STREAM DUST ON TUBI
DUST (70 min) - narrative feature
A New American Film by Adam Dugas & Casey Spooner
A dysfunctional family of three eccentric and stubborn siblings fall down a rabbit hole of tragic and comical consequences over their family home.
Loosely adapting (as if in a dream) Chekhov’s play The Three Sisters, this independent feature was inspired by the Any Warhol/Paul Morrissey films FLESH, TRASH and HEAT. Those films keenly captured the performances of unique artists, embracing their technical flaws and limitations.
Starring Cody Critcheloe, Peggy Noland, Jaimie Warren, Katie Rayle, Danny Fischer, Shannon Michalski, and Adam Dugas.
Special appearance by Holly Woodlawn
Written, Photographed and Directed by Adam Dugas & Casey Spooner Produced by Adam Dugas, Casey Spooner, and Michael Stipe
Edited by Adam Dugas and Jessy Abid
Original Score by Ben Bromley
Production Design by Dora Budor & Maja Cule
Executive Producer Jason Cacioppo
Associate Producers Cody Critcheloe, Peggy Noland, Jaimie Warren
This project was supported by a Rocket Grant, awarded by the Charlotte Street Foundation and the K.U. Spencer Museum of Art, with funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
In her new single GHOST CAT, multimedia shapeshifter Ann Magnuson conjures up some of the ghostly creatures that haunt her native West Virginia.
Returning once again to her Appalachian roots and backed up by members of the WV band The Carpenter Ants and The Mountain Stage house band (the long-running NPR show based in Ann’s hometown of Charleston, WV,) the track features WV-born harmonica legend Charlie McCoy who, like Magnuson, is a member of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
GHOST CAT is a spooky, upbeat song about searching for the supernatural among the hills and hollers of Appalachia. Engineered and mixed by renowned engineer, producer and musician Don Dixon, the song combines deep American folk traditions with surreal psychedelia reminiscent of Magnuson’s indie-cult band Bongwater.
GHOST CAT is the musical centerpiece of the artistic oeuvre Magnuson calls “SurRURALism” that takes the listener into a trippy sonic dreamworld you can clog dance to!
- VIDEO CREDITS -
Music video directed, shot and edited by Adam Dugas
Animation by Jason Cacioppo @subvoyant
Original artworks and drawings by Ann Magnuson
- SONG CREDITS -
"Ghost Cat" written by Ann Magnuson
Ann Magnuson: vocals
Charlie McCoy: harmonica
Michael Lipton: guitars, mouth harp
Ted Harrison: bass
Randy Gilkey: organ
Ammed Solomon: percussion
Engineered and Mixed by Don Dixon
c. 2023 Ann Magnuson all rights reserved
Directing reel.
DUST
A New American Film
Starring Cody Critcheloe, Peggy Noland and Jaimie Warren,
special appearance by Holly Woodlawn
Written, Photographed and Directed by Adam Dugas & Casey Spooner
Produced by Adam Dugas, Casey Spooner and Michael Stipe
Edited by Adam Dugas & Jessy Abid
Trailer edited by Adam Dugas
WTF 2020 is a web series created by Ann Magnuson with Adam Dugas. The series launched in March, 2020, shortly after the stay-at-home orders were announced. Using dolls crafted by her Grandma Magnuson, Ann wrote and performed the episodes, which were edited and augmented by Adam.
While nominally telling the story of Dust Bunny and Arzetta navigating the pandemic, the episodes are also a diaristic document of life in 2020, incorporating psychedelic dreams, the summer's social unrest, and the testing site at Dodger Stadium. Inspired by a group reading of War & Peace that launched in March, both artists read the novel, which in turn led to the characters reading the book and becoming a touchstone throughout the series. The 14th and final episode, an epilogue, premiered on January 2, 2021.
Other contributing artists included: Randolph A. Hudson III (Bongwater) provided original scoring; sound artist William Basinski offered tracks from his latest album “Lamentations” and guest voice artists included actor Zachary Street and Terry Sweeney (SNL).
