FURRY FRIENDS The Wild and Wooly Biz of Animal Casting
The top dog in animal casting in Georgia reveals the latest trends and why business is booming By Echo Mont gome r y Ga r re t t
G reg Tresan of Animal Casting Atlanta takes a break after unloading his precious cargo on a film set to talk about his favorite subject: the business of providing animals and other critters for films, TV, commercials, and print. The California native was first introduced to the film industry via dog training thanks to his partnership with Jumpin’ Jess, a frisbee-loving Australian Shepherd that he trained and competed with all over the country. “She was a great frisbee dog, and we wound up doing half-time shows for the NFL and performing at MLB stadiums,” says Tresan, who runs Animal Casting with his wife and business partner Carol. In Ball Ground, the couple operates a 15-acre ranch, which has a full-service commercial training and boarding facility. Says Carol,
summer. It was a real challenge to do that safely for the human and the spiders.” He worked closely with the American Humane Association and production on the elaborate set up. Tresan has built trust by being budget conscious. “I got asked for flamingos recently,” he says. “I told the client flamingos are extremely delicate, not local. It would be very difficult and probably not worth the cost. Everything comes down to budget, the safety of the animal, and the crew.” He observes animals’ popularity trends. “We joke that the writers must all eat lunch together and look at the same demographics,” he says. “Lately, rats are in. Sometimes goats or bunnies are in.” The most difficult animal to work with is cats. He says, “One in 100 can make a film dog. With cats, it’s more like one in 1,000.” However he and his wife managed to train Ziva, a cat that they love. Says Carol, “She was rescued by Spider Man from a burning bodega.” Tresan works with a variety of animals and says, “My favorite animal to work with is an animal that has some sense of what’s going on, is compliant and helps make the day go smoothly. Every animal has its own personality.” He thrives on challenges. On the movie Prisoners , he had to create a safety stunt vest for a dog that was supposed to be yanked off the ground and look like it had been strung up by an actor. He used the same technology for a similar stunt for Widows . “People reacted strongly to those scenes, because it looked so real, but the dog was perfectly safe,” he says. “I always like it when we get a chance to do groundbreaking stuff. On a Comedy Central show, we had to dress a chicken in a tuxedo and teach it to play the piano. We had to come up with some interesting ways to get a chicken to do that.” Some of his castings have become unlikely breakout stars. “The rat in Avengers: Endgame has a significant role and did something that made it the unsung hero of the film,” he says. “Entire blog posts have been written about that rat and he’s all over the Internet.” The animal lover predicts that his company’s star will continue to rise: “The film industry in Georgia has exploded with more and more studios investing in our state.”
“He calls me the chief executive officer in charge of increasing the herd. I like horses, sheep, and cows. He prefers dogs.” Knowing the Atlanta Olympics were coming, Tresan started the company — originally called Dogworks — in 1993. The couple now have eleven dogs that work in the business and more than 2,000 in their database. They’ve also expanded their talent roster. “Today we offer everything from ferrets to parrots,” says Carol. When the film industry tax incentives debuted in 2008, their business nearly doubled right away. “Greg had a ‘build it and they will come’ attitude,” Carol says. “I’ve always been impressed by his vision.” That vision has paid off. His company provided all the animals for the first five seasons of The Walking Dead. He says, “My wife and I both appeared in the series, and that crew became like family.” Not only has Animal Casting Atlanta become a well-regarded name in the Georgia film industry, Tresan gets calls from all over the country. He has worked on his share of mega-films, including the last three Hunger Games as well as Avengers: Infinity War , and Endgame.
“The Marvel movies are always a challenge,” says the entrepreneur. He loves lending his expertise to the creative process. “I enjoy all the projects we work on, but I especially like medium-size movies where
Greg and Carol Lane Tresan
I can be highly involved creatively,” he says, naming Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ; Hidden Figures ; and Jason Bateman’s Game Night as recent favorites. “I’m proud of anything that comes out good on film.” Recent projects include Netflix’s Ozark and reboot of Dynasty ; HBO’s Watchman (debuting in October), and Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep , The Shining sequel coming out in November. “We’ve been working on Watchman for over a year now,” he says. “It’s a huge effort.” Weird requests have become common place. “We had to dump a bunch of spiders on an actor’s head last
To find out more, contact Greg Tresan at (404) 786-6400 or Dogworks@aol.com, and Carol at (404) 786-4232.
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