Chorleywood’s cleverest dog, yellow Labrador/ Retriever Eli was featured on BBC local radio last Friday ( 20 Feb) to publicise the work of Canine Partners. The follow up post on BBC Three Counties’ facebook page had the most shares ever.
Eli and Lorna are no strangers to media. The pair have been on television several times and also featured in a film competition a few years back that won casting director Leanne Flinn a finalist’s place.
The Straight 8 competition presents a challenge to all creatives, regardless of their previous experience in the movie world. The brief is to shoot a film for three minutes using one single reel of Super 8 film with no editing so scenes must be filmed in sequence and planned like a military operation. The sound is added later, and the film not viewed until after the competition. There’s no room for mishaps.
“ It didn’t take me long to decide my story” says Leanne, “my friend Lorna has celebral palsey quadraplegia. Canine Partners charity put her together with Eli and he trained with Lorna for over a year before passing his test! When I saw what Eli did, I just had to capture him in action. When we shot the film he was amazing – but he was just doing what he does every day! The narration was taken from a post about Eli on Lorna’s Facebook page”
In the film you see Eli carrying out just a few of his commands including waking Lorna’s PA up, opening the back door, putting things in the bin and taking her coat off. Four years on he can do even more, he can follow 306 commands!
As well as having a Crème de la Cannes premiere, the film was shown at festivals in Spain and Italy and Lorna and Eli were able to join the audience of an early London screening. When the winning film titles were announced at the end, Eli barked loudly as his name was read out – which brought the house down.
“Of all films that have been taken of me this is my favourite” adds Lorna, “It is the one I use when I’m doing demonstrations for schools it also is the link regularly sent to people that want to know more. I feel that it is still the best film to show the variety of things the Eli can do for me.”
Check out Lorna’s website http://smoothwheels.co.uk/ which provides a disability database and information like PA emergency & holiday cover and accessible venues.
http://www.caninepartners.org.uk/
eli – a straight 8 film by leanne flinn from straight eight on Vimeo.
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