Interview with Dr. Weeden

We had an interview on Thursday with Dr. Weeden, the Doctor that let us film all of the procedures. He was such a great interviewee. He knows all about our project and directed his answers towards helping us deliver what we are aiming for. I think that we will probably use his voice as a voice over for most of the film. He IS our professional and is good at projecting that on camera. He is also the one that got us in contact with Doug. He is exactly what we were looking for!

GREAT NEWS!!!

So yesterday we got some GREAT NEWS!!!! The executive producer of the Richard Gear movie that is about to start filming here~Nights of Rodanthe is extremely interested in our project and wants to meet with us soon to "discuss it." His name Doug Claybourne and has produced many features AND DOCUMENTARIES. In fact, his first film was a documentary called HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE~based on Apocolypse Now. He seems like a very nice guy and we are sooooo excited to meet him! I think that this is going to be HUGE for us!

Spay-A-Thon

So this sunday we went to the SPAY-A-Thon at College Road Animal Hospital. Basically what they do is trap a bunch of feral cats around Wilmington and spay/neuter them, then release them back into the wild. Dr. Weeden heads it and lets his students practice the surgeries. There were probably 50 cats that they s/n. MANY of those were female cats and of the female cats, MOST of them were pregnant. The doctors don't know 100% that their pregnant until they open them up. At that point they abort the kitten fetuses and spay the cat. We got it all on camera, even the fetuses. I actually got to get on some gloves and use a scalpel to open the placenta to get out the fetuses and hold them. It was sad, but amazing, and relieving that those kittens won't grow up homeless and starving like most of their parents. We got B-roll of the facility and the tons of cages, traps, and cats/kittens. We focused on one cat, Tigger, in particular because he had a story to him. The trapper had been trying to trap him for months and finally got him. He had a large cut on his arm that the doctors were able to fix up. We followed him through the process and will be back for his post-Op and to see if he is any different when Jane releases him back into the wild. Tigger is the beginning of our "Story" animals. So overall this week was a HUGE success for us!

Rockin and Rollin

So after a tough semester, we finally have the ball REALLY rolling. Dom and I filmed Dr. Weeden on Friday morning doing spays and neuters on several dogs at New Hanover Animal control. We got the surgeries on tape, along with Dr. Weeden talking us through them. He is GREAT on camera and really believes in our project, so works hard to give us what we want to hear. It was so cool watching the surgeries and being that close to them. I was able to help do a couple of things in the surgical room as well to aid the process. We also got B-roll of the dogs before, during, and after the procedures. We also got B-roll of the facility and the dogs in the cages. We filmed the entire preparation process before the surgery as well.

Intro to our film

Here is what I thought would be a good intro to the film...Take in mind every line is a different person speaking:

What happens when we turn away?
When we don't want to watch?
When we don't want to know?
Its not that we don't care.
We just don't know how to help.
A problem isn't a problem if we aren't the ones who have to fix it.
Its time to unite.
Its our social and moral responsibility to fix the problem together.
Spay and Neuter.
Spay and Neuter.
Spay and Neuter.
Be the voice that they don't have.

PUZZLE

Dr. Weedman gave me some homework...help me if you can becasue I am terrible at math!!!!

Here it is:

What is the reproductive potential of 1 female cat over the course of eight years(including her offspring)
1. She has two litters a year
2. In each litter she has 4 kittens, two of which are female

HELP ME FIGURE IT OUT!!! ITS CRAZY WHAT NUMBER IT WILL BE!!!

So this week..

So this week...we were both productive and not productive. I know it sounds weird but its true. We were productive because we met GREAT contacts and made even more contacts through them. Also we got a great couple of shoots for the weekend. we are filming a spay and neuter and interviewing Dr. Robert Weedam from UNCW and is a vet at College Rd. Animal Hospital. as well as Nancy Ryan, the head of Animal Control. She also agreed to let us film surgery and a euthanization at some point soon. We unfortunately did not get much ON camera this week though.