"A Dog's Breakfast" Premieres in San Jose, CA

A Mini-Report from Your Solutions Reporter

5 Mar 07: Edited with bits about Sunday’s showing.

David Hewlett and partner and fiancée Jane Loughman were on hand Saturday night for the first of three showings of their movie, “A Dog’s Breakfast,” which is an invited entry to the 2007 San Jose Cinequest Film Festival (Cinequest.org). The weather was lovely and so was the event!

The lower level of the 500+ seat theater was about 80% full, and the crowd was very diverse, ranging from hardcore Stargate/Hewlett fans to Film Festival pass holders who seemed completely unfamiliar with the film or its actors. I brought along a friend who’s a big Atlantis fan but not involved in on-line fandom at all, so he is somewhere in between.

David and Jane arrived just as people were filing into the theater. They said “hi” to anyone who noticed them standing in the lobby and then later at the rear of the theater. The Cinequest rep announced David was in the audience and would do a Q&A after the movie, which was very welcome news.

Then, the film began… For myself if was very interesting to see it a second time. There were so many things to notice in the plot twists and performances that led up logically to the conclusion, things that become more clear once you’ve seen the ending. I would say the audience was not quite as responsive as the all-fan crowd in Los Angeles had been, yet clearly the attendees were engaged and laughed very often. The people around me enjoyed it; even the older woman who was chatting in Mandarin with her family during quiet parts laughed out loud many times. 🙂

There was rousing applause as the credits rolled, then David and Jane came down to the front of the theater and answered a few questions about making the film. Someone asked about the Starcrossed series they are trying to sell to NBC Universal/Sci Fi, and Jane explained how many steps still remain before it could become a series. Sci Fi has to approve the pilot script to be filmed, then approve more scripts to be written, then approve them to be filmed, etc, etc. So its production is by no means a done deal.

After the short Q&A, the audience was ushered out, but David and Jane kindly stopped in the lobby to chat, take photos, and sign autographs for the 50 or so fans who stuck around. David was in great spirits, giving everyone a hard time as usual while Jane was her friendly and gracious self. I asked David how filming of Rob Cooper’s Atlantis episode “Doppelganger” is going, and he said it’s going very well and that Cooper is great fun to have as a director because he’s so enthusiastic about it.

After 40 minutes or so, David and Jane were able to make their way out of the theater and into the quiet streets of San Jose, hopefully to get some rest before doing it all again on Sunday. I hope they were pleased at both the turn-out and response to the movie, which were both excellent!

On Sunday afternoon I returned with a different friend who knows nothing about Stargate except what’s on the SG-1 poster in my office. This time the crowd was a bit smaller, perhaps 150 people in all. After we were all seated, David and Jane went to the front of the theater for what was announced as a short Q&A before the movie. David said they had to head back to Vancouver in time for filming on Monday morning, so they wouldn’t be able to stay for the screening. He did volunteer to answer questions if he could do so without spoiling the film. 🙂 He talked about how he found out he loves being a director, that making the movie has changed both their lives, and that his main regret was he didn’t slow down and take things a bit easier during filming of ADB. He said Jane at times had to remind him he had time to do the scene right instead of quickly. He also encouraged any budding filmmakers in the audience to use modern technology and distribution channels to go for it, to just get out there and make movies. A woman then gave him a CD of a movie she had made, and he was pleased to take it. After a few questions, David and Jane reluctantly made their way out of the theater.

It was interesting to see the movie for the second time in as many days in that I could listen for audience reaction and notice little things that popped out at me still for the first time. There were quite a few laughs and some moments of “concern” in the audience, ending again with a good round of applause. My friend proclaimed a “funny and intelligent” movie, and “inexpensive”, the latter not being an insult in his mind. For a non-fan to like it so much speaks volumes, I think.

I’m very glad I got to be there on Saturday night since that was the only chance to interact with David and Jane.  But it was very generous of them to fly down for the screenings at all, as that added so much to the experience. Both the volunteers running the festival and the attendees who had no idea David would be there seemed charmed by the whole thing.