Yesterday after my volunteer kitten feeding shift at the Toronto Humane Society, I shot video of some of the kittens going through the feeding routine, to be used for this week’s assignment. I spent some time beforehand thinking and making notes about the kinds of shots needed to create four narrative ‘building blocks’ that could be played in any order and still make sense.
In my notes I came up with the following possible shots:
1. Establishing shot of the THS
2. Kittens in cage (CU)
3. Kitten feeding (CU)
4. Kitten being weighed (or otherwise treated by vet or vet tech)
5. Medium shot of cages
6. Medium shot of vet cart
7. CU of sign on nursery door or wall
I also considered whether to record random kittens or to follow one kitten through the routine.
While actually shooting I managed to get shots 1, 2, 3 and 5 plus some I hadn’t thought of in advance. I got footage of several random kittens as well as good coverage of one tiny kitten going through the entire process (food preparation, kitten being removed from box, drawing up kitten formula in syringe, feeding the kitten, playing with the kitten and inducing urination). I also tried getting several types of shots of one mother cat with her two kittens. There was a mother cat in labour whose births would have been interesting to document, but which would have taken a long time.
Things that seemed necessary to creating a flexible narrative:
1. Excluding dialogue that continues sequentially across different shots
2. Focusing on single-action shots
3. Shooting actions that don’t depend upon each other. For example, an establishing shot can go anywhere and function within a range of declaration-reveal according to where it is shown. In this case, it doesn’t really matter whether the viewer learns they are in the Toronto Humane Society at the beginning, in the middle or at the end.
We’ll see what I come up with once I capture this material. It’s nearly 2AM so I’d best crawl into bed.
If anyone (you know) is (or may be) interested in volunteer kitten feeding, the THS is still recruiting. Check out the THS Kitten Feeder page.
