Every festive season, the brief asks for warmth. This Raya, we found it in a small habit that happens in almost every Malaysian home.
The idea came from a habit we all have
Think about any open house or family dinner. Someone always pulls out a few more chairs, just in case. Nobody counts, and nobody talks about it. We pitched that habit to IHH as the heart of the Raya film: making space for someone before you know who’s coming. For a hospital group, that’s a fair description of the job too.
We skipped the storyline
There’s no plot in Sentiasa Bersama, and no main character to follow. We filmed Malaysian daily life instead: families setting tables, a mother greeting relatives at the door, a nurse on shift. The chair links each moment.
We just used Malaysian daily life to show a small gesture that’s always warm. We all do it without noticing.
Danny
The chair that stays empty
The scene people talk about most is a Chinese family at dinner, keeping a chair for someone who has passed away. Most comments on the film called it touching. When we showed it to IHH, one senior manager cried in the meeting. Her family does the same thing.
Four weeks, 22 hours, 60 crew
Raya doesn’t move, so the timeline was tight: four weeks from storyline to final film. We shot everything in 22 hours with a crew of 60, across family homes and a hospital. The brief behind it was big too: show life every Malaysian can relate to, across every race, and make a hospital feel warm and human.
Now it’s out
The film ran across IHH Healthcare Malaysia’s channels through the festive season. IHH’s senior management loved the idea and the way we told it. What impressed them most was the turnaround: a film at this production quality, made on such a short timeline.
The full film, and how we made it, is in the Sentiasa Bersama case study. And if you’re curious, here’s what else we do.