The project was featured on the following online exhibitions:
Empirical Nonsense Daily
The Isolation Collection
ANN MAGNUSON: I’ve been making videos with my grandmother’s homemade “outsider art” dolls for years but only shared them privately for Facebook friends. When our world drastically changed and we all had to stay isolated, Adam Dugas and I created this no-budget DIY web series using these dolls and letting them voice all the fears, hopes and anxieties that have appeared along with Covid-19. I had a live musical theater show planned for July called WTF 2020 --addressing the madness of Trump’s America -- but there was no way any theater or club would be safe to open so I adapted the concept for the internet. I’ve always worked with my dreams in my writing, music and performances and in this web series I have incorporated the nightmares. The dolls voice the neurosis of the collective unconscious as they attempt to survive and they also explore multiple Jungian archetypes as a psychedelic process for healing. Joseph Campbell describes this process in his book “The Hero’s Journey” where the individual uses adversary as a Catalyst to fight personal demons, throw off the shackles of “the provisional self” and achieve a psychological wholeness and then the ultimate metamorphosis into a purely spiritual being.
ADAM DUGAS: WTF 2020 has been an amazing project with which to channel my feelings and thoughts about what the pandemic has caused and revealed. This collaboration has been a powerful way to share these reactions with film language. The puppet dolls, which Ann’s grandmother crafted decades ago, are animated by Ann - Dust Bunny exhibits unbridled fear and anxiety, while Arzetta provides the calming, rational voice that plunges into Jungian analysis. It’s like dramatizing what might be going on in Ann’s brain - I know mine has many competing voices reacting to what’s going on! The extra ingredients are the found footage elements, which are transformed from their original intent to something strange and magical. The mundane and the majestic - all valid, all one!
CATCH & COOK
Unscripted series
Directed by Jason Cacioppo and Adam Dugas
Pilot for unscripted show in which the host teaches a chef how to fish, and the chef teaches the host how to cook the fish they caught.
Adam also served as writer, story producer, art director (interstitial hero location), and music supervisor.
CATCH & COOK
Unscripted series trailer
Directed by Jason Cacioppo and Adam Dugas
Trailer for an unscripted show in which the host teaches a chef how to fish, and the chef teaches the host how to cook the fish they caught.
Adam also served as: writer, story producer, art director (interstitial hero location), and music supervisor.
“Michael Olajide, Jr. + Leila Fazel
Aerospace High Performance Center”
NEW YORK TIMES - T Magazine
Directed by Adam Dugas & Casey Spooner
Shot and Edited by Adam Dugas
Featured on front page of New York Times website.
Ann Magnuson - "I Met An Astronaut"
Official Music Video
Directed by Adam Dugas & Ann Magnuson
Edited by Adam Dugas
Footage courtesy of NASA and National Archives
Additional Footage shot by Adam Dugas
Before becoming a friend and collaborator, I was a fan of Ann Magnuson. Bongwater (Ann's experimental folk-punk-talk band) was a huge influence on me. Her dream-infused writing and performances are always combined with a sharp wit and great images. (Check out the cover of her album The Power of Pussy!)
The song "I Met An Astronaut" was inspired by conversations Ann had with Dave Scott, commander of the Apollo 15 mission (who drove the first moon buggy!). Scott was a technical adviser on the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon, and Ann met him on set, as she was playing the part of Scott's favorite nurse. The song appears on Ann's 2006 album Pretty Songs and Ugly Stories, which will be re-released next month digitally/streaming for the first time.
Wistful and lyrical, the song is an elegiac recall of tweenage Ann's experience of living in 1969 and a beautiful setting of the words Scott used to describe his experience of being on the moon: "ENDLESSLY FULFILLING."
We planned for the majority of the film to be constructed from vintage NASA footage, but I was thrilled to come across reels and reels of unedited 16mm camera footage from various Apollo missions that some fantastic NASA employee uploaded to the Internet Archive. (Our taxes pay for the footage, so the images belong to all Americans.)
In approaching the edit, I was thinking of the great assemblage documentary The Atomic Cafe, which repurposed 1950's propaganda films to great effect. I found Vietnam footage courtesy of the National Archives, and we used Ann's own family home movies from the 1960s as well as shots from the first major Sci-Fi effects films: Georges Méliès's 1902 "A Trip to the Moon" and Segundo de Chomón's 1908 unauthorized remake "Excursion to the Moon."
I'm astonished by the images from the moon voyages, many of which I had never seen before. The zero gravity hops, the moon buggy racing, the LEM blastoff, and the incredible close-ups of the moon surface in the changing light.
