Last month we set the budding film critics and journalists amongst you a challenge – to write a review of your favourite shortlisted film. The best two would be sent across to top movie buff, TV presenter and Virgin Media Shorts 2011 judge James King to cast his professional eye over and give the writers some invaluable advice. Your emails came flooding in and we had a hard job picking our favourites, but a huge congratulations to Matthew Carter and Nadine Shambrook, who wrote passionate, thoughtful reviews of their favourite shorts Saloon and The Friend Catcher.

James King loved the reviews, too. Here’s what he thought of them – along with some great tips for all wannabe film journos.

Matthew Carter’s review of Saloon

'Saloon is a 2:20 minute poetic panorama of several moments in one of India’s many unique saloons.

I found the film to be a pleasantly unusual shortlist choice for such a commercially driven short film competition like Virgin Media Shorts. Usually “short short films” linger on the themes and techniques that accommodate the notion ”You have two minutes to say something that should stick with an audience, the way a longer film would”. This usually results in the films relying on hooks, gimmicks and plot twists to produce a memorable impact within the highly limited duration.

Saloon, on the other hand, takes its time and chooses to use its short duration to capture brief environmental moments, rather than a sequence of events leading the audience from A to B. The filmmaker uses short film the way a poet uses short literature. Consisting of short shots of different characters getting haircuts, head massages and not forgetting staring in the mirror giving themselves their own final touches. It almost resembles how Humphrey Jennings used the everyday lives of people during WW2 and edited them together creating a natural rhythm, almost blending the people into their environment. That is exactly the effect Saloon produces, the men retreating almost socially in the saloon slowly merge into their surroundings.

Are we a product of our environment? Or is our environment a product of us? To effectively expose an environment and culture in such a short duration, not only shows the filmmaker has a great understanding of cinema, but validates the power of the medium as an art form (with or without gimmickry). 

Saloon is a great example of how cinema can so effectively capture the poetic value of everyday life.

James King says…

“This is a fabulous review. It's beautifully succinct and educated and - crucially - made me want to see the film (again!). There were a couple of repetitions of words ('short' and 'almost') that could be tweaked for a smoother read, as well as a few extra bits of punctuation just to break up some of the longer sentences.

But what I loved about this review is that, right from the off, you know that the reviewer knows their stuff. There's no messing. They're aware of what the short film is trying to do, how it fits into movie history, and what Saloon is trying to say. It's a deceptively simple review that packs a lot of insight into its few words.”

Nadine Shambrook’s review of The Friend Catcher

'

We often look back at our childhood exclaiming they were the best years of our lives because of the fun we had, the fact we didn't judge pre-judge people in our classes and the feeling we had of doing whatever we wanted. All this is true, but could we only behave this way when we were children? The Friend Catcher is an exquisite short film looking at one of the less obvious concepts of children - our mind. As kids, without knowing it, we could open our mind to whatever we wanted to, with no limits or boundaries - we had adventures. This is the beauty that The Friend Catcher portrays to us; how our minds worked as children.

The film starts as if it is an advert for Persil, kids rushing around, getting into trouble, lots of noise - we remember it like it was yesterday. As soon as the title appears, the soundtrack changes and you realise this film is going to be a lot more than that. Echoed is the squabble of kids voices, crashing of chairs and lunchboxes on tables which is realistic enough for anyone to relate to. It's lunchtime. Kids freedom in a school day.

After a sudden silence, as an audience member you feel alienated because of the big impact the muted soundtrack has and then with voices surrounding one particular school boy, you feel his fear as the rest of the hall turns and starts whispering to one another. The soundtrack includes the conversations and thoughts between all the school kids in a giant, vicious echo which is enough to drag the audience down into remembering the bad part of being a child.

This is where Lucy Campbell and the team completely change the grounds of The Friend Catcher and introduces the ingenious idea of the children's lunchboxes revealing the child's imagination. With fantastic use of 'dings', nature sounds, voices of angry adults in the audio effects and a great deal of creativity in the props such as a bandanna and a pet or two; it's bizarre that these scenes don't seem odd. In fact, it all feels quite natural and believable. Then as the main pupil looks around, more and more marvellous things are revealed from the children's lunchboxes. One decorated in space ships, another made out of grass and so on; it's simply glorious to see the young actors and actresses open their boxes to let loose the wonders that their mind holds. The range of different angles and shots, the camera conveys the random sense which is so apparent in the mind of the children.
  The Friend Catcher then pushes deeper into the minds of the children, with the last part of the film entering a visual, new world. In only a matter of seconds, the children crowd round a particular lunchbox and the enter it. After the soundtrack of laughs and cheers has faded, you feel yourself smile at the thought of travelling with them into their imagination. In what a journey, The Friend Catcher is a sweet tale of fun and children's naivety- something we have all had once. Lucy Campbell forces the audience to reminisce the 'good days' of being young with a group of very talented actors, beautifully mastered angles and a soundtrack that holds the film together.

I began this review saying that we could only open our mind to wonders as children. But that's not really true, is it?' 

James King says…

“A wonderfully passionate review, this one. You can tell that Nadine just loves immersing herself in movies and isn't afraid to show that in her writing (and nor should she be). I suppose the downside to that is that sometimes passion can run away with you! So a couple of changes to punctuation and spacing (more paragraphs?) would make the piece a more fluid read.

It could even be a bit shorter (don't forget that, as a film critic, most people won't have yet seen the film that you're previewing so if you go too deep you'll lose them). But it's great to see that Nadine really understands the film she's discussing, taking its issues and running with them. That's the sign of a writer that really gets what the point of film journalism is.”