From the Animal Shelter to the Couch: a short film

Here at the house of The Labs & Co., we are  not shy to admit we are movie buffs and documentary nerds. Films and documentaries can be more than entertaining; paired with a great subject and great music, they can be powerful and create positive change in your community. We are especially devoted to Ken Burns documentaries, The National Parks being my absolute favorite.

Little did we know that our love for working with our local shelter, Sonoma Humane Society, would bring us intimately close to the filmmaking experience, and have the sheer honor to rub elbows with someone who’s voice I associate with history and learning. More on that later.

Every year, Sonoma Humane Society hosts a fundraising gala, Wags, Whiskers and Wine. I have been attending as a volunteer for a few years, but this year, we got to be a little more involved. The marketing team asked for our help in creating a short film highlighting the shelter’s many accomplishments and efforts in helping homeless animals, and hopefully inspiring viewers to adopt, foster, donate or volunteer. 

It was a very fun project to work on, and a huge learning experience for both of us. Bill dove in head first into video production, we both art-directed and I was in charge of finding key pieces of original music to license for the film (thank you Musicbed!).

Filming SHS’s veterinary team hard at work with baby dogs? yes please.

The film highlights 3 adoptive families and the best friends they found through Sonoma Humane.

Me at the gala, awkwardly standing next to one of our portraits of a shelter favorite, a dog named Soto.

The kicker? Peter Coyote, a great actor, narrator of many projects, especially those Ken Burns documentaries and a local supporter of our shelter who adopted two dogs; agreed to lend his wonderful and poignant voice to our film. We cannot thank him and his friends enough for being a part of this film and helping to take it to a whole different level in support of SHS and all the animals in their care.

Watch the film below:

Couch Sessions: Finding a Soft Place to Land from The Labs & Co. on Vimeo.

We still have a LOT to learn about creating films, but having dipped our paws in the moving water, we are eager to learn to swim. We are so grateful to our friends at Sonoma Humane for trusting us with such a project and for being such a fun team to work and collaborate with.

Hope you enjoy it and thanks in advance for watching! We would love to hear what you thought of it. 🙂