91Èȱ¬

We caught up with the producer, Anya Saunders to chat about working with our feline friends and 91Èȱ¬ Research and Development on Cat Watch.

So what got this started?

Cats. It’s a no brainer really. Cats have been clawing their way around internet for years. People spend hours watching funny cats, cute cats and ugly cats that are blissfully unaware of their superstardom, todays cat lover is sitting on a fluffy YouTube gold mine.

So this is a new way to engage with an already cat-crazy audience.

Yes, it’s only natural for TV to get in on the act. This all started in 2012 when 91Èȱ¬ Research & Development teamed up with Horizon to make The Secret Life of Cats which used GPS collars to track the movements of our feline friends around a small village. Needless to say it was a great success and we quickly decided to move onto the second experiment Cat Watch 2014. You can find out loads more on the website bbc.co.uk/cats.

So how did you make this?

During the filming of Cat Watch, the programme makers were using cameras that were attached to a cat's collar. This allows the viewer to see the world from the cat’s perspective – getting you closer than ever to their daily adventures. While this footage is featured occasionally in the TV show, we were so in love with it we wanted to show it off even more.

And then you made it interactive…

Yes, the team wanted something more than a regular behind the scenes film, so we decided to use the footage with the interactive video technology Touchcast. What this would allow the team to do is add interactive widgets onto the footage that when touched would bring up more content.

What a great way to use this content.

We think so! For example, if you ever wondered why kittens from the same litter are sometimes different colours, you could touch or click one of them and a video would pop up explaining why. A regular film about cats could do this but that would be more of a documentary, and the team wanted this to be an adventure too. The viewer then has a choice; enjoy the story of the cat and should they get curious, learn some of the science behind what makes them so amazing.

What have you learnt so far?

That it is vitally important that the story works on its own – just because you have interactivity doesn’t defend a weak story. The interactivity we used is there to enrich the experience with optional learning.

Do you think this will change the way we make programmes in the future?

Absolutely. Bringing in this technology does represent a challenge in as much as we had to rethink the way we told the story – and yet it’s brilliant to have the freedom to let a story flow and then embellish through the extra clips. For example, if this was a regular show then each time we wanted to look at the science of a cat we would have to interrupt the flow of the story. If the viewer is interested in finding out more on the subject they can do, and in far greater detail than in a regular short factual film.

So what’s next?

We don’t have all the audience figures yet, but we do know that the level of interactivity is high so it’s looking like people don’t just like laughing at cats, they want to learn about them too. Then we’re hoping to learn what our audience think with the help of 91Èȱ¬ Taster.