Dogopolis had a chance to catch up with Oakland independent filmmakers Barry Stone and Kim Webster, who have just finished their feature film, Sniff the dog movie. Director/Writer Barry Stone has been a cinematographer for almost 30 years, so he has brought an experienced eye and theatrical sensitivity to the subject, as well as his love of dogs! Barry’s wife, Kim, is the Producer and co-enthusiast.

1. In a few words, what is “Sniff”?

Barry: Sniff is a new genre of film: a hybrid of fiction, educational and documentary. Real dog stories are wrapped in a light-hearted fiction about two British actors who come to San Francisco to work as dress-up concierges of a fancy dog hotel, who decide to make a documentary about dogs.

2. What inspired you to make a movie about dogs?

Barry: This film has been on the brew for 30 years since I made my first short film called “Dog”… I wanted to make a film about dogs that is not anthropomorphic, but that helps us to appreciate the world from a dog’s perspective. As the filming and editing went along though, I realized we couldn’t just do it all from the point of view of the dog, because as people, we are inevitably interested in the human side of things. So I had to adjust my vision of the film as I went along. It has been a fascinating journey! And we do dip down often to see things from the dog’s perspective and colour range.

3. What was the original concept?

Kim: In our original outline for the film in April 2006, Barry 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. About 18 months later,  we had begun collecting our documentary footage (by this time I’d learned to use the camera too) and Barry had a conversation with his friend (veteran British actor) Neil Morrissey about all the great dog stories we were gathering. Neil got all excited and offered to dress up in costume to host the film… so it was out with the puppets and in with the actors  to tie all our fascinating canine stories together!

After many months and several script drafts, we compiled our team of actors, including Neil, his longtime pal, actor Richard Huw, Amanda Plummer and Maurice Godin. Last November, the foursome converged in Oakland. By this time, all of the documentary segments were assembled in order. We showed Neil his “footage”, and showed Richard the pieces he was to have assembled, and then we filmed the two actors for real as they showed each other their dogs stories.  This way their reactions weren’t scripted and we were able to capture their enthusiasm and/or questions to each other in a way that is quite genuine. So, Neil and Richard are quite believable on screen as the serendipitous “makers” of Sniff. Through their eyes, we see a mixture of Neil’s fun and bizarre dog stories (surfing, bird-herding, bubble-blowing) as well as Richard’s more serious segments about the training of two working dogs.

4. How did you end up in the Bay Area for the movie’s location?

Barry: Well, we live in Oakland and as our research progressed, it became clear that there were so many fabulous dog tales right here in California that we could certainly make a feature length documentary from the comfort of our family van!  We filmed all the dog stories first, started to edit them, and then got to work on the “fiction” part of the film.

5. What are some famous landmarks we can expect to see in the film?

Barry: I love the Bay Area! The Bay Bridge, TransAmerica Tower, the Painted Ladies at Alamo Park, San Francisco’s Union Square, the Grand Lake Theatre … oh and Big Ben and The Houses of Parliament in my home town, London. » Read more: 10 questions with the filmmakers of “Sniff”