7/25/2019 Zoe Pollock Magazine Review First Draft
2/2
RUNNING WITH SCISSORSTHE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE...
ZooM Productions (The
Good Ones) presents a new
short lm Running with
Scissors, a contemporarycrime and comedy spin-o,
set in England. The protag-
onist, Robert (Ashley Mon-
sell-Tucker) is portrayed as
an awkward and inadequate
burglar who has taken the
famous proverb The best
things in life are free a
little too seriously. We see
him clumsily breaking into
neighbours houses and not
covering his tracks, leading
to him having to face the
aftermath of a mob outside
his house.
This lm incorporates a
variety of dierent genre
aspects from comedy to
a thriller. The plot of this
short lm is quite strange
and contains many plot
twists from the stealing of
a banana to the cat accom-
plice following Robert.
There were a few holes
within the storyline but
the actors carried it o.Short lms tend not to
stick to one specic genre
and are classed as a genre
in their own right. This
was portrayed through-
out this lm which indi-
cated aspects of crime,
comedy, thriller, action
and drama.
One supporting role,
played by Kate Horey,
has previously starred
in other Short lms in-cluding starring roles in
other student lm. This
was shown through her
dramatic and heartfelt
performance that kept
the audience hooked.
This production also in-
troduced Clara the Cat
in her acting debut. She
performed very well and
allowed for this lm to ap-
peal to a wider audience
range.
This lm is similar to oth-
er short lms including
Bad Burglars by TimH, as
they both include a coun-
tertype to your typical
burglar role, displaying
a brilliant performance
from the male leads. The
male protagonist from
Bad Burglars and Run-
ning with Scissors both
possess many similar per-
sonality traits,
which
demonstratesboth of their
acting skills on
portraying a
certain chara-
cter prole.
Directed by
ZooM
Productions,
who
previously
directed The
Good Ones,
displayedgood know-
ledge of
camera
work and
editing
knowledge
although left
a few
aspects
untouched.The mood created by this lm
is a happy and suspense lled
comedy, crime spoof. At the premier
screening of this lm, the responseof the audiences was
overwhelmi
ng, although some seemed
slightly confused, all enjoyed
this light-hearted production.
avourite scenes seemed to be
the opening scene, where we
see the protagonist for the
rst time. The use of focus
pulls and panning worked
very eectively in this
scene, creating a literal and
metaphorical enticement of
the viewers with the pull ofthe camera.This lm de
iantly showed a true rep
resentation of Freitags pyr
amid, indicating a variety of
ups and downs throughout.
And with these climactic
moments, such as seeing the
homeowners reactions and the
breaking and entering aspects,
the audiences displayed a show
of raw emotionindicating
their connection with
the supporting
roles and how they
may feel
if put into this
situation. This was
one of the main
selling points of
this production,
the reality of havi-
ng your house bro
-ken into is quite
surreal and as so
many viewers have
been put through similar
circumstances, it became
uite close to the heart.
The overall opinions from
the audiences was that
this lm was gripping and
lled with suspense but
came away with a happy
vibe. However not every-one enjoyed it as other
audience members were
left in distain to a few un-
answered questions left on
their minds.
