MEDICAL AID FOR PALESTINIANS
The challenge
556 children died over a single 51-day period during the Gaza War in 2014.
This was the stark fact that MAP UK wanted us to highlight in a short social impact video. The UK media has been reporting on the Arab/Israeli conflict for years but with so much war and human tragedy shown on our screens on an almost daily basis, public sympathy and understanding had started to wane.
The Israeli blockade on Gaza has been in place since June 2007, but what is its true impact on ordinary people struggling to survive in this tiny strip of land? The international development charity, MAP UK, asked us to create a video that would challenge the UK public’s perception of the blockade.
Our brief was to create a story that would make people sit up and really think about the human cost of the Gaza blockade.
What we did
- Moodboard, story concept
- Script-writing
- Film production and direction
- Film editing
- Sound scape design
Our big idea
What if it happened here in the UK?
This was our big idea – the rhetorical question that would make a visceral emotional connection with viewers. We wanted people to imagine what life under a blockade might look like if it was here in the UK; how a family’s life could be shattered by the loss of a child.
Filmed in black and white we designed a harsh, discordant soundscape to create a bleak urban landscape where children were conspicuous by their absence. And, to really drive home the message, at the end of the film we showed a mosaic of some of the 556 children who’d actually been killed in Gaza.
The impact we made
This was a project close to our hearts, a project that required considerable care and sensitivity.
Turned around on an incredibly tight deadline, we created a devastating memorial to the catastrophic loss in Gaza, a story that connected with people and brought the death and misery home. The grainy film-making and skillful editing gave the film the desired ‘tingles’ effect.
Ultimately, it was viewed 11,000 times and was enormously effective in raising awareness of the charity and its valuable work in providing healthcare for Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.
To learn more about the work carried out by Medical Aid for Palestinians – visit their website.
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