From Ann: “I wrote this song after meeting astronaut Dave Scott on the set of the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon produced by Tom Hanks. I played the astronaut’s favorite nurse, Dee O’Hara, in Episode 3 ‘We Have Cleared the Tower.’ Dave Scott from Apollo 15 was technical advisor on the series and was happy to answer all my questions about what it was like being on the moon. A most memorable experience that I shall cherish forever”
“I Met An Astronaut” Written and performed by Ann Magnuson
From her album “Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories”
Produced and arranged by Kristian Hoffman
©2006 Ann Magnuson/Pink Fleece Music/BMI (administered by Pacific Electric)
Musicians: Kristian Hoffman - keys, percussion; Joe Berardi - drums, percussion; Jonathan Lea - guitars; William Bongiovanni - acoustic stand up bass; DJ Bonebrake - vibes, skull tube; Ann Magnuson - acoustic guitar Basic tracks recorded at Earle Mankey’s Studio engineered by Earle Mankey. Mixed by Mark Wheaton at Catasonic Studio. Mastered by Brad Vance at Red Mastering.
Footage courtesy of: NASA NASA Goddard National Archives and Records Administration ESA/Hubble Prelinger Archives Mitch Martinez
Music video for "Maid of the Mist" by Adam & Mia
Music and Lyrics by Adam Dugas, arrangement by Mia Theodoratus
Recorded during the production of DUELING HARPS at the Abrons Arts Center; October, 2010.
Audio recorded, mixed and mastered by Ellis Traver.
Filmed by Jason Cacioppo, David Boatman and Zbigniew Bzymek.
Edited by Adam Dugas.
CRAYOLA Colors of the World “The One Color” :30 (2021)
Produced by Adam Dugas for Subvoyant
Directed by Jason Cacioppo
This was the second spot Subvoyant made for the Colors of the World products from Crayola, we made one for the product launch in 2020.
WTF 2020 - Episode 4 “Dreams in the Time of Corona - Part 1”
Web series created by Ann Magnuson and Adam Dugas
Written and performed by Ann Magnuson
Editing, sound design and movie magic by Adam Dugas
Dream Soundtrack By Randolph A. Hudson III(Feat. variations on The One-Eyed Gal theme by Ann Magnuson/ arranged by Tom Judson)
Special thanks:Mark Wolfe Design, photos of Charleston, WVRandy Polumbo, bronze chicken head artSt. Mark's, Venice video by Septimiu Balica from Pixabay Venice thruway video by Caelan Kelley from PixabayBig Ben video by Christian Bodhi from Pixabay Dinosaur video by Vimeo-Free-Videos from PixabayExcerpts from The Lost World (1925) dir. Harry O. HoytExcerpts from N.Y., N.Y. (1957) dir. Francis ThompsonPhotos courtesy Library of Congress
© 2020 Ann Magnuson all rights reserved
PROUD OF US - WEB SERIES ”Snackship”
Created by and starring Sam Pancake & Nina Millin
Directed, Shot and Edited by Adam Dugas
Written and Produced by Sam Pancake & Nina Millin
Production Assistance - Rob Salerno
PROUD OF US - WEB SERIES”Word Tapestry”
Created by Sam Pancake & Nina Millin
Directed, Shot and Edited by Adam Dugas
Written and Produced by Sam Pancake & Nina Millin
Production Assistance - Ryan C. Murphy
Episode 2: Nina inadvertently catches Sam in an act of ferocious creativity and prays to leave unscathed.
LADIES & GENTLEMENT - Web Series
“Spray it Black” - Kembra Pfahler
Directed & Edited by Adam Dugas
Shot by Jason Cacioppo
Born to a surf god in sunny California and indoctrinated with punk spirit by first wave Los Angeles punk artists, Kembra Pfahler moved to New York in 1979 to start her creative career. Attracted and inspired by extreme alternative art – The Cramps, X, Diamanda Galas, Lydia Lunch, Taboo!, Ethyl Eichelberger, and Butoh dance – with guitarist Samoa she launched The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, a meat-and-potatoes rock-and-roll band with an outlandish performance bent. Fronted by Pfahler as a cartoonish hybrid of Playboy magazine’s Femlin and a radioactive monster, the band augments its heavy aural assault with elaborate sets, props and costumes – shark puppets, dancing flowers, and the juvenile visual vocabulary of satanism. Philosopher, musician, artist, anti-naturalist, and availabist, Pfahler is an all-around sensation. She has exhibited her drawings and performance work with Colin de Land – American Fine Arts, Co., Deitch Projects, and at the Park Avenue Armory as part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial. A new album and performance entitled Home of the Brave premieres late Spring, 2011. Her collaboration with photographer E.V. Day shot at Monet’s gardens in Giverny, France will show at NYC gallery The Hole.
