THE CAT WHO SAID WONG (Screenplay)

I'd never thought about this as a short film until Josh Gaunt suggested it.

But he had kind of an idea for the ending - which isn't quite what ended up in here - that made me think that it could work. And from the word go I pretty much knew how to do it.

It hasn't changed that much since the first draft. Though I did experiment with a very different angle based on feedback from South West Screen, in an effort to get their backing. Josh had some ideas. I ran with them. A little too far. The cat became a figment of the girls imagination rather than an actual cat. I also had one imaginary friend being consumed by another. I liked it, but I don't think it worked as well.

Mind you South West Screen didn't go for it at all. They wanted it about 3 minutes long. Which to my mind could only happen with a very explanatory voiceover telling the tale, and the images being little more than illustrations. That's not my idea of cinema.

Early on Josh had always thought there would infact be some voiceover - to preserve more of the story; he liked the prose and the tone of the voice I used to tell the story on the page. First thing I did in adapting it was drop that idea. It just seemed entirely superfluous. I believe that voiceover can work - it certainly worked for Orson Welles and Billy Wilder, but if you can make it work without, I think there's a pretty compelling arguement to do so.

I like the way this story flows now. I can see the images shot for shot, cut for cut in my head. I think it's neat, and fun and a little touching. At least I hope so.

I can't help but always see this as utterly real, live action when I read it - it's certainly what I imagined when I wrote it. In practical terms though that means a lot of very well trained cats, a lot of patience, or very expensive CG. These days I wonder if it might not be best as animation. If you're an animator, get in touch, maybe we can talk about it.

Click HERE to take a look at it. Just remember the Copyright Caveat up there in the introduction...