Writer-director Alan Dennis and multi-EMMY winning beauty expert Gabbi Pascua share how the concept of the “Through Smoke” documentary story set in France came to them from a personal place and how it has sparked an entire docuseries “A Study on Beauty” taking the creative collaboration on a journey through France, Japan and the Philippines to unveil wellness and beauty through ancient customs and traditions.
Alan, filmmaking has taken you, and Gabbi, all over the world but what got you into filmmaking and made you realize that it was your chosen path?
I first took interest in making movies when I saw a behind the scenes show about the making of Jurassic Park. I would’ve been 7 or 8 probably. That was the first time I learned that there were actually people who make movies, and you could do it as a profession.
But I thought I was going to be either a musician or a doctor. I loved music and was good at it, but I learned that most professional drummers don’t make money and have to end up teaching music, which I had no interest in. I considered becoming a doctor because it was considered a good, safe career, but also because I was a big fan of the TV show House.
At a certain point, I realized I was more interested in the role of a doctor as I had seen on TV and not actually in the profession itself. That realization coincided with me seeing Kill Bill for the first time, which blew me away. I had never seen anything like it, and I really felt Tarantino’s love of cinema come across the screen. I decided right then and there that I wanted to try and see if this could be what I wanted to do with my life.
That was in my senior year of high school which was also the year that the school put on the very first schoolwide film festival. I had never held a camera before or edited or anything, but I borrowed a friend’s camera, borrowed a CD that had editing software on it, wrote a very crude outline of a script (it was a silent film), and got a few friends to act and help out. It had a car chase and a sword fight at the end, with a real machete and katana that I borrowed from friends because I couldn’t afford to buy fake ones.
I worked so hard on the edit, teaching myself as I was doing it (I even composed and performed the score myself), and worked well into the night every night until it was complete. Finally, I finished the film and submitted it a few minutes before the deadline. The school actually disqualified me because of the sword fight at the end, but I had worked too hard on it to give up. A bunch of my friends started a petition and even got the principal to sign. A few friends even marched into the school office to demand they accept the film.
Finally, they allowed the film to get in on the condition that I put a disclaimer at the end, as a condemnation about school violence or something, which I did in a tongue in cheek way. The film was played at the festival and won both the grand prize and audience choice award.
After this whole experience, I was 100% on the filmmaking path and haven’t looked back since. 
Gabbi, from being a powerhouse two-time EMMY winning make-up artist and being nominated for five more, and now producing a docuseries, how have you found the transition, and was it always your calling?
The short answer to this is yes — the more I step into this role, I’ve come to embrace my life calling, which is simply: beauty. I’m fully aware that for me, carrying out this call will take form in various ways and evolve as much as I do as a woman. And as a creative, perhaps it's my artistic spirit that craves exploring different mediums with an openness on how my beauty career will take form. I don't believe it will be conventional… This new career shift into producing is a significant chapter proving that point.
It is an absolute privilege to be able to step into producing, yet it's nothing I ever saw myself doing when I began in beauty and not very common. But, denying new opportunities to create and expand myself would also feel like a disservice for my career. So all to say, producing has been a new challenge and I'm learning a lot, but it's also not unfamiliar. Working below the line I think has helped me better manage and oversee sets. And because of it, I’ve for the first time in my career feel as if I'm on my most authentic path. This feels like me, because it is an extension of what I have already been doing; and this process feels honest. I’m not trying to be anyone else or prove anything. I just want to do good work and tell genuine stories, and I hope that translates. The last three years have been my most challenging, and a project I’ve both sacrificed and risked literally everything for… but the payoff of the journey we’ve been on has been all worth it.
Looking back, I never set out to win awards nor did I step into my makeup career for the recognition. All I ever prayed for was the ability to build my life upon the foundation of a career in beauty and do the best job I could. So, I think that same perspective has now driven me into doing the best job at producing and at times co-directing with Alan.
I know the calling on my life is one that’s of service to others, so as long as I'm intertwining beauty and service, then I’ll just do the best I can with the tools given to me — and right now I couldn’t be more certain that I am on the right path.
Alan, you both come from two completely different disciplines, how did your worlds collide?
We had a bunch of mutual friends through work and church and were both in the same social circles, all coming up in the industry in our early 20’s. At a certain point, you realize how small the film industry is so you’re always crossing paths with different people who come in and out of your life at different times. I think we even worked on a couple sets together but we remained casual friends for about 7 or 8 years before starting “A Study On Beauty” together. That came about because we ended up being neighbors in Venice during the pandemic, so I wasn’t leaving the westside much. She pitched me this docuseries idea she’d been developing that really came out of her experience as a makeup artist and a beauty professional. I immediately saw the potential of the idea and said yes. So, my job has been taking those ideas and themes she’s wanted to explore and translating them into a cinematic language. It’s been a great creative partnership, and I think coming from very different backgrounds in our careers has only been a benefit to “A Study On Beauty. ” We both have our expertise, but also being inexperienced in other areas (Gabbi with producing/directing, me with the beauty world) brings with it a genuine curiosity to learn, discover, and grow through our storytelling. And that has helped shape the project into something more complete that I think will resonate with a wider audience. We’re both learning from each other but then also refining our own individual perspectives and it’s been one of my favorite things about working together.
Gabbi, tell us about the vision behind ASOB Media?
I’ve always loved true stories and documentaries. I had not found anything online or on TV that resonated with me through the lens of beauty or wellness - two topics that are undeniably the heartbeat of my life calling. I think because beauty has impacted my life in such a soulful way, I have been fatigued with such superficial conversation around the topic. Yes, it's fun and flirty, but I believe the industry has a tender heartbeat and that's the side of the industry that, I believe, should be celebrated. The timeless tales and heartfelt stories are the ones I wanted to see on screen… and no one has done it. The vision behind ASOB Media really was an intent to bring that to life. To create a pathway of storytelling through beauty, to thoughtfully connect to others on a grand scale. I did not want it to be isolated to social media, nor did I want this attached to “sell” a product or attach to a major beauty company. I had a vision for a project that was a stand alone and one that could connect to individuals through a screen - and not just a one off, but a series. Maybe working in television shaped my perspective, but also as a viewer, there's something special about also resonating with one another through a show - in the same room. My hope was that there would be a lane I could create an environment for genuine connection and understanding through shared interest and conversational stories. This vision was definitely expanded through a series of unfortunate events, and through it, like what we are trying to convey in this series, beauty always paves a way.
This is quite a collaboration! Alan, tell us about “Through Smoke”.
The documentary A Study On Beauty is an international docuseries. The first in the series is Through Smoke, which we filmed predominantly in France. To set the scene, we open with the voiceover of a Jewish rabbi reading Hebrew scripture over images of smoke rising from a Middle Eastern incense burner. The passage of text is the first instance of incense being mentioned as a conduit for connecting heaven and earth, and in many ways, it is the central idea of the documentary.
A Study On Beauty: Through Smoke isn’t a standard documentary as it has always been our vision to not just highlight the facts of our subject matter, but the local communities and all the wonderous cultures within it.
Gabbi, what is happening next with the series?
Right now, we are in production in Tokyo working on the Japanese documentary “A Study on Beauty: Onsen”, more on that soon, but after this we are headed back to France for some additional footage before making our way to the French Riviera and the Cannes Film Festival.
We are excited to see the finished product. How can we follow your journey?
ASOB Media is on Instagram and YouTube, and our website is www.asobmedia.com
Watch A Study On Beauty: Through Smoke - Teaser Trailer