March / 2010

Barry Stone csc Creates the Ultimate Dog Movie:
Sniff

by Don Angus

No, we are not going to say that indie filmmaker Barry Stone csc is going to the dogs. That's too easy, and it's been done. However, it's difficult not to fall prey to a canine pun or two when describing the theatrical feature Sniff: A Dog Movie, which Stone directed and co-produced with his wife Kim Webster. Sniff is a comedy wrapped around a documentary about dogs - funny, trick-performing dogs and specially trained guide and rescue dogs. It is a charming and educational tail-wagger.

Barry Ewart Stone csc

Stone and Webster, now based in Oakland, California, brought the film to Canada for the first time in December, screening the film at the Royal and Fox cinemas in Toronto and at the Mayfair in Ottawa. Not capacity, but good-sized audiences, most of whom were apparently dog lovers, laughed in all the right places and oohed and awed as the dog stars did their thing. If the co-producers were looking for guffaws, they would have been mildly disappointed, but there were lots of chuckle and smiles. It is a happy, family-oriented film.

British actors Neil Morrissey (Bob the Builder) and Richard Huw star as themselves as unemployed actors Neil and Richard, who travel from London to San Francisco to work as concierges at Infinite Paws, a high-end dog hotel run by Neil's old flame Juliette (Amanda Plummer) and her husband Derek (Maurice Godin). On the job Neil and Richard wear suits and giant dog masks, but during off-hours they are making a documentary about dogs. Outgoing Neil favors heart-warming vignettes about dogs that skateboard and surf, but straitlaced Richard is drawn to the heroic stories of guide dogs and search-and-rescue dogs. With locations including San Rafael's Guide Dogs for the Blind and the backdrop of scenic San Francisco, Sniff explores the world through a dog's eyes, ears and nose.

Director Stone csc, who also did a lot of the drama cinematography, says, "This is a dog film - but there had to be a few people in it to help hold the documentary sections together. By setting the dog stories in a family-oriented fiction, we've made detailed information about the motivation and training of a guide dog and a search dog accessible to a wider audience. There's no anthropomorphism - just a great collection of fun-loving real-life vignettes about dogs. So we've managed to make a film that is both entertaining and educational for people of all ages."

Seen top left with canine friend, Barry Stone csc shot and directed Sniff: A Dog Movie, "a great collection of fun-loving real-life vignettes about dogs."

British-born Stone has worked internationally as a cinematographer and director for over 30 years, much of it in Toronto. "I made my first short film in Toronto called Dog in 1979. The idea has been percolating since then." Ideas are always percolating in Stone's creative brain. In 1996, his demonstration of Jack & the Beanstalk, "cinema married to live theatre," which was full of homespun effects, earned him a special CSC Award for Unique Production. As DOP on the 1995 television movie Net Worth, Stone developed what he called a "puck cam" to shoot ice-level NHL action, and he used in-camera ingenuity to make a small rink look and feel like Maple Leaf Gardens. And in the final scene of the Canadian feature The Perfect Son (2000), Stone shot the poignant ending with paper-thin subterfuge.

Colm Feore's dying character runs along the beach, then stops and looks at the ocean as the sun sets. Stone knew that "if we have him stand there and watch the sun go down in time lapse, he's going to jiggle about." The solution? Take a still photo of Feore in what he's going to be wearing for that scene, blow it up full-size and make a cardboard cutout. The DOP moved the camera back, then put it into time lapse. The sun went down, and Feore didn't jiggle.

When he first set out to make Sniff, in April 2006, Stone had the idea of using puppets to host the documentary portions of the film - to tell us about how dogs see, how acute their senses of smell and hearing are, and how they've evolved to serve mankind. However, when friend Neil Morrissey heard the great dog stories Stone was collecting, he excitedly offered to dress up in costume to host the film. Morrissey immediately suggested that his friend from drama school, Richard Huw, play his "partner."

Stone says Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael, California, gave the production free rein to follow the training of one of their star guide dogs, Mikey. That led to Gabby, a puppy who wasn't quite suitable to train as a guide, so she was switched to training as a search-and-rescue dog.

Stone's Scrap and Taffy Productions plans to donate 10 per cent of proceeds from DVD sales on their website to charitable canine organizations such as Guide Dogs for the Blind, the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation and the American Humane Society. Scrap and Tuffy were Stone's dogs when he was growing up. But there is no dog in the Stone's household now. "We just don't have time," the filmmaker says.

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