By Dan HeadPLAY Writer
Last year’s Studio 22 films featured everything from talking hamburgers to a teenage lesbian living with dinosaurs. This year is already shaping up to be just as interesting, especially Communication junior Adam Price’s film, tentatively titled The Poodle Story. Set to begin shooting next weekend, the film follows a girl through Chicago as she carries around a dead poodle in a rolling suitcase. Things might get crazy on film, but behind the camera, Price says he is calm and ready for the project. PLAY sat down with him for a quick talk about urban legends in his family and the right way to rent a poodle.
PLAY: What’s the basic idea behind The Poodle Story?
Adam Price: It’s the story of a girl who’s put in the unfortunate situation of having to take a dead poodle in a suitcase through the streets of Chicago to take it to the vet. And she encounters all of Chicago’s colorful characters in between. It’s sort of a situational comedy based on an urban legend.
PLAY: Urban legend? Which one? I’m not familiar with a dead poodle story.
AP: Well it’s a private, family urban legend that one of my cousins told me about one of her friends in Chicago a few years ago. And it’s sort of been adapted into this script, and my hope is that eventually this movie will reach the person that this supposedly happened to. It would be a great coincidence.
PLAY: What made you decide to throw all this together into a script?
AP: It’s just a great story that’s kind of been passed around my family over and over again every time we get together. Last year when they were asking for submission for the Studio 22 grant, I realized that not a lot of people were going out for this $500 grant, which is the smaller of the sums offered. I decided to turn this family party story into a screenplay. Now it’s sort of taken shape and it’s got its own kind of momentum behind itself. We just finished casting it and we’re sort of solidifying some of the details and are going to film the entire thing this weekend.
PLAY: What are you using for the poodle?
AP: Actually, we’re using a live poodle that we are hoping will be able to play dead and lie down in a suitcase for one shot. We are also using stuffed animals for some shots. So hopefully the illusion will work. We’re paying $150 for the first hour with the poodle and $100 an hour after that. We’re also renting a trainer, so hopefully it will only be one hour with the poodle.
PLAY: What goes into renting a poodle?
AP: There are services for it available if you look hard enough. The Illinois Film Office in the Chicago Film Commission helped us locate the trainer. It’s been a sort of long search for my producers.
PLAY: How long has this movie been in the works?
AP: It’s probably been going on since last spring when we got the grant and in fits and spurts over summer. It’s all going to be coming together next weekend. We’re just filming it Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So it’s just being about a seven or eight minute piece, and it will be in the Studio 22 premiere next spring. We’re rolling out the red carpet.
PLAY: Where do you see yourself going after this project and senior year?
AP: I want to work on more Studio 22 projects and eventually head out to New York, but there’s a lot of time between now and then.
PLAY: Last Thursday, Sasha Baron Cohen went as his character Borat to the White House front gates to personally invite President Bush to the opening of his film, Borat. If you could personally invite anyone to the premiere of The Poodle Story, who would you want to ask?
AP: Well, if Sasha Baron Cohen wants to come, that would be amazing. Or if this girl – apparently the protagonist of the true story-finds out about my movie through the grapevine then she definitely has a reserved seat waiting for her.
