BritBox’s new advert is a 14-hours-long one-shot take

Acting as the ever-so satisfying (and undeniably impressive) antidote to the domination of AI imagery and video, ​BritBox’s latest campaign, See It Differently, offers a refreshing return to traditional filmmaking. Celebrating craftsmanship at its very core, the ambitious project was created by global creative studio Uncommon in collaboration with London-based production studio Blinkink and stop-motion director Nicos Livesey.

Although seemingly one-and-a-half minutes in length, the advert features a sped-up, continuous 14-hour single-take sequence, capturing an actor’s transition through multiple meticulously designed sets – each embodying distinct genres emblematic of British television. The production’s complexity necessitated a 50-person crew, including specialists in makeup, costume, set design, and props, and, notably, three camera shutter replacements due to the extensive shooting duration – alongside ice packs and fans to prevent the equipment from overheating. 

Uncommon were brought on board to help push BritBox to a US market. “It probably goes without saying that this film was incredibly complicated to plan and execute,” says Sam Walker, global creative partner at Uncommon Creative Studio. “We started with a pre-vis that seemed complex enough, but transferring that into reality was far more challenging than any of us had really anticipated.” The team had to precisely determine the motion control of different parts of the take due to their length. “For example, if the skeleton scene was to take four hours to apply the prosthetic and makeup,” Sam explains, “then that section of the film had to take that long to film, even though in the final film that section would only last a few seconds.”

The advert’s narrative champions the primary genres that BritBox is renowned for – period, mystery, and crime – crafting four distinct cinematic scenes that represent each theme. “They needed to be the reveal of the magic trick,” Sam says, “the ‘ta-da moment’, before we moved onto the next scene.” Each scene required hours and hours of real-time prosthetics, makeup, set and wardrobe work – a factor that Uncommon necessitated celebrating through the oner.

“It had to be one shot and done for real too. If we’d cut away from our hero, I think the viewer would have felt cheated,” Sam says. “Our hero is front and centre of every scene, and you can’t take your eyes off her, even though you sometimes forget how you got here and that you’ve just seen the transformation in front of you.” In doing so, Uncommon not only champions BritBox and the content it houses but highlights the magic of film and television production, offering a peek behind the scenes. “The viewer knows it was done for real, can see and feel it was done in-camera, but also fleetingly forget that they’ve just seen how the trick was done,” Sam says. “The magic is in the endeavour.”

The project – a full 14 hours, 45 minutes and 31 seconds – was complex and arduous, continually introducing new challenges as it went along. Even seemingly small tasks, such as the hero actor standing up: “That presented massive conundrums to try and solve, if she stands up too quickly, the camera won’t really see her at 1fps,” meaning the team had to choreograph a 45-second stand-up. “Nothing was as simple as it first seemed,” Sam continues, “the whole thing was incredibly tricky to do with one single take.” However, everyone knew that the challenge would ultimately be the most satisfying outcome. “Doing it the hard way was always going to be the right way to do this idea,” Sam ends, “so that’s what we did.”