Every minute, every second of a film is absolutely crucial to achieve the highest standards in all art departments.

So then it’s quite an achievement for my cat, Fox that one of the major sequences in Woodwind was inspired by him. One day he was photographed inside our shoe cupboard, and so I wrote to my family about how Fox was truly obsessed with the fragrance of shoes. Late at night while we slept, he carefully realised how to sneak into the cupboard and to dream of all the adventures those shoes walked.

From the very next day, and a year has gone by now, we have not seen Fox again. We remember it was a gloomy day with protests on the streets.

I searched for him all over the bushes, pathways and roads around our home for days, listening out at the trees on windy nights. Then I wrote a little short story about my search for Fox. This little blog post, nor the script of Woodwind uses any part of that story. However Fox did inspire a scenario in the film, and after the film is released, let’s see who can spot what it is, because there’s no cats in the movie.

The photograph at the top of this page is that of his brother, Ziggy. I write this post now because Ziggy has gone missing for about two weeks. On Ziggy’s last day with us, forest and bush fires raged around our surrounding areas. We hope they will pass through the mist and smoke to one day find their way home.

Fox was not with us during the making of Woodwind, but Ziggy made sure that cinematographer Nicolas Joray (pictured above) was preparing the lights correctly.

I haven’t received so much affection from human beings as I have from these two brothers. Woodwind will always be dedicated to Ziggy and Fox.