Slug & Lede

The basis for Cats need homes lies around Frank Currell and his wife’s love of cats. The video further outlines why he must get rid of the 90 odd cats now occupying his Scarborough residence. His health and the death of his wife offer reasons as to why he can no longer keep up with the extremely large number of feline friends parading around his home. 

There were many great elements to this piece. I really appreciated Pawel Dwulit, the videographer’s, use of angles in his shots of the cats. You can tell he really put himself into character as his angles seemed to be in the perspective of the cats themselves. This idea really led the main focus of the story to be about the cats, which I felt were the most important elements of the story.

I also felt Dwulit did a great job of editing the material, the transitions flowed quite well and I never felt awkward instances of voice overs or placement of pictures.

Some elements however I felt should be changed. When Dwulit was taking medium shots of Curell sitting on the couch, it seemed to distract me when he would cut of the very top of his head. I’m not sure if this was to be a creative element, but I felt he should have been more cautious of these small errors.

I also wish the video would have offered more information on where the cats will be going now or how he will deal with their absence. I feel this information is vital to the story and it may have given a much needed depth to this piece.

I really enjoyed this piece as a video, I feel the presence of the cats and how they occupy the home were essential to understand visually. 

Overall this piece was put together very well and I found a great interest in the story. I also felt this piece was much too sweet to be overly critical!

Cats need homes by Pawel Dwulit features Frank Currell, a man who lives with 80 or more cats. The video begins with Currell sitting on a couch surrounded by a few of his cats. I really like how it just starts off with him saying, “We always had in the numbers of 90 to 100 cats here.” It really grabbed my attention and was a strong starting point.
I think it was a nice touch to add the picture of his late wife while he said, “My wife passed away.” Currell was a little hard to hear and I had to watch the video twice before I could understand what he said when talking about being a cancer patient. Also, later on in the video he mumbles quite a bit. I’m not sure if this could be edited but maybe another piece of the interview could be used instead-a more understandable one.
I think it’s great that the cats are actively involved in the video and we can see Currell petting them. The close-up shots of just the cats (under the table, walking around, with cans, etc.) were great to see. It was nice to see more cats and showed just how many there really were.
The video was unsteady and the camera seemed to move a little too much which was distracting. I liked the background noise throughout the piece, especially when the cats started to make noises. It made it more realistic. I liked that Currell was the main focus of the video but it would have been nice to have the sons (who were pictured) talk a little bit about the situation as well.