Created to mark the third anniversary of the conflict in Syria, our multi-award-winning, massively viral video put the plight of Syria’s children into news headlines all over the world; it follows one ordinary girl’s life as it falls apart around her, one second at a time. The eyes of the world had focused on the savage situation in Syria, but nearly always in terms of chemical weapons, Western intervention and blame; rarely on the most innocent victims of the conflict. Save The Children came to us to help address that problem and bring the plight of Syria’s children front and centre.

Save The Children had huge logistical challenges that were not only met but excelled expectations. We worked with a budget of £75K, 66 scenes in total, a production footprint of 55 crew, minimum 8 actors a day, 30 extras on various days and 12 different locations all filmed across 5 days.

These filming days included several scenes at Pinewood’s underwater tank. What we achieved in an afternoon, the Diving Service Team said they would usually take 2 or 3 days.

One of our main scenes was the beach scene. Save The Children & the agency we collaborated with wanted to reference the tragic story of a 3yr-old Syrian boy who was found faced down on a beach. Creating scenes based on true accounts of what refugee children faced was our greatest ambition. we had to be extremely mindful that we were not over dramatising any scenes. Everything we filmed had to be accurate.