Getting to direct any project is always a joy for me. But getting to direct the romantic comedy "Dog Daze" was a true delight! It was written by Emilie Martz and Patrick Higgins two friends of mine with a tremendous sense of humor. Emilie and I have worked together on several projects prior to this short film. She played Florence Nightingale in my theatre play "Mary's Medicine" and was the co-lead in my award-winning comedy play "Olivia Wilde Does Not Survive The Apocalypse." She's always been a great actress and so I leaped at the chance to direct her in this short.
Shooting took place in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. We shot on a Sony A7Siii in 1080p. Shooting on the Sony was fun but shooting in 1080p was a challenge. We wanted to do 4k but ran into some technical issues with that format so switched to 1080p which meant we had no safety net with being able to push-in or push-out. Thankfully with my Director of Photography Evan Cottle and my terrific crew we were always able to keep things looking fantastic throughout. We had some creative shots in here including a full tracking shot that included three speaking characters and over 7 extras.
Another challenge of this production was directing an animal. "Dog Daze" required a dog character and so for the first time ever I had to direct actors around an animal performer. I did extensive research leading up to the shoot on how to interact safely with animals. That helped streamline a lot of the work once we got to set. And thanks to that our animal handler had an easy job and our doggy was able to be a one take wonder many times!
I had never been to Oregon or Washington before and so that was a very entertaining aspect of the trip as well. I have a personal goal of visiting all 50 states eventually. (11 states remaining now) Seeing the beautiful landscape of Oregon and Washington for a film shoot was a privilege.
Now this short film will go into post production. Our goal is to submit it to film festivals and get some good eyes on the hilarious movie it will become. To stay up to date on the project check back here, and since it was crowd funded if you want to help with the post production budget the producers are still taking contributions here. Below are some assorted photos of my time on set during our three day shoot. Thanks for the great time Portland, hope to see you again soon!
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