Behind the Scenes

7 locations. 12 artists. 6 hours of footage.

That’s basically the story behind our trailer video for Amal. We knew what we wanted from the start – a simple concept that would evoke what Amal stands for. Beauty, energy, diversity, inclusion. You get the picture.

But we were faced with a tight budget and an even tighter deadline. The video would only make sense if it was ready for when our website went live. That gave us two days to storyboard, two days to shoot and one day to edit. Crazy, right?

That’s when our Comms whizz – Fatema Zehra – stepped in and took control. We already had a great filmmaker on board.

This is him ->

And you can stalk him here -> @rightinthenads

So the two of them got to work lining up artists from different backgrounds. They put out a call and some wonderful people responded, from storytellers and musicians to illustrators and photographers. An impossible shoot schedule was drawn up, involving London’s rooftops, live calligraphy sessions in a public space, and a few unpredictable boats on the Serpentine. Here’s a picture of them trying to row, shoot and pose all at once:

But don’t be fooled – it wasn’t all hard work and no play. Happily, there was a newly purchased drone at our disposal, which meant that a gleeful half hour was spent capturing this incredible footage of our beautiful capital. The things technology can do.

And now for the full thing. Hold your breath and click below.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on our trailer so please drop us a message on Email, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.  

Video Credits

Artists (in order of appearance):

Alia Al Zougbi , George Butler, Batool Abbas, Sanaa Hamid, Nasreen Raja, Ruh Al Alam, Mohammed Yahya, May Robertson, Salahuddin Mazhary, Alton Letto, Thahmina Haseen, Maab Adams.

Filmmaker: Nadir Nahdi

DOP: Fatema Zehra