THE WORLD’S MOST ‘UNDERWHELMING’ FILM SET.

Life can often be challenging for those living with autism. But with its new Wider Web browser extension, Etisalat wanted to make browsing the web a little more pleasant for people on the spectrum.

So when Etisalat asked us to make a short film featuring people with autism sharing how the Etisalat Wider Web extension created a calmer, more autistic-friendly browsing experience, we knew exactly what we had to do.

AVOIDING A SENSORY OVERLOAD

Life can often be challenging for those living with autism. But with its new Wider Web browser extension, Etisalat wanted to make browsing the web a little more pleasant for people on the spectrum.

So when Etisalat asked us to make a short film featuring people with autism sharing how the Etisalat Wider Web extension created a calmer, more autistic-friendly browsing experience, we knew exactly what we had to do.

AVOIDING A SENSORY OVERLOAD

Individuals on the autistic spectrum can often experience a sensory overload, meaning they can become stressed and overwhelmed if faced with a barrage of light, noise, colour, sound, and action. Obviously, a film set with its bright lights, loud noises, strange sounds, and overwhelming action is the perfect environment to trigger a sensory overload for a person with autism.

That’s why we created what we at Filmworks affectionately called the world’s most ‘underwhelming’ film set; a safe, comfortable, calm, relaxed and autistic-friendly film set that encouraged our cast of autistic individuals to share their stories and experiences.

OVERWHELMINGLY UNDERWHELMING

We worked closely with award-winning documentary filmmaker and director Sofia De Fey to make sure the mood on set was ideal for our guests, most of whom were Special Olympics athletes and their close family members.

This involved using as small a set as possible and as small a crew as necessary, avoiding bright colours, instead opting for more muted and plain tones throughout the set, and using soft, natural lighting to avoid dazzling our guests.

We even made sure to cut out as many camera movements as possible, as children with autism are often hypersensitive to even the slightest of movements. Instead, we used three continuously rolling 8K cameras to capture our guests from the front and the sides without worrying about distractions.

STORIES THAT SHINE THROUGH

In fact, the only part of the shoot that wasn’t ‘underwhelming’ was the stories and experiences shared by our guests – their insights lay the foundations for what became one of the most emotional and enlightening films we at Filmworks have had the pleasure of making.