dead dog

TheMacB

TheMacB

Veteran
shooting a film that has a dog being hit by a big rig. the dog is a golden retriever who is graying in the face. not worried about killing the dog (we'll cut away before the impact) but about carrying around the bloody dead dog. i'm not confident our golden retriever can be perfectly still.

any ideas for a fake dead golden retriever? or anybody know where we can get some fur that looks like a golden retriever's coat so we can make our own fake one?
 
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I know how to shoot the sequence so it looks like you hit the dog. but a suggestion about the "dead dog" is to not carry it around. Shoot coverage of it in different places or some such. In the car on the way to the vet. At the vets, anyplace it could be "dead" without carryng it. We shot a truck hit on Baywatch Nights years ago. We had to hit Hasselhoff with a trash truck. Obviously we couldn't hit either him or a stuntman. but it all worked out great.
 
In his explaination he explained they're going to cut out before the dog gets hit, it's just they need a way to have a "dead" and/or "injured" dog that they can carry around with them after the scene takes place. Unless I'm reading it wrong...
 
Yeah, I know. What you have to do is write the script to do what you can do. i would concentrate on the hit and not the carrying, but that is me....
 
we cut away just before the impact so we'll never see the dog getting hit. we don't need to. but the guy has to carry this dead dog both from the scene of the accident to the car and then from the car into the vet's. and the dog has to be dead in the backseat of the car.

i'm pretty sure the carrying from the scene of the accident to the car will be done in still shots behind the opening titles. so i think we can just carry the dog and you won't be able to tell he's moving because they're still shots (i hope). but we need a dead dog in the back seat of the car.

carrying from the car to the vet's is going to be a very big high wide shot. so as long as we can make something that just looks remotely like a golden retriever i think the camera will be far enough away for us to get away with it.

so i think the most important part is something for the back seat. i think i really just need a piece of a fake golden retriever. like just the head. or just the hind legs. then i can frame it in such a way that we only see a piece of it. anybody know where you can get a fake golden retriever's head? or how can i make some fake legs?

by the way, the dog gets hit by a Mac truck. a big rig. its gonna be awesome.
 
I used my dog (now deceased) as a dead dog in a short we shot. I put down a throw rug to cover the carpet in the living room (backseat) got him to lie down. Put some movie blood on the carpet by his head with some bits of foam rubber in it to simulate brain matter, and petted him til he went to sleep and shot the crap out of it. DEAD DOG!
 
maverickstunts said:
I used my dog (now deceased) as a dead dog in a short we shot. I put down a throw rug to cover the carpet in the living room (backseat) got him to lie down. Put some movie blood on the carpet by his head with some bits of foam rubber in it to simulate brain matter, and petted him til he went to sleep and shot the crap out of it. DEAD DOG!
Click to expand...

lol that's just really funny to me. It's a shame dogs aren't aware of what us crazy filmmakers want to do with them.
 
Well if he got hit by a Mack Truck then all you need is pieces of dog. Maybe you can get some fox legs at a taxedermy place and fake it with those with the shaved hair from the real one. You could wrap them up in a bloody sheet and have them stick out a little. Im sure that would sell the shot.
 
i think that's a brilliant idea. remember, people don't need to see everything, just enough to make them believe it. A lump under a sheet with some limbs sticking out is better than a tore-up dog in my opinion, because that's probablly what you would do if you had to carry that thing around for real.
 
the only thing is this....even if he got hit by a mack truck, he wouldn't be in pieces. But, the audience doesn't need to see everything, that 's why it is a movie......figure out how to trick them.
 
I think this is certainly a place for some creative license. I don't know too many audience members who really want to see a realistic portrayal of a mangled dog carcass after being hit by a semi.

Does the character know the dog is dead while taking it to the vet? Or does he think the vet can save the dog? (Though he would have to be a pretty stupid character, I suppose, if the dog just got hit by a Mack truck...). If the character knows the dog is dead, just shoot the dead dog in the street, and have the character wrap a blanket around it when he picks it up. That way the shots of it in the back of the car it will be mostly covered up, and easier to fake. Plus, that way you won't have to worry about being realistic -- the audience could just imagine the mangled dog carcass instad of actually having to see it...
 
the dog is not in pieces. and our man still thinks he can be saved. i think the sheet thing is good. then maybe we can just use the real dog and have his legs sticking out. i wonder if he'll be able to stay still. if not, will fox legs be big enough? and i'm a little sketched about approaching a taxidsermist. my only taxidermic experience is Psycho.
 
haha, then maybe he could lend you a knife too :)
I think people wont even realise the size of the legs, they probably wouldnt even notice the change in color since all they will be thinking about is what it must look or feel like. Slight of hand. I recently pulled a dead dog out of my friends place and the only thing i could think about was the smell. Well I made it about 2 feet before I got sick. It was a 90 lbs dog and it was no picnic trying to drag it let along lift it.
 
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