A Dog’s Story
An old dog contemplates his bleak future after being laid off from his security job at a junkyard.
Interview with Director/Producer/Editor Jill D'Agnenica
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Short answer: I wanted to play with my friends. Margaret Adachi and I have been each other's sounding boards and frequent collaborators on art for many years. We wanted to make a film together that incorporated her artwork and my desire to make something entertaining with materials we had readily on hand. Guido Frenzel shot my feature, Life Inside Out, and he was excited about producing and shooting this one. And Goh Nakamura pulled it all together with his pitch-perfect music.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
If you like your laughter tinged with sadness or your sadness tinged with dark humor, you should watch A Dog's Story. If you are feeling displaced, overlooked, or under-appreciated in your work-life you will especially relate to the travails of our down-on-his-luck-and-not-catching-a-break protagonist, The Dog.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The Dog's predicament and how he got here is an all-too-frequent story that many of us have also experienced in this new competitive economy where jobs are being replaced by automation and being too old can leave you marginalized.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
A Dog’s Story had its genesis with a series of humorous sculptures that my friend and frequent collaborator, artist Margaret Adachi, did of unhappy and angry pooches in dead-end jobs. Like all of her various animal sculptures, they were anthropomorphized stand-ins for Margaret, this time aged out of work life and feeling irrelevant.
I call her "Margaret Adachi: Genius" because she is so, so quirky and funny and smart. I asked Margaret to write a backstory for one of her sculptures which became the narrative for A Dog’s Story and together with our friend and collaborator, cinematographer Guido Frenzel, we hatched a plan for how we wanted to portray that story in film, landing on The Dog giving a slide lecture, like a lo-fi, down-and-out Ted Talk.
Guido wanted to shoot the entire movie with a 50mm lens "like Ozu" and the one-walled set I built in my studio had just enough room for him to get the wide shot we wanted.
We found our dreamed-of wingback chair on the curb, dragged an old table down from Margaret's attic, and unearthed a vintage Da-lite projection screen and an antique standing lamp from the back of my studio. We borrowed the wood paneling and an old slide projector. Our only cost was turning my digitally derived still images into old-fashioned analogue slides for projection. Our entire budget was $204.
I prepped the artwork and made the props in a couple of weeks. Then we had a blast, setting up and shooting in one long night, laughing and chatting through each of the shots, since I decided to record all the sound in post.
I knew hitting the right tone with music would be absolutely essential to the telling of the story, no small feat. To our absolute great good fortune, musician Goh Nakamura agreed to compose the score for the movie. It is perfection.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We've loved the audience and festival feedback we've gotten. People really relate to The Dog and his bleak tale of woe. And we get great laughs and groans at our reveals through the course of the film.
We won "Most Original Concept" at our premiere at the Portland Comedy Film Festival and have been endlessly entertained by the blocks we have been put in at festivals. -- "Oddballs and Outcasts", "Cringe", "Family Friendly" and "Take a Seat Boys, The Ladies Have This" so far.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
It's great to see how relatable our story is to lots of people. I think especially older audience members really connect.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
After A Dog's Story festival run, we would like to launch it online to the public so that we can share it far and wide. Opportunities to get the word out are really appreciated.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Film festival directors, journalists, distributors would be awesome!
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
We would like this film to be viewed, enjoyed, and shared widely. Behind its absurdist presentation, there is a deeper truth, that people often are aged out of jobs that have defined them. They feel they have less to contribute to society and begin to contemplate what the rest of their life will look like.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
How do we value our own and other contributions as workers and humans in general?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Guido and I are prepping a couple more short films. Margaret is working on a new body of sculptures, Animals of the Arroyo Seco.
Interview: May 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
A Dog's Story
An old dog contemplates his bleak future after being laid off from his security job at a junkyard.
Length: 7:35
Director: Jill D'Agnenica
Producer: Guido Frenzel
Writer: Margaret Adachi
About the writer, director and producer:
JILL D’AGNENICA is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist working in Los Angeles as a director and editor. The Los Angeles Times called Life Inside Out, Jill's directorial debut, "a gentle, poignant drama whose heart and head are squarely in the right place." Her tragi-comic absurdist short, A Dog's Story, is currently making its festival rounds.
JILL D’AGNENICA is an award-winning filmmaker and visual artist working in Los Angeles as a director and editor.
GUIDO FRENZEL was born and raised in Munich, Germany and started his career in Europe before moving to Los Angeles in 1994, where he attended the AFI Cinematography program. Guido has been active in features, commercials, shorts and music videos. He has worked as the Director of Photography on numerous successful unscripted reality and scripted shows. He is currently DP on NBC’s America’s Got Talent and concurrently works on NBC’s hit, The Voice.
Key cast: Margaret Adachi (Narrator/Dog)
Looking for: film festival directors, distributors
Facebook: A Dog's Story
Twitter: @jillydag
Instagram: @jillydag
Hashtags used: #adogsstory #itshardtobeadogthesedays
Website: www.jillmakesfilms.com
Other: IMDb
Funders: Seed & Spark