Animal Studio’s stars have a lot to say about pandemic life
Watch a video with kittens, and suddenly the world is just a bit brighter.
Michael Killen, who co-created the “Downward Dog” TV series for ABC as well as an online series of the same name, realizes that people are stressed.
His Pittsburgh studio, Animal, has been rolling out a series of online shorts featuring timely topics and the pets of his colleagues. They urge their humans to be kind, be calm, follow the health rules and love one another.
They can be found on Vimeo and Facebook.
“It was either the first week or the second weekend of the stay-athome, and I was like, ‘I need to do something. I need to create something,’ ” said Mr. Killen, who is working at home while surrounded, at the moment, by five cats.
“So I just pulled out my iPhone and started shooting my cats.”
To be clear, there are usually three in the household. The two kittens are his daughter Erin’s, who lives elsewhere. They are recently adopted 5-week-old bundles of joy that occasionally are dropped by the older felines to be socialized.
Also to be clear, Mr. Killen is no rank amateur when it comes to animal videos. Twenty-two years ago, he worked on the “Yo quiero Taco Bell” Chihuahua commercials and has been creating talking animals for, well, quite a few dog years.
Back to the cats: “The story was formulating in my head — This was when we were all talking about ‘6 feet apart,’ ” he said. “Toby, he’s a year old, the gray one. He enjoys jumping on the other cats, and it kind of became a natural story where he was really not following the rules.”
Another cat, Arry, dryly notes that some people just can’t seem to follow the rules. Local comedian Aaron Kleiber voices Arry. (“He has a really good, nice sarcastic tone,” Mr. Killen noted.)
After he edited the short, he and his colleagues discussed a potential series about what the pandemic means for pets unaccustomed to having their owners home all the time.
They quickly wrote up storylines for 10 and eventually shot seven. Two new ones will be posted shortly. All of them are just a minute or two long.
First up in the series is a visit with a sweet dachshund named Beatrice filmed by owner Beth Voltz, who is sheltering with her parents, Carolyn and Ramon Voltz, in Grove City. Beth Voltz, who edited the original “Downward Dog” web series, actually has two little
wiener dogs.
Her parents are shown interacting with Beatrice, snuggling and riding up a motorized staircase chairlift.
“I think it is so touching. It just had to be the first one,” Mr. Killen said.
“I thought that this was an important story, how pets affect older Pittsburghers, older Americans. Sometimes, it might just be them and a pet.”
Others include a walk with Yogi, a black Labrador owned by producer Ally Oleynik. She and coworker Doug Helmick are quarantining together, and they co-directed the short. This time, Yogi is shown being walked all around Bloomfield, but he can’t figure out why no one — not man nor beast — is coming up to see them.
“Why is everyone avoiding me? It’s confusing for Yogi,” Mr. Killen said.
Millions of boring social media posts prove that making pets seem “human” is no easy feat. Animal Studio proves consistently that it can be done well.
“When it is done successfully,” Mr. Killen said “the animal itself does give you so much personality.”
They spread a message of love, caring and respect. And those kittens? “I want that to be about fresh eyes and hope.”