Do you ever wonder where ideas for fiction come from?
Sometimes they come from personal experience. Sometimes they come in a dream. And sometimes they come from a Youtube channel. Christopher McGruer was watching a Youtube series about trauma survivors when an idea struck him. Fast forward a year later, and that idea has turned into a twenty-minute short film titled If Dogs Run Free.
The title refers to the damage a dog can do on a farm if it’s able to run amok. In this film, it kills a chicken – a layer of symbolism that enriches the message of the film, one that is about trauma. Not necessarily inflicting it but overcoming it.
“It’s the story of someone who’s suffered a terrible trauma, survived, but then the person who inflicted the trauma suddenly shows back up,” says McGruer. “That creates tension and that suggests a story which is interesting to me.”
I love hearing how passionate he is for his projects. In fact, every time I have a conversation with Christopher McGruer, I walk away feeling inspired. He’s one creative dude. And he’s a person who actually follows through on his ideas. That follow-through is the reason for this particular chat. I knew he’d been working on something this past year, and I’m excited to see the end result. While the audio’s not quite finished yet, he’s willing to show me a few snippets. Here’s the Coles Notes: it’s good.
One thing McGruer has told me in the past about filmmaking is that many successful directors like to work the same crew on every project. He’s taken his own advice by bringing back Sarah Goldman on Production Design, and actors Samantha Colwell-Castles and Cameron Donsberger, who are both very, very good in this.
Samantha Colwell-Castles the main character that takes the viewer through an emotional roller-coaster of a day that relies on a lot of physical acting; she is able to communicate so much with her face alone.
“She’s the real deal,” says McGruer. “I knew I wanted to work with her again, so I was trying to think of something I could purpose-write that would have minimal locations, minimal people, so really centring the story around this person on a farm…just her going through the day and a letter arriving. And I needed an actress who could….sell it through her performance.”
He wrote it less as a series of plot points, and more as a character driven narrative. “For this one…I designed this emotional through-line of what I wanted to take place with the character.” It was a different approach than his previous films, but one that could become more of a signature approach for him. He’s learned a lot from his first two projects on how to best connect with an audience, and this seems like a McGruer who is really coming into his own as a director.
“You need an antagonist who is as strong as the protagonist; otherwise, there’s no tension,” he says, demonstrating the wisdom he’s learned along the way.
“As I was writing it, I thought ‘the guy needs to show up’. There needs to be confrontation.”
Enter Donsberger’s character: the chilling father figure who provides this very confrontation in a genre-mashing scene that sets this film apart from McGruer’s previous two.
“It’s a drama of course, but the confrontation scene turns into High Noon. I started to play with it,” he says. “Film is meant to pull you in. I like contemplative stuff too, but I wanted to test myself…and I knew Sam would be able to pull it off.”
If Dogs Run Free is more ambitious film for McGruer in a few ways. Not only is it longer, at 20 minutes in length, but it’s a collaboration of some very talented people. They say that movies are made in the editing room, and if that’s case, he’s added some heavy hitters to his team to make this one. Mike Gamble is a professional colourist who recently moved to the area, and brought his talents to this project.
GI Holm did the sound. “He’s got fantastic ears,” says McGruer. “I worked with him on The Christmas Tree. Working with guys in post who are high-end professionals really speeds up the process, and GI Holm and Mike Gamble are two who were awesome that way.”
Gem Webb and Brian Tannahill were two more excellent additions. Webb was brought in as the cinematographer and it was Webb and McGruer that spent the winter editing the images into a film. Tannahill was brought into score the film. “The score is so good, it’s astonishing,” says McGruer, who also storyboarded the entire film, something he says isn’t necessary but certainly helps to be efficient on set. Efficiency is key since there is a limited time on location to get the footage you need. He only had three days at The Red Brick Roost farm and two days to get the flashback scenes. Everything needs to work. And it never does.
“You have a vision for the movie and you go out and tell everybody in the individual departments what the movie looks like. You convince them a) to come on board and b) what the vision is…you get all the footage and head into the editing room. Whatever you thought the movie was going to be, that’s done. This footage is what I have to make the movie…that’s where a movie is made. It’s made in the editing room.”
But he also knows that the key to good filmmaking is finding the right crew and sticking with them. He is very concerned with the team dynamic. “How did we all experience the set? Were we all fulfilled in doing our jobs? That’s number one. If that doesn’t happen, it’s almost not worth it,” he says.
I think that the concept for this film can be summarized in something McGruer says before we finish our coffees and part ways: “It’s chilling. It’s not about trauma, it’s about that person overcoming trauma. Confronting it again and surviving. And even more than surviving; owning it.”
The way McGruer approaches the trauma is done masterfully. He is aware the topic is a sensitive one. He’s done the research; he knows the statistics; and as a filmmaker he knows there are real people behind the statistics. That’s his job as a filmmaker – to get people emotionally invested in the life of his character as though she were real; her story is fictional, but she symbolizes the struggle of every real person dealing with trauma, and there are many.
If Dogs Run Free is playing on July 11 at The Rumpus Room for anyone in this area who would like to see it. I highly encourage you to go see this film.
Words by Jesse Wilkinson
Photos by Madison, Vivian, Sarah Goldman, and Gem Webb
