2016 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

In this film about mobile dependency, we open with vignettes of ‘disconnected’ characters. While they’re shown surrounded by friends and family, they’re immersed in their phones and disconnected. We see a family of preoccupied phone-users at a restaurant and a theatre full of movie patrons—each bathed in the faint blue light of a phone to show their weary expressions. Our narrator wonders how we let ourselves arrive at this point, but then offers a solution. “It’s time to take the power back and use our phones in a better way.” Suddenly, the mood of the film changes and we see people using their phones to get closer. Friends make music on instrument apps. WhatsApp groups become physical groups. And desert adventures are captured and shared with those nearby, rather than strangers in far away places. Friends share an iPad. Digital Maps help desert campers ‘get lost’ in the wilderness. Each new situation shows how phones bring people together, rather than isolate them. Finally, a group of Qatari men gather around a remote, desert campfire. They laugh and talk. We cut to their phone, ringing thanks to a strong signal, but purposefully left in the car so that our characters can “Make Better Connections”

Creative Execution

A Real insight. Executed in a real fashion. The film is about telling real stories through the shots taken. The film is not about cliches, it's about real moments and the reality of how we become disconnected. Inserting inter-cuts of purely visual shots of people in Qatar. People walking down the street. People looking out the window at the city below. Wide urban shots of the city is the essences of bring this film together. Being very light was the key for directing the film. 2 handheld 1D's one with the director & one with the DOP, running around like crazy. No staging, going to the real one and capturing the reality of the moment. Shoot the real thing.... Natural lighting was a key for this production. The film was structured to move from people being disconnected to some transition shots, next to have phones being put to a better use.