Actress Plays 4 Roles in Uncommon's Single-Take Epic for BritBox

14 hours squeezed into 90 seconds

No AI here! The latest BritBox campaign from creative studio Uncommon was shot in a single take that lasted 14 hours, 45 minutes and 31 seconds. 

Time-lapsed to fit a 90-second slot, the ad begins with a subscriber so engrossed in BritBox content that she morphs into four very different characters. 

Starting, of course, in a period piece with Downton Abbey vibes. Her next role is much darker—she’s a skeleton at a crime scene. She cleans up nicely to portray a man on a train then pivots to a police officer in a tense situation.

Eleven different sets, a 50 person crew (make-up artists, costume designers, set decorators and prop stylists) plus three worn out camera shutters brought the spot to life.

“We are not only challenging misconceptions about what ‘British’ television is, but demonstrating to viewers that the depth and craftsmanship they crave in great television are all part of the British television experience,” says Diana Pessin, CMO of BritBox.

The streaming service has a following that extends well beyond the U.K., encompassing Australia, Canada and the U.S. BlinkInk produced the spot, which was shaped by London-based stop-motion director Nicos Livesey.

“An unspoken truth of any creative act is that the endeavor of a project can be as powerful as the finished article, you can feel the work, in the work,” adds Nils Leonard, co-founder at Uncommon. “In an age where any image can be made in a matter of seconds with AI—we choose to return to the classic techniques in cinema craft to showcase the very best of British entertainment on BritBox.”

“The shoot was incredibly physically challenging for our lead actor,” Sam Walker, global creative partner at Uncommon Creative Studio, tells Muse. “We cast from actors with modeling and dance backgrounds because we needed someone who was in complete control of their body. The unconventional approach to the production also presented a challenge in the edit, too. Shooting at 1fps for over 14 hours produced 53,131 individual frames, which were then edited, per frame, down to a final film of just 2160 frames. The truth of this idea lay in its endeavour. There were plenty of ways to make this shoot easier, but we felt doing it the hard way, with total commitment, would pay dividends in the end.”

CREDITS
Project Name: See it Differently
Client: BritBox
Creative Studio: Uncommon Creative Studio
Production Company: Blinkink
Director: Nicos Livesey
Executive Producer: Bart Yates
Executive Producer: Josef Byrne
Head of Production: Alex Halley
Producer: Sebastian Jowers
1st AD: Rob Blishen
Director of Photography: Simon Chaudoir
Hair and Makeup Designer: Natasha Lawes
Hair and Makeup Assistant: Georgia Brown
Prosthetics: Millennium FX
Service Production: Solent
Wardrobe Design: Ina Damianova
Editor: Nick Armstrong
Grade: Hannibal Lang
Music: Secrets by Tom Player
Sound Design & Mix: SoundTree