At the beginning of May I got a phone call from Sofafilm and that very same day we agreed on everything by email.
 Apparently, Sofafilm was contacted by the Warner Productions recording company to produce a video for the latest Nova Star song When The Lights Go Down On The Broken Hearted. The producer had come up with the idea to let a wolf play the leading part in this touching love story, but rather quickly the crew discovered that the approprate animal for this role was a Czechoslovakian wolfdog, for these animals look just like wolves, but can be trained better. After a little surfing on the internet, they ended up with my address. Maybe the nice pictures I put on the internet (www.wolfdog.org) have something to do with it? Or perhaps the high scores Branca got on an exhibition in Antwerp? Whatever the case may be, the important thing for us is that our dog Branca became an actress.
The shootings took place in the Foręt de Soignes, and in the villages of Heverlee and Sterrebeek on Saturday, May 22nd from seven o’clock in the morning untill ten o’clock in the evening and on Sun-day, May 23rd from half past eight in the morning untill six o’clock in the evening.
Saturday:
At seven o’clock in the morning we already were in the Foręt de Soignes, but they only started taking shots of Branca at one o’clock in the aftenoon. First, the producer wanted to take some shots of Joost Zweegers, the lead singer of the band.
Shot 1 was a piece of cake for Branca. As the singer was being filmed, the only thing Branca had to do was sit down in the background.
Shot 2 was more of a problem and also more important for the whole of the video. Now, the singer was lying down on the ground as the crew filmed him. They started at his feet and then slowly moved towards his head. Branca had to sit down next to the head of the singer and when the camera reached that part, she had to leave slowly and speed up after a few meters. The first few times she left much too quickly, the camera man not being able to follow her. After the third shot I squatted down some 10 meters away from her and now she did come slowly towards me. Then I quickly got up and moved backwards and as a result of that, Branca also started to run. At last, the shot had been taken!
Shot 3 was the most difficult one and almost ruined the whole day. A man in a harness with a camera at knee-heigth and a large stick had to come over to Branca. Nothing special, I thought, but when the camera turned, I saw that there were four men coming up to her. And they didn’t walk one after another, but all in a row, next to each other. Branca didn’t seem to like this and ran off. We then tried everything, even putting meat on top of the camera, but nothing could tease Branca. I knew this could happen and had even warned the crew for this kind of problems. It is the escape behaviour that wolfdogs have inherited from their ancestors, the wolves. Of course, this is very frustrating, but luckily I had brought my bycicle and to pass the time and calm down a little, I took Branca for a long run in the forest.
 At half past three the producer finally decided to take a break and took us all out for lunch. Even Branca could come along. She was worn out already and at that moment the camera man (without harness now) could approach her without any problems. After the lunch, the director decided not to go to the city of Charleroi for the next shots, as he had planned to, but to the village of Heverlee.
Shot 4 was a difficult one again. The camera man had to walk behind the actress towards Branca and just like we all had feared, Branca ran off once again. Luckily enough her doggy character traits triumphed and she came running back to me. Or maybe that was only because she knew I was carrying pure beef… To cut a long story short, after a lot of difficulties and even more edtiting, the director was satisfied with the results. When I suggested that the actress embraced Branca and held her hands around her, the director was very enthusiast; it would make a very moving scene. The camera was put a little closer to Branca and with the help of some food Branca’s interest for the actress didn’t fade away. She even gave her a little lick. The director was deeply touched and happy that ‘his idea’ was a success. After that, there were some rather uncomplicated shots of Branca in the woods. When everything was finished, I took Branca for another run and then we drove home. It was already half past eleven in the evening, so when we arrived home we went immediately to sleep. It had been a tough but satisfying day.
Sunday:
At half past eight in the morning we were back in the Foręt de Soignes. Today, there would be only shots of Branca, so the crew was made up of only four men, whereas on Saturday, there had been 25 persons working on the set. The first setting for today was a bunch of big blown-down trees. When the crew was installing the camera, Branca jumped on the trees and walked on top of them. When the camera was rolling, of course, she flatly refused to do so. But in the long run, everything came to a good end.
The second location for today was an open area in the middele of the woods, where Branca had to run quickly from one point to another. Someone volunteered to hold the leash, but that was a big mistake. The person in question wanted to overcome his fear of dogs and of course Branca smelled that. She tried to run off but the man pulled the leash once more and then Branca bit him in his hand. It had been a warning only, so the man had a lucky escape, but I got fed up with it all and sent him off the set. I ordered Branca to stay where she was and went some ten metres away from her. At that point, I started running and Branca ran after me; the director was very happy. Meanwhile, I had discovered that Branca was a lot calmer when I held her at the starting point and someone else tempted her with some beef.
