Shiny Brute Website

In order to maximise the film exposure we are in a process of designing a website to compliment it. However, the opportunity to create a 'Mystery Cat NZ' one-stop shop is too tempting to ignore. Hence, we are wanting to collect all the information that we have gained through our research and present it in one place. Furthermore, we would like the site to be interactive where interested contributers can post details associated with the phenomenum. In the meantime we are mocking up some designs to see which will gain favour with our vision and potential users. Please feel free to comment on the three mock-ups of our home page featured below.

Exciting New Poll

Well its official, according to 52% of respondents I officially look like that ginger freak out of Simply Red.

Ah well.

So, it is time for a new poll and this time it will be related to the film. So much so that we want to solicit feedback on possible titile options for the film. While we still have a very hectic couple of months pulling this thing together, a title at this stage would give us some focus and direction (or provide us with one less headache later).

So, please vote (on the right hand side of this page) and more than once if you feel so inclined. Of course any comments or suggestions will also be gratefully accepted. There is no money or prizes associated with this activity, just the knowledge that you might in some way influence the final product.

As for the film itself I have discovered one major detail during this process of editing. It is a lot easier writing a review every week about film and providing a critique than actually making one of them.

Both Pip and myself and have become so close to the images and the personalities involved that it is often difficult to stand back and give an objective appraisal. Thankfully we have no shortage of people wanting to give their two cents worth which is just what we need.

Exciting New Poll

Well its official, according to 52% of respondents I officially look like that ginger freak out of Simply Red.

Ah well.

So, it is time for a new poll and this time it will be related to the film. So much so that we want to solicit feedback on possible titile options for the film. While we still have a very hectic couple of months pulling this thing together, a title at this stage would give us some focus and direction (or provide us with one less headache later).

So, please vote (on the right hand side of this page) and more than once if you feel so inclined. Of course any comments or suggestions will also be gratefully accepted. There is no money or prizes associated with this activity, just the knowledge that you might in some way influence the final product.

As for the film itself I have discovered one major detail during this process of editing. It is a lot easier writing a review every week about film and providing a critique than actually making one of them.

Both Pip and myself and have become so close to the images and the personalities involved that it is often difficult to stand back and give an objective appraisal. Thankfully we have no shortage of people wanting to give their two cents worth which is just what we need.

Mystery is alive and well

One of the questions that we commonly ask ourselves when making this film is "how likely is it that a 'big' cat could be alive and well in the mid-Canterbury area and only be seen sporadically over the last six years"? O.K. we are talking about an expert in stealth and deception, the most cunning carnivore possibly, but surely we would know more about the creatures in our midst and have more tangible proof?

Maybe not, this week those bastions of all things rational and explained (Scientists) have had to admit that a clouded leopard native to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo are actually a separate 'brand new' species. Wow. Read about it here.

Its hard to fathom how this could be the case with the wealth of genetics knowledge and all the people who are involved in protecting the diverse range of animal and plantlife in this pracarious part of the world. But happen it has and we should delight in discovering that maybe we don't have all the answers and just maybe our levels of perception are clouded or blocked to all the potential possibilites. No doubt 'Crypto Nuts' will be delighting in this information, now if only we can get some more information on the mystery New Zealand otter.

Photos from the film

I have decided to make a few extra photos available through this forum so have added a link to some photos that I have uploaded to Flickr.If you haven't used it then give it a go, a great way to back up photos and make them available to persons everywhere. The link is in the right hand tool bar under Cat Film Photos.

Cunstables

Apologies to all those readers outside of NZ (and I know there are a few of you) as this post concerns some thoughts concerning a high profile rape case involving three NZ policeman. The media have been all over this like a rash, but I feel the national print media have failed in comparison to some of the on-line bloging concerning this issue. As usual Russell Brown gets it spot on and really sums up for me how sad the three 'Cunstables' were and continue to be.

However, it really struck a chord to find out what Mr Right Wing himself (Ian Wishart) had to say concerning this sorry episode. Having met Ian recently when I interviewed him for the film, I found him to be a very pleasant, well thought, and engaging individual. So it shouldn't have come as such a surprise to hear him lambast the legal system and refer to the coppers as "violent rapists". Yes, his column is well worth a read.

Here's the thing, back in the 80s it wasn't a crime to sport a huge slug of a moustache and engage in consensual group sex involving introduced apparatus. However, if the person(s) supposedly consenting to such activities were young females, pressured into the act through falling foul of the law then one has to ask themselves, how consensual was this. These sad men abused their power (and batons) to procure sex which quite obviously was being denied to them through other means. They had a right racket going and probably thought they were invincible! Based on two court hearings to date that would seem to be the case. Now, I'm also not opposed to having sex on the bonnet of a police-car (as long as the fuzz was holed up in a doughnut shop), but, I'm not a policeman and Mr Rickards was. I just hope he doesn't get his job back as I would hate to think we are putting our trust and money in the hands of wankers like that.

I was not able to secure a video clip of the Back of the Y masterpiece 'Cunstables' but I did come across an amusing flash animation that sums things up quite nicely (especially for fans of Viz). The 'Real' Cunstables, Enjoy.

It's a cryptid world

Thankfully the weather in Dunedin has come right for a couple of days, just in time for Pip and myself to hunker down in the bunker-like editing suite and start meshing together a few sequences.

However, I am still finding time to indulge in the odd distraction like listening to one-day cricket (go the black caps) and reading the odd blog. So it came as somewhat of a surprise to learn that our wee film project is being mentioned elsewhere on the net.

The following website dedicated to all things cryptozoology features news of our film. Please read about it here. As if that isn't freaky enough, a big cat expert in Great Britain has been emailing me a whole host of useful information related to tracking urban big cats. His name is Danny Nineham and he authors a very interesting website.

However, in the interest of balance there are others who totally discredit the work of Mr Nineham. The following report details efforts by Canadian trappers to prove/disprove the theory that there are big cats in the United Kingdom.