Slug & Lede

“Cats need homes” is a short video about a man named Frank Currell who owns upwards of 80 cats.  Over the minute or two of the video, Frank tells the story of how his wife passed away, and how he must give up a majority of the cats.  Since he’s a cancer patient himself, he won’t be able to care for the cats on his own, which is why he has to give a lot of them up.

One thing about this video that I liked was that it was short.  I knew from the second it started that I wasn’t going to be sitting there for 10 minutes watching a video about cats.  It told Frank’s story and had enough info, but it had all of that in a little package, and it helped me to stay interested in the video.

Frank’s voice overs worked very well on top of the images of all the cats.  You got to see a lot of different cats, and at the same time you were able to hear Frank’s voice talking about his situation.  You could tell by his tone that he has an emotional bond with these animals, and he was genuinely sad to let them go.

Some of the interviews with Frank were set up in a way that made them a little awkward.  Sometimes Frank would be centered in the frame, sometime he’d be off to the left and looking to the left, and sometimes he’d be on the other side of the screen.  I think that if the camera remained stationary for the interviews, it would make them a lot less awkward.

I feel like this video could’ve easily been done as an audio slideshow.  The only part of the presentation that I feel needed to be presented in video was near the end when Frank was holding the cat and it was meowing and growling at him, which only lasted about 10 seconds.  The rest of the video consisted mostly of two-or-three second shots, focused on a single cat or group of cats, and the camera didn’t move.  It would’ve been just as easy to take a picture and show that for three seconds.

“Cats need homes” is a quick video with all the necessary elements to make it engaging.  It’s got what you need to know about Frank’s situation, along with some shots that show off the environment these cats are living in.  Though I feel like the video would’ve worked just better as an audio slideshow, and that the interview angles were a little wacky, the video was short and interesting enough for me not to be too bent out of shape about spending a few minutes watching it.