Although ‘viral dissemination’ sounds like an STD, it is actually a tech-savvy approach taken by Amnesty International to gather support for its mission to uphold human rights.

The organisation has taken the novel approach of getting a Dublin-based production company, Timesnap, to make a short film to be released in a variety of formats for viewing on television, internet, iPod and mobile phone. By using such popular online sites as bebo.com, youtube.com and myspace.com, Amnesty hope that the general public will not only view the film but will then forward it to their friends and contacts, creating what is known as a ‘viral video’.
Entitled Make It Stop, the short film, according to its director Declan Cassidy, aims to highlight some of the human rights violations that are that are perpetrated both here and abroad.
“This is one of those projects that you’re excited to be involved with,” he says. “Interactive media is a theme of the film and this carries through to the methods Amnesty are employing to get the message out to the widest audience possible.”
Timesnap’s involvement in the film came about after Amnesty selected their film pitch from hundreds of applicants seeking to make the short. Up until now, the relatively new but experienced production company have been busily occupied in shooting corporate films and TV commercials. Picking up the story about how they managed to win Amnesty over with their idea, Cassidy explains: “Amnesty were looking for ideas for a short film promoting human rights. It had two main objectives – to show that human rights violations were going on right here on our doorstep, as in cases of domestic violence as well as in the way that people were sometimes treated when accessing public services. Also, Amnesty wanted to inspire a sense of involvement – they wanted people to get involved with the organisation. It gave a whole lot of scope for creativity. I came up with a concept and sent in. They loved it.”

AUTHENTICALLY AFRICAN
There is no dialogue in the film, which relies on text to get its human rights agenda across. This also means that the text can be translated into foreign languages so that the film can be made available to Amnesty branches in other countries.
The modest budget, and logistic problems, made it a difficult film to shoot, according to the film’s producer, Bill Tyson. “I’d dreamed up the whole thing from totally creative point of view without a thought for the financial practicalities,” says Tyson, a former business editor with the Irish Independent. “The budget was very modest and I’d come up with nine scenes – one of which was set in Africa!”
The team set about making the film happen, though. Using volunteer actors from the ‘Attic Network” – an actors’ co-operative based in the film centre in Temple Bar – Tyson pulled the logistics together while Cassidy brought the elaborate script to screen. They decided to shoot the African scene in the more budget-friendly Tabernas Desert in Spain. It was the location where the spaghetti westerns, such as Clint Eastwood’s A Fist Full Of Dollars, were shot.
“It took a six day trip to Spain to shoot less than a minute,” reveals Cassidy. “It was so important to make it look authentically African. The African girl who featured in the scene had to be brought with us from Ireland because she was needed in the final scene that was to be shot back home. We found actress Donna Nikolaisen, who was brilliant. She had a generic North African look but she’s as Cork as a girl can get!”
The production was also far from plain sailing – disaster was narrowly averted when they realised an important scene about domestic violence, shot in Howth, was screwed up by technical gremlins.
“We’d spent a few hours shooting the scene with actors Rory Mullen, Berni McLaughlin and my young nephew Luke roped in to play the child. We were wrapping up when the Luke asked if he could see himself in the camera. Normally I wouldn’t rewind film until in the edit but on this occasion I decided I’d show him. I rewound the camera and found, to my horror, that the tape was dodgy and absolutely nothing had been recorded! The guys had their coats on ready to leave but, even though it was 11pm, they got stuck back in and we nailed the scene in the early hours of the morning,” recalls Cassidy.
The film, which premiered in the Irish Film Institute in December, has now been accepted for consideration in the Short Film category of the current Irish Film and Television Academy awards.

The film is available for download in a number of formats on: www.timesnap.com/pages/amnesty.html