As far as the film makers were concerned audiences needed an antithesis to all those dog led movies for kids and ‘Strays’ is that film. Potty mouthed as well as the contents of a potty featured throughout the film but just how did they get those Strays stunts done?
The safety and well-being of the dogs working on Strays were the top priorities for everyone involved in the movie. and the production brought in veteran animal safety expert JANICE CAPUTO (The Horse Whisperer) from Movie Animals Protected (M.A.P.S.), who advised on every aspect of filming with the dogs. Caputo was on set every time the dogs were, and she worked closely with head animal trainer Mark Forbes on the film.
The dogs were never left alone, at night they would stay at their trainers or owners homes, four-star resort hotels or the compound built by set with a nighttime caretaker. Every set and shooting location in and around Stone Mountain Park, Georgia, had to be scouted, cleaned and signed off on before the dogs could set foot on them and the production provided the trainers and dogs with cooling and warming tents wherever necessary, although the fall Atlanta weather was mostly gorgeous. In addition, the sets, props and costumes were all designed with animal safety in mind.
But for any scene that might be remotely dangerous or uncomfortable for a dog, the dog was re-created via visual effects—through collaboration with the VFX team and on-set VFX supervisor Charlie Iturriaga—during post-production. Once the dogs completed production on Strays, any animal who didn’t already have a permanent home with the trainers was found a loving one with screened individuals who would give their beloved new family member a fulfilling life. In fact, one of the dogs was adopted by director Josh Greenbaum. “When we brought in two adorable puppy Border Terriers to play young Reggie in an early scene of the film, it was made known to me that these dogs wouldn’t have a home after the shoot,” Greenbaum says. “So, I decided to adopt one of them and asked my kids to name him. They immediately said we’ve got to name him Reggie because he played Reggie in the movie. I came home after shooting the film, introduced Reggie to the family, and now I have Will Ferrell in my house.”
So when a Golden Eagle snatches up Bug (Jamie Foxx) and tries to fly away, Reggie leaps to his rescue. To accomplish the Strays stunt scene, VFX created a 3D eagle. The scene was a combination of live-action running and jumping, some green screen with the dogs in harnesses, and then full 3D VFX of both the dogs. Benny, who plays Bug, was so comfortable being lifted in the harness that he looked a little too comfortable being hauled away by an eagle. The filmmakers brought in Benny’s double, Fly, for the scene because she was wrigglier.
But the most complicated Strays stunt for the dogs is when Hunter knocks down the door to Doug’s house. The trainers taught Hunter to run and jump onto the door, which the construction department and the SPFX department rigged for them on a pully system so that it could be raised and lowered. The team started with the door only about a foot off the ground, and then gradually taught the Great Dane to jump on it at higher and higher elevations until it was upright and he would leap onto it as it was simultaneously lowered. It took about 2 months to train Hunter for the stunt, and he thought it was the best game ever!
And then there’s the scene in which the four dogs gorge on hallucinogens, Greensman SWIFT MOSELEY (Dumb and Dumber To) dressed a clearing in the woods with hundreds of specially prepared fungi. His team scoured Atlanta for the correct species and painted the tops red. The props department made chicken patties for the dogs’ mushrooms. Within moments, Dalin (Hunter) zoomed around the clearing with wild joy—with the crew grabbing their lights and boom poles—and attempted to keep the Dane from destroying the set.
Unlike on a film starring people, where the camera is usually at head height, Strays stars dogs, and that meant some significant adaptations. To film the dogs, the cameras had to be inches from the ground. As if that weren’t challenging enough, each dog had different color tones. For night scenes, cinematographer Tim Orr used colour contrast to amplify the situations in which the dogs found themselves. “There was a sequence in an alley where Reggie is lost and meets Bug,” Orr says. “He encounters two huge, menacing dogs before Bug pulls his shenanigans to get rid of them. I used an almost satanic-looking golden amber to mimic sodium-vapor light. It made those scary dogs feel like devil ones!”
As with all US film productions the American Society for the Humane treatment of Animals overlooked all the Strays stunts scenes and the dogs, far from being in any danger regarded the whole production as an enormous play day.
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