Film by Cat...?

Date: Friday 27th April, 2012

Time: Too early

Dan arrived at my place way too early this morning to shoot a quick video for the site. The idea? Film by…CAT. If everyone else is doing it, why shouldn’t we?!

Luckily, I am in possession of the most adorable foster cat, Gandalf. He’s giant and white and fluffy and well – here’s a photo of him (after a bath).

The concept of the video is to ask Gandalf to vote on which genre he’d like ‘Project A’ to be and see what he thinks. And so on. It should be online (and hilarious) in the next week or so.

After multiple cat bites and a restorative cup of tea, Dan and I headed into Carlton for the day’s real purpose – to shoot a series of live polls in University Square. We arrived to find a somewhat bereft Monte, whose long weekend camping in the bush had fogged his mind (fresh air can be a nasty thing), causing him to doubt the mission.

Re-think. In a moment of clarity, we decided instead to share a little of ourselves with the Film by Democracy community. A candid, face-to-face chat with those of us behind the scenes,who have come together to bring you the world’s first democratic (or demoCATic, whichever way you swing) web series.

We had Dean behind the camera, on constant watch for the rogue leafsweeper that was hogging the footpath, Monte on sound, Dan dazzling everyone with his wit and charm, and me watching from the sidelines, trying not to have an anxiety attack about my impending onscreen debut. Not to forget Liana, poor sick Liana, who was off in the bowels of Melbourne Uni battling with a printer. And finally Grace, who missed all the fun today but who will pop up on your screen sooner than you think.

With confusion swirling and camera batteries dying, we did as we always do and retired to the pub. Beer, wine and vodka were prescribed for whatever ailed us and the rest of the afternoon was spent giggling over loglines and talking about The Avengers. Not to mention the more serious task of planning tomorrow’s proper shoot with REAL actors. Stay tuned for that drama!