Sometimes, a enthusiasm job pays off…and makes history
Downward Dog, a webisode-turned-network show produced by Pittsburgh-based production as well as visual impacts home Animal, Inc., will make its debut at the 2017 Sundance film Festival, January 19-29. ordered by ABC-TV for the 2017 season, Downward dog is the very first major network show to ever premiere at Sundance.
Downward dog started as an interior job at Animal. Michael Killen, animal co-founder as well as series co-creator, states the preliminary concept for the web series was deceptively simple: “It’s about a dog who is looking at his life as well as asking if he matters.” Downward Dog’s premise was grounded in the decades of work Killen as well as his team did on iconic speaking animal areas throughout the years, including the Taco Bell Chihuahua as well as the original California cheese campaign.
“Perhaps what drew Sundance to include Downward dog was its humble beginning,” stated Kathy Dziubek, Animal, Inc. co-founder. “We have always been ardent advocates of our team’s personal projects. lending resources to interior jobs such as Downward dog as well as other efforts can be viewed as taking a risk, however in our case, the support has always paid off.”
In 2013, Animal’s very first function length film, Blood Brother, won both the audience as well as Grand jury awards at Sundance, as well as was acknowledged with numerous other film awards as well as accolades. Animal’s second film, almost Holy, premiered as well as sold at the Tribeca film celebration in 2015. like Downward Dog, both began as interior enthusiasm projects, supported by the company.
Downward dog was born in 2013, when Killen as well as animal director as well as visual impacts artist Samm Hodges discussed composing the short subject from the point of view of a lonely, philosophical dog having a hard time to discover meaning in existence as well as connection with its owner. The Hodges-written monologues were directed by Killen as one-minute web episodes. The series was shot in Pittsburgh, as well as produced completely with animal Inc’s in-house team as well as resources.
What began as an interior project, soon caught the interest of producers such as Jimmy Miller (Step Brothers, Elf) of Mosaic, who assisted shepherd the job to its future buyer, Legendary television as well as eventually ABC.
Killen as well as Hodges – who plays the voice of Martin – then dealt with the difficulty of turning a one-minute web series into a half-hour script, broadening the storyline to include humans. They spent a year establishing a cast of characters as well as complex plot lines under the guidance of Jimmy Miller as well as Sam Hanson, executive producer as well as executive at Mosaic. The result is an broadened vision of the original Downward dog premise that is now as much about human nature as it is about our canine companions.
Allison Tolman appears in Downward dog by Michael Killen as well as Samm Hodges, an official choice of the special events program at the 2017 Sundance film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
ABC’s Downward dog tells the story of a having a hard time millennial, Nan (played by the Emmy-nominated Fargo actress Allison Tolman), with the eyes of her dog Martin. We watch Nan juggle a charming break-up as well as demanding innovative task from the point of view of her insightful, yet troubled, pet. extra team members assisting to recognize the Downward dog vision include showrunners Kat Likkel as well as John Hoberg (Galavant, black-ish, My name is Earl) as well as stars such as Lucas Neff (Raising Hope) as Jason, Barry Rothbart (The Wolf of wall Street) as Kevin, as well as Kirby Howell-Baptiste (A Dog’s Purpose) as Jenn.
The show was shot completely in Pittsburgh, with visual impacts done at Animal’s Pittsburgh studio. The difficulty was retooling Animal’s existing visual impacts pipeline to handle the rigors of an episodic. “Initially, the difficulty that occupied a great deal of our conversation were all the elements included in perfecting the animation for Martin, while accommodating the shipment of 475 speaking shots over a 10 week schedule,” stated Killen. “An intense amount of movement capture, modeling as well as animation goes into producing a realistic speaking animal character, a character that is central to the series. The pipeline encompassed a full publish workflow to provide emotion to Martin, as well as at the exact same time making it totally believable. We desired his animation to feel natural as well as not take you out of his narrative as well as the story.”
“We have outstanding facilities as well as personnel to create jobs turnkey for clients, so why not utilize those resources to assist give life the visions of our own team of extremely skilled as well as innovative people,” added Dziubek. “We’ve been thrilled to have a string of successes, including Vimeo personnel picks, accolades at lots of film celebrations as well as a Cannes Gold Lion.”
Founded in 2001 by market professionals Michael Killen, Jim Kreitzburg, as well as Kathy Dziubek, animal has created award winning work seen across the nation as well as worldwide. Visit: .
