We get a lot of visitors to MSF’s hepatitis C treatment project in Phnom Penh. Recently, we’ve had consultants from England and France who have performed speciality training and analysis of our project here, and last week we had a locally-based production crew shoot video for a short film we want to play in the patient waiting room.

 

 

The video will tell people about the basic elements of hepatitis C: how it is transmitted, what people can do to avoid infection, and what they can do to take care of their livers. The video will only be about 4-5 minutes long, but I think we had at least eight script meetings before filming day finally rolled around. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes activity that goes into the making of a public-service announcement!

 

The filming was performed entirely at our clinic screening area, which made for some interesting scenes. I mean, it’s not every day that the staff see 30 new patients while dodging spotlights and boom microphones, is it?

 

 

 

Several of our clinic staff members were cast as themselves in their nursing  roles, and some were deputized to act as patients. They had to bring extra clothing along for the shoot because we didn’t have the budget to establish a wardrobe department.

 

 

 

My sources tell me that all the filming was completed successfully last Friday, so now we’re returning to business as usual until the next crop of visitors shows up with a special project in mind.