The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has launched a film with creative agency The & Partnership to challenge misconceptions surrounding sight loss.
‘See the person’ offers an insight into what life is like for someone coming to the realisation that they are losing their sight.
The two-minute film explores Ava’s struggles with sadness, fear and anger as she comes to terms with sight loss. The montage, set to Thom Yorke’s ‘Videotape’, eventually sees her dad contact the RNIB for help. Throughout the duration of the short film, the camera work often mimics what it is like to experience sight loss.
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The actor who played Ava, Eli London, experienced retinoblastoma herself in childhood.
“As soon as I saw the brief come through I just knew I had to be involved,” they added.
“I couldn’t not tell the story, because it’s my story. And it’s so many other people’s stories, and it deserves to be on screen.”
Towards the end of the film, Ava eventually accepts help from her family and friends and begins to visit a RNIB eye care liaison officer after her diagnosis.
RNIB chief executive Matt Stringer added: “We know the public is willing to engage [and] change behaviours, if provided with the education and the tools to do the job.
“By educating the public and addressing misconceptions of sight loss, we hope to address the outdated views and understanding of sight loss, and equip the public with the information and tools to change their attitudes and behaviours.
“To change people’s behaviours, we need to do three key things: increase people’s capability to change – give them the tools; increase people’s opportunity to change – give them the time; and increase people’s motivation to change – give them the will.”
The film, directed by Jesse Lewis-Reece through You Are Here, will also break down barriers by subsequently launching a new ‘Design for every gamer’ initiative later this year to make gaming more accessible for people experiencing sight loss.
The & Partnership executive creative director, Toby Allen, said: “At their best, films are empathy machines, and we have pulled out every stop to make this campaign both deeply empathetic to convey the experience of sight loss to a sighted audience, and at the same time thoroughly accessible to the blind and partially sighted community.
“It’s a unique balancing act but Jesse and his team rose to the challenge.”
While the film will feature online, in cinemas, on TV and in a Gogglebox episode, it will also be narrated by Eli London to be watched and heard by those dealing with sight loss.
Creative agency Wavemaker UK handled the media planning and buying for the campaign.