 The next scene was a piece of cake again. Branca had to run across a wide firebreak in the woods. We used the same technique we had used before: I stayed with Branca and held her, untill someone else tempted her with the meat. The funny part was that she always came running back to me, as I am the ‘leader of the pack’ to her, right after she had eaten the piece of meat. Every time I rewarded her with some meat. The shootings worked out more smoothly with the minute, on the one hand because Branca had now accepted the three remaining persons and on the other because I was involved more.
After a while I discovered a very nice spot and pointed it out to the director. It was a little dip amid the pine trees with a pond and some little ducks. He thought it was perfect. But then the artistic training of the director pushed itself to the forefront: he wanted Branca to run to the left, then turn right, run along the waterside and last but not least, leave slowly and arrive in quick pace… I decided to try out the circuit with Branca on the leash… She continuously wanted to go into the water. When the camera was ready, I released Branca from behind a pine tree and held my breath… But that wasn’t necessary, for Branca ran towards the camera exactly as the director had wanted her to. After she had received the little piece of meat, but with the camera still rolling, she came running back to me. The director was delighted; he had two nice shots now: Branca running down and coming back.
When we were jumping around from happiness, the camera man observed Branca and rolled the camera to make a close-up of her. Branca’s glance spoke for itself at that moment, and it was that exact glance the director had hoped for on Saturday. But then it didn’t work out because of the camera fear. The director was delighted once again.
Meanwhile it was one o’clock already and we went to eat something. At that moment, the lead singer of the Novastar band, Joost Zweegers, came to support us. Of course he also wanted to know if everything was going on well, because this video was very important to him. Nowadays the music scene is not the land of milk and honey anymore; one has to struggle for his money there too...
Our next location was in the village of Sterrebeek, not far away from the Hippodrome.
The idea was to film Branca from the boot of the car while she was running on a small cart track. I would be sitting in the boot of the car also, so I didn’t think it would be very difficult. But it was. Branca was weaving from one side of the track to the other the whole time and even passed the car. The goal was to film both her head and her paws, so I suggested that I ‘d run behind the car with Branca on the leash. That way they could film the paws already. This part would be used for a very rhythmic part of the song. So that is the way we did it, but after a little while I was fagged out. The lactic acid in my legs was accumulating. I think they drove one kilometer just to take a shot of the paws… Apparently, they wanted to have enough material of this! But now we still needed some shots of her head. I again suggested to run alongside the car and that was a good idea. Branca now stayed rather quite and ran behind the car at a steady pace. To help her a little I had brought a three meter long stick to tempt her. At the end of the stick I had attached a smoked pork ear! But it worked out very well, at least for the dog. Not so well for me though... The cart track was only wide enough for one car and at the sides was a lot of sand and weeds, so I had to look in front of me to see where I was going, I had to look behind me to see where Branca was going, and I had to hold the stick. Moreover, the director ordered the driver to speed up so that Branca would run at a full. Of course, no one had thought of me! Finally, I had to give up, but luckily they had enough footage.
The next scene was incredible and so I didn’t want to do it twice. On the above picture you can see a ploughed field in the background. A member of the crew, whom Branca trusted the most, held her at the far end of that field (at least three times the length of a football pitch). I had to stand right next to the camera; to Branca I was only a little black dot waving something in the air. Branca was released, the camera was rolling and she came running towards me at full speed. There was however a lot of wind coming from the left side so that Branca made a big turn to the right and came to me by the cart track.
For the last scene, Branca had to run through high grass so that only her ears and eyes would feature on the film. From an arthistic point of view very clever, but a dog is also a smart animal; Branca ran immediately to the track to come back at the other side. Why make things difficult? The scene had gone wrong, but I had another idea. I went into the high grass with Branca, while someone else was standing next to the camera with some meat. When the camera was rolling, I released Branca and plumped down on the ground, because otherwise I would be right in the middle of the shot. When I was lying down on the ground, it seemd an etenrity before the word ‘cut’ was heard. When I stood up, I saw the others were giving their thumbs up. All is well that ends well!
In total I used some two kilos of pure beef and 300 grams of biscuits, but Branca didn’t put on extra weigth because those two days I didn’t feed her in the morning.
I was very happy when it all ended, but I knew that it had been an experience I would never forget. It was a success only because of the good relation between me and Branca. Normally, a Czechoslovakian wolfdog is not fitted for this kind of work. Moreover, everything was filmed in the woods, where the hunting instinct of a wolfdog can very easily resurface. Before the shootings, Branca had never run free in the woods, nor in the field!
The video of Novastar can be seen from mid-June on TMF, MTV, etc.
I really enjoyed those two days!
Patrick and Branca
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