Hoy guys and gals, first journal, obviously I've been lurking around here for a while, but I never feel like I'm investing as much into the fandom as I'd like, so hopefully this is the start of something good ;D

I suppose I'll start by venting about my ridiculous December thus far. I'm studying Film Production at uni and we got set a documentary project three weeks ago with the brief "Portrait of a Person". Long story short, it's been hell. I originally intended to look at homelessness, and it wound up being such a long string of organisational and technical failures that I'd probably run into some sort of word limit if I tried to document them all here. And even if I didn't, I'd certainly put you all to sleep. So no worries. Anyway, in the end I put together a little something on furries (or rather one furry in particular, huge HUGE thanks to  esqui for being so incredibly friendly and accomodating, there'll be a box of something nice finding its way to you!) Go check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toACcb1Otww Considering it wound up being conceptualised, shot and edited in two days, I'm not afraid to admit that I'm uncharacteristically proud of the result :P

One of the more interesting things that came out of it, though, was the idea that there's so much generalisation and misconception that goes around and around when you talk about the fandom, and yet you can ask ten people about what it is or what it means to them and get twenty different responses. This particular little piece was obviously a very intimate snapshot of one person's opinion, but it struck a chord with me, and when I screened it, literally everyone seemed to love and be genuinely interested in the idea of the fandom as a whole. It made me wonder, really, about the lack of genuinely personal documentary-type material that's out there about the furry community. If anyone does produce anything, it's typically fairly defensive in tone, and the tendency is to try and cover all the bases of "what it is to be furry" all at once, which I think is impossible given how much of a personal thing it is to each and every one of us.

SO. Essentially, I'm thinking of producing a kind of mini series along a similar line to this first film, each one focusing on a different furry and a different key areas of the fandom (fursuiting, art, music, etc.) to try and build up a collective image of who we are and what we're really about. It's just a pipe dream at the minute, but if there's enough enthusiasm I may give it a shot.