Lost Dog (2021. Directed by Alex Hecksher, Starring Katherine Gillis and Jae Choi )
A small-time private detective is tasked with finding a lost dog.
Lost Dog was the final project for my Dreams, Psychosis, and Altered States course. The main requirement, if I remember correctly, was to shoot through some sort of distorted lens or material in order to convey an altered state. In the film I shoot through a few different objects to convey the detective’s altered perception, including a piece of warped plexiglass, a cup, a prism, and some distorted lenses.
The class itself was focused on the techniques used in film to convey altered states or subjective realism. In the class, subjective realism was defined as the style of portraying an individual’s view, given their mental and physical states, as the reality. Some films we used as examples that I found of particular interest were Meshes of the Afternoon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Berberian Sound Studio.
For Lost Dog I also used for reference films from David Lynch, specifically Inland Empire.
I’ll also note here that subjective realism is not the same a surrealism. Although there may be overlap in certain techniques between subjective realism and surrealism, their reasons and end results are often quite different. That being said, like I mentioned, there are some surrealist techniques that I found particularly useful for this project.
The initial idea for the story came from imagining one of those gritty noirs with a private investigator trying to crack the mystery of a missing dog before ending up in way over her head. I thought it would be a concise and funny premise.
From there, I tried to work my idea into the subjective realist style. Certain elements, like the dubbed dialogue and subtitles were inspired by Berberian Sound Studio and Italian films, specifically giallos, which is what Berberian Sound Studio is about. Again, I though it would fit the initial, already pretty absurd premise of hiring a P.I. to find a dog by also dubbing it in Italian and having English subtitles. It also gave me room later on to play with the viewer’s sense of reality by switching the dubbing and subtitles.
Other elements, like the detective waking up outside and seeing herself from earlier were inspired by the circular narratives in Inland Empire and other Lynch films, such as Mulholland Drive. I enjoy the use of circular narratives as it allows the film to establish a certain rhythm, and from there you can tweak little elements in each cycle to create juxtaposition. Even non-surreal time loop movies have this quality, like Groundhog Day or Edge of Tomorrow.
Looking back at this project, I do wish I developed the story further, which I don’t think would necessarily require giving it more time. Ultimately, I feel if anything the edit could be tighter, especially with some of the shots around the 3 minute mark. I still enjoy some the choices I made their, but certain shots and sequences I don’t think necessarily heighten the film.
For me, the most effective sequence is from right after the detective drinks the mysterious smoothie to when she wakes up in the grass. That moment best encapsulates what I was trying to do with this story, and I wish I had consistently add to that momentum through the rest of the film.