LADIES & GENTLEMEN - Web Series - Teaser
Produced & Directed by Adam Dugas & Casey Spooner
A series of short documentary profiles of artists. Ranging from Broadway and Hollywood stars (Chloe Sevigny, James Franco, Frances McDormand, Justin Theroux) to established art-world legends (Marina Abromovich, Marilyn Minter, Elizabeth LeCompte, Kembra Pfahler) to lesser-known, emerging and fringe artists (Machine Dazzle, Ryder Ripps). Commissioned by Imagine Fashion.
Fischerspooner - “The Best Revenge”
Official Music Video
Directed & Edited by Jason Cacioppo and Adam Dugas
DP: Jason Cacioppo
Producer: Adam Dugas
Fischerspooner - "We Are Electric"
Official Music Video
Directors: Jason Cacioppo & Adam Dugas
DP: Jason Cacioppo
Producer: Adam Dugas
AC: Patrick Riordan
Colorist: Robbie Renfrow for Offhollywood
Choreographer: Vanessa Walters
Stylist: K8 Hardy
Makeup: Tracy Alfajora
Lighting: Ben Kopald
Video Helmet: Andrew Schneider
Production Company: Subvoyant
Camera, DI Color Correct and RED Services: Offhollywood
Neon hat by Nasir Masher and Lite Brite neon.
Shot at the Performing Garage in New York, NY.
Tune Up Fitness - Yoga Tune Up® - Promotional Video
Testimonials
I directed the testimonial interviews and edited them with an existing interview with founder Jill Miller to create a suite of 10 promotional videos for various courses and products.
Directed by Jason Cacioppo and Adam Dugas for Subvoyant
Produced and Written by Adam Dugas
Stop-motion animation, special ad agency project.
This was a special project for a client of an ad agency we work with regularly. The CEO sent along a rough outline of scribbled-down thoughts, and we were asked to make an animated video from it.
It was, in essence, a coded slam video directed at two other Fortune 500 companies. I wrote a script and suggested using animals as the characters, inspired by Richard Scarry books, in order to avoid any racial or physical personal characteristics.
Ann Magnuson - “Cynical Girl”
Official Music Video
Music and Lyrics by Ann Magnuson and Kristian Hoffman
Photography by Rocky Schenck
Edited by Adam Dugas
The third in a suite of videos I made with Ann Magnuson for the digital release of her 2006 Album Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories. Both this video and “Falling for an Actor” were created using SD footage shot by photographer Rocky Schenck during the shoot for the album art. It was a challenge to cut this super soft-focus footage to jibe with an HD world. The “Actor” footage was brightly lit but the challenge in that piece was the camera was pretty static, so I used kaleidoscope effects to fill out the frame and animate the edges. For “Cynical Girl” the light was lower and scenery darker, so the image often became blurred and the color temperature varied pretty wildly. Ann’s wish was to make it as close to a full performance take as possible, and she does an amazing job of committing emotionally to the onscreen lip sync. It is perhaps the most personal song on the album, about meeting her husband and the psychic change it brought about. The tender, sincere quality to her acting comes through like a Golden Age of Hollywood period piece. I tend to embrace the flaws of what I’m working on - we didn’t have a budget - and when I placed both takes alongside each other to assess the merits of each, I had a Eureka! moment of using split screen. It made the varied color palettes seem intentional, and the variations in her dramatic gestures - standing in one take, sitting in another - look choreographed.
© 2006 Magnuson/Hoffman Pink Fleece Music/BMI (administered by Pacific Electric) Gothic Novelty Music/ASCAP (administered by Wixen Music) From the Ann Magnuson album "Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories" Produced and arranged by Kristian Hoffman Musicians: Kristian Hoffman - keys, percussion Joe Berardi - drums, percussion Ernesto Garcia - bass guitar David Bongiovanni - guitar Pierre Smith - guitar Heather Lockie - strings Basic tracks recorded at Earle Mankey’s Studio engineered by Earle Mankey. Additional recording at Catasonic Studio, engineer by Mark Wheaton. Mixed by Mark Wheaton at Catasonic Studio. Mastered by Brad Vance at Red Mastering. “Pretty Songs & Ugly Stories” © 2006 Ann Magnuson all rights reserved
Produced and Directed by Adam Dugas for opticnerve
Over the course of five years, I researched and found subjects for a series of short profiles of “real” women from around the country, used as interstitial content for the Lifetime Real Women network. I directed 6 of the spots.
Adam also did casting and story and field producing.