Helping Hands

A very clever usage of the cat and mouse genre, subverting expectations by focusing more on the to and fro pendulum swing aspects as a group of office boffins try to pitch the big boss their ultimate soft paper sale.

The film has some really strong camerawork throughout, in particular as proceedings begin where inventive rigwork by Simon allows smooth INCEPTION like edits, showing that this film means business quite figuratively and literally.

Combined with a modern visually appealing location and excellent violin based soundtrack the stage is set nicely, with a commanding lead performance by our lady in red and my favourite slow motion shot of the year. Sausage and tissues to the face. Boom!

Furthermore there are some great visual flourishes with a lens amplifier being used to really heighten proceedings that could have otherwise potentially come across as a little flat.

For me most of the sound was good, though I think a little bit of sound design or foley could have elevated the film further, and there were a couple of instances of audio peaks.

Visually really great framing, and just a little bit more polish with a grade may have amplified the film even further but I know the team pushed their entry all the way to the 7pm Sunday deadline!

I do think that whilst the dialogue was clever the first half of the film could have asked a slightly stronger dramatic question to engage the audience (but it did bring things around in a strong finale), and my last nitpick that Simon and Alex are well aware of is that I personally love to see a bit more movement with the cat and mouse genre. But that's just me. Great job team Bag of Rats!