"Ghost Dogs" Staff Pick Premiere "Ghost Dogs" by Joe Cappa |
The film starts simply enough with a sweet rescue dog locked in the laundry room, looking forward to meeting its new owners. Before the owners arrive, things start to get strange. A robot vacuum starts to move around the halls as the dogs of former owners, who are now transformed ghosts of anthropomorphic form, walk the hallways. Cappa cleverly exploits humor by subverting human horror tropes: when observed by pets, the ghosts aren't scary but rather fascinating; as the vacuum cleaner becomes the primary antagonist.. These different atmospheres and tones can be beautifully captured with an intriguing, sharply sketched, and saturated color style that is reminiscent of MTV's Liquid Television and early RAW comic collection.
It's been an extremely long trip. Cappa discovered he was not being employed by others and decided to take on his own project -- which is why he took six months to create his first animated film. A couple of years later, he was plagued by the post-school learning curve, mistakes along with a crippling arm injury The gamble paid off. "Ghost Dogs" premiered in the Sundance Film Festival 2021, after which it went on to screen at a myriad of international and local festivals.
Prior to the Premiere of Staff Pick, we called Joe to discuss his style, inspiration, challenges and many more.
On the inspiration:
"I am drawing these dogs , who are playing on their hands and knees for long time. They appeared strange and made my coworkers laugh. Then, I made the decision to purchase the Wacom tablet that enabled me to draw directly onto the computer. One of the first things I considered to animate was a dog or a person rolling across the floor. The results were good and I was able to create a small short film from the footage.
In the beginning, I made music videos for my friends and groups, yet I'd never had a passion idea for myself. I believe I was just trying to prove myself to myself that I could be capable of creating something that would have broadcast on the MTV channel Liquid Television back in the 90's. I wanted to come up with something that would inspire me back when I was a kid when I first came across the camera of my father. It's likely that's the source of inspiration for this whole story. The plot was in the spirit of any horror movie where the family dog barks at something which isn't visible by the rest of the family. It seemed like intriguing to explore in the event that dogs were able to detect ghosts of deceased family members . "
The dog's appearance:
"I love films and art that blur the lines between comedy and terror. A lot of my work falls into this same category. It's a great emotion to come out of people who don't know what to do when they're scared or even laughing. It's my opinion that the canines trigger that emotion. There's also something mysterious about the dog's legs and arms. Do they primarily belong to dogs or do they mostly belong to humans? What is the best way to describe something similar be how it behaves? ? "
The visual style:
"That is a reference to Liquid Television. My director JW Hallford and myself were adamant regarding the feel of the film as being outdated. Like a short movie which was restored. We also added a small film shake, but I wasn't trying to add hair or dust. The animation style is a good illustration of this style. Also, it is important to mention to the backgrounds artist Patrick Carroll, who I think captured the look and the attitude so perfectly. . "
From an angle and influences:
"I believe that the part that made me laugh when I wrote "Ghost Dogs" was that I was able to experiment with the terror genres using the perspective of an animal. The humor in the entire piece is an idea that the pet does not seem scared of things they should be afraid of, or scared by objects that shouldn't be. So I had to make an allusion to the film 'The Shining', obviously. 'Poltergeist' was also a huge influence in terms of tone. It even has an allusion to Michael Mann's "The Keep". However, I believe the character's spirit ghost dog (no not intended pun) has been heavily borrowed from "Gremlins." Are they ridiculous? Are they risky? Are they risky? ? "
HTML1 On conceiving of the character robot vacuum:
"The original version of the film I wrote was about three dogs that were stranded within their homes. It was really just a storyboard for each scene while I wrote it, and making up interesting jokes and what not. My brother came up with an idea to have an argument with Roomba. The script was revised by me using only one dog's protagonist. The robotic vacuum seemed to be fun character, and also an enormous plot device that would provide lots of misdirection as well as amusement . "
On challenges faced:
"I refer to this as my first animated movie and it was therefore a process of learning starting at the beginning. Everything was a mistake after the mistake of a previous mistake. The plan I had of completing the project within six months resulted in two years. The biggest challenge for me was animating the psychedelic scenes. The animation ramps up from 12fps to 24fps. It was an extremely time-consuming part. Repeatedly making the same drawing often and over, I blew out my arm! My shoulders became frozen and I was unable to draw my hand further than the belly button of my body for a good two months. This caused me a great deal of pain. Therefore, I needed to endure a six-month absence to allow my arm to recover. This was a major back-breaking experience. . "
What's your favorite point of advice for budding filmmakers?
"If you're thinking of developing your own product (like, not to make it for anybody else it's hard to get that motivation with the huge risk of going broke. I've suffered with fear through my entire life. In the end, I really saw no ways to keep doing what I was doing helping others. I had no endgame. Similar to how I was not able to come up with a plan for the creation of my own junk.
When it comes to the moment of your choice, the only thing that you can choose is to go with the flow. Be free of doubt. The sacrifices you make are yours and you take the risk of following your passions. I was simply trying to discover something that was pleasing to me and seems to be paying dividends. It's an extremely yogi concept to pass on, however I'm just not able to provide career guidance this way, however it's working now for me and something I would like I'd done prior to now. ! "
What's next? Do you have any projects in the pipeline?
"Yeah! I've been making minute-long short films you can find on my Instagram @joecappa ."
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