the drivers. The Mouse is nowhere to be found after days of searching. Meanwhile, the group of boys, Sam, Kyle and Ryley, have a problem of their own when Kyle’s girlfriend is missing.

“Mousetrap 2” will show at the theater in Windom at 7 p.m. Nov. 7-9. Clerc said his dream job is to be a film director.

“I am visiting film schools in New York in October, I really want to go to school there,” Clerc said.