The target audience were dermatologists attending a 4 day international dermatology congress.

Set within an everyday doctor consultation, this film demonstrates the frustration, isolation and depression Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU) patients feel after being diagnosed.

Within the initial dialogue, the doctor presents what he believes to be good news – after long wait (normally 2 years), the patient finally has a name for their condition.

This positivity, however, is short lived as doctors rarely change their patients’ treatment regimen; maintaining to prescribe a high level of antihistamines pills, instead of Xolair.

This means that patients now have a name for their condition but no improvement in their symptoms.

By pausing time, we show dermatologists how CSU patients truly feel at this moment in time.

When the patient sits back in his chair, the doctor continues to speak.

With a clock ticking sound left hanging in the background, we leave the reader with a call to action.

All content regarding the disease or patient opinion had to be medically accurate and fully substantiated.

This project’s creative idea was about showing a moment time. A moment that patients experience but dermatologists rarely see.

This effect was achieved through both visual and sound design techniques.

We created the perception of paused time through the set design (paused fan), the actors’ direction and post-production by isolating and freezing the doctor within the shot.

The sound design complemented this through mild echoing on the doctor’s dialogue and textual layering of a clock sound effect. These sounds were reversed after the dialogue with further ambient sounds and a continuing clock effect.

Keeping true to the creative idea of a moment in time, we shot the poetry dialogue in one continuous take with the addition of music and bordered vignette to lift the delivery and draw the viewer into this moment of time.

Finally, we used make up on the patient’s face and neck to accurately portray the condition.

Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria (CSU) patients are stuck in a loop of frustration, isolation and depression. Dermatologists only see their peripheral symptoms (red, itchy skin/swelling) and fail to see their internal suffering.

CSU causes sudden skin rashes and swelling all-over the body. The average wait for diagnosis is a long and arduous wait of around 2 years.

The moment patients are diagnosed with CSU should be a happy one as it should mean better treatment and a better life. However, due to a lack of understanding by dermatologists of this rare disease, dermatologists seldom change their treatment. Leaving them now diagnosed but no better off.

By displaying the significance of this moment of time we showed dermatologists the truth about their patients’ torment, with a call to action that they can do more to help.