Alicia Moore
- May 17, 2020
- 3 min read

Scroll Short Film Review

★★★★ Stars

Starring: #ArielLeo, #SavannahJoy, #JohnBruce, #CarlyRoxanne, #StevenPacaud

Scroll latches onto the struggles of modern life regarding technology and social media usage. Lisa, a withdrawn and quite nervous employee, starts her first day at her new job. She feels intimidated by her coworkers at first and, when she deep dives into their social media profiles, her initial feelings only grow stronger. Her thoughts and feelings warp into more struggles to deal with at her new job.

This short film can be very relatable to a lot of individuals within our population; myself included. The main character, Lisa (Ariel Leo,) appears introverted and is seen surrounding herself with different trinkets and objects, that she must be fond of, and plotting them around her desk. The relatability through the duration of the film is a brilliant element, in which it completely grabs the attention of the audience – even those who may live their life the opposite, more extroverted way can find relatability in certain characters and scenes.

This film was created as part of the Winnipeg Film Group's 48 Hour Film Contest (entry of 2018.) The contest challenges filmmakers to shoot and edit an entire film – a maximum of 3 minutes and 20 seconds in length – in a designated 48 hours. This is a trying task for filmmakers alike and a mass amount of work is required to achieve the goal of having the opportunity for the film to be screened to the public. The cast and crew of Scroll presented an impressive final product, even when restricted to the timeframe that they had to complete all aspects of it.

The characters are introduced by a narrator (Steven Pacaud) which adds an intriguing ‘outsider’ effect to the plot. The audience is drawn in by the relatability of the storyline itself but are then seated beside the narrator, observing the events as they unfold. Although I named this as an ‘outsider’ effect, it does actually bring the audience closer to the characters as the narrator speaks in a personal sense about them and their train of thought. I adore the choice of a narrator throughout the film; it brings a lot to the project.

The overall direction and writing is of a high standard. Writer and director, Sara Bulloch, is able to portray emotion through camera placement, and even through this written choice of a narrator. The scenes are pleasing to watch and there are never any moments when the film feels as though it has been brought to an unwanted standstill, whether that be through writing or acting. Each scene has a radiant fluidity as well as non-identical atmospheres attached to each.

A specific aspect of the film that needs to be mentioned and praised is that, when a character is being described through the narrator, images that apply to their personality traits appear on a bar at the side of the screen. This immediately strikes as an imitation of how an individual’s social media profile would appear. The different images play a part in solidifying the plot of the film, as well as adding details to the characters in their frames to portray how much our society has their eyes glued to their social media accounts and their phones entirely. The chosen style stands out with the foregoing explanation and also adds further characterisation for each character. This then gives me a chance to say that the editing of the film, carried out by Allison Stevens, is absolutely wonderful and deserves so much positive recognition.

Scroll is a joyous short film with a dedicated cast and crew. It is thoroughly enjoyable with comedic value paired with a message that will put your thoughts of the world into perspective. Take a deep breath, turn away from your phone and spend time with nature and your surrounding companions. But, only do so after giving all your attention to this